Is the food in your hometown spicy?

Not spicy, not happy. Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, hubei cuisine cuisine, Guizhou cuisine and Jiangxi cuisine can all be regarded as Chili dishes! Classic mala Tang, such as Maoxuewang, boiled fish, spicy rabbit head and mala Tang, challenges our taste. In Beijing, spicy crayfish has always been very popular and even promoted the prosperity of Guijie Street.

People in China like to eat spicy food. According to a figure, China's pepper production ranks first in the world, with an annual output of more than 28 million tons, accounting for about 46% of the world's pepper production, but its export volume only accounts for about 8% of the world's export volume. There is only one reason, mostly domestic demand.

There are 1/8 people in the world who like to eat Chili and eat it every meal. They regard pepper as an indispensable delicacy, which also promotes the continuous expansion of pepper planting scale and the emergence of new varieties. Up to now, there are more than 7,000 pepper varieties in the world, and China accounts for110, with more than 700 varieties.

The hottest pepper in China is the pepper produced in Jingpo area. According to the determination, its spicy degree is at least 10 times that of capsicum annuum. As long as you rinse it in the soup several times, the soup will become spicy, and a pickled pepper can be used many times.

Not spicy. In recent years, in the Guinness Book of World Records, the "king of peppers" has changed hands several times, and its spicy degree is enough to make people avoid it.

How to judge the spicy taste? 19 12, American Gaubil invented the "pepper index" named after his surname, which became a universal scientific standard for judging the hotness of peppers. 1 After the representative of Schgobier unit diluted capsaicin with a certain amount of water, he could not feel the spicy taste with the tip of his tongue. In 2007, India's "Soul-Breaking Pepper" beat Mexico's "Devil Pepper" with a hotness of 654.38+0,000 SHU, becoming the "world's hottest pepper" in the Guinness Book of World Records. By 20 1 1 year, the British "infinite" pepper with a spicy degree of 1 170000 Shu has updated the Guinness World Record and become the "king of peppers". At first, this kind of pepper tastes slightly fruity, but it won't be long before lost face is exposed and the whole throat is burning. Another pepper named "Naga Viper" in Britain has a spicy degree of 1 359,000 Shu. As soon as people eat, they suddenly feel a burning throat, numbness of the tongue, and tears and runny nose. The burning sensation can last 1 hour, but this pepper has not been certified by Guinness World Records.

More spicy varieties are still being born. In 20 12, Moluccas Trinidad from Australia was rated as the hottest pepper variety in the world by the Pepper Research Institute of New Mexico State University. This kind of pepper is the size of a golf ball, with an average spicy degree of10.2 million Shu, and some fruits even reach 2 million Shu. This kind of pepper seems to be good to eat, but it will stay spicy until it feels like a soldering iron in your mouth. Some adventurous people will post videos to social networking sites after tasting them. In the video, they are flushed, sweating and crying, which makes the audience feel that the whole tongue and throat are spicy.

The burning sensation on the tip of the tongue is actually related to the indigenous people in Mexico?

The story begins with Columbus' voyage.

After landing in the New World, Columbus happened to see the local red pepper fruit. In a letter, he described his new discovery to his friends: there is a shrub like a rose, with fruit as long as cinnamon, full seeds and chewing like pepper. ...

This is pepper, native to Mexico, USA. The Mayans realized the practical value of pepper very early. They use available raw materials, mixed peppers, etc. It became the original chocolate. The Mayans called it "God's food". The remains of wild peppers discovered by archaeologists in the cave of Tehuacan Canyon in Mexico show that humans first picked peppers about 8,000 years ago, while planting peppers began 6,000 years ago.

1493, Columbus returned to Spain and brought back peppers. But at that time, this plant was only regarded as a strange flower and grass, and people knew nothing about its edible method. It was even used as a medicine for a time. 1594, British herbalist John Gallard recorded "chili" in his "British Herbs" ... which warms the stomach and is very helpful for the digestion of meat. "

Soon, pepper became the main commodity in the global spice trade. Pepper is good, can be dried, and is convenient to store and transport. These characteristics make it spread quickly all over the world. In Europe, peppers spread from fairs and open-air shops in Lyon, France and Naples, Italy. When the Portuguese established their first colony, Goa, in southern India, they brought pepper and other spice crops, which later spread all over southern India.

The spread of pepper in Africa, there is a saying that the Portuguese explorer da Gama landed in Mozambique, Africa, and took away the seeds of pepper before arriving in India. Since then, peppers have spread widely in Africa through the slave trade route.

"Five flavors are all available" is an idiom of China people. However, the history of China people eating spicy food is not long, only three or four hundred years.

Pepper was introduced to China in the16th century, and was originally used for flower viewing. Tang Xianzu, a dramatist and writer in Ming Dynasty, was one of the first people to record peppers. In his play Peony Pavilion written in the 26th year of Wanli (AD 1599), he listed 38 kinds of flowers, one of which was "pepper flower". Gao Lian, a man of Amin Dynasty, also recorded "pepper" in "Notes on Yan Xianqing's Appreciation of Eight Lights, Volume 2, Grass Flower Spectrum": "The flowers are clustered with white flowers, and the flowers are bald and spicy, which is very impressive." Gao Lian also listed peppers, violets, morning glory, wintersweet and Daphne odora in Phnom Penh as "a must in China" ornamental flowers.

It was not until the early Qing Dynasty that peppers "turned positive" and changed from ornamental flowers to edible vegetables. In the "Guangqun House Shop" during the reign of Kangxi, it has been clearly recorded that "vegetables paved the feet". The use of pepper as a cooking seasoning can be found in Zhu Yizun's The Secret of Eating Bright Red. He listed pepper and 28 kinds of spices, such as Gonggui, Chenpi and Ginger, as "Fragrant Genus". "All cooking spices are suitable for removing fishy smell or enhancing flavor." "Zanthoxylum bungeanum" was served in Qianlong Imperial Diet, and by Jiaqing, "Horn pepper" shaped like a horn and "Chaotian pepper" with upward pepper tip had been cultivated. During the Daoguang period, the description of pepper in Zunyi Fuzhi was: "Garden dishes are important, and each flavor is inseparable."

In just over 300 years, China has formed a unique spicy culture, such as "Sichuanese are not afraid of spicy food, Hubei people are not afraid of spicy food, and Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food". This stems from the different ways of eating peppers in different places. Sichuanese are used to adding pepper to pepper, which is hemp and spicy, commonly known as spicy; People in Yunnan like to stir-fry peppers, which are burnt and fragrant, which is called paste spicy; People in Guizhou often pickle peppers to make them sour, which is called hot and sour; Hunan people eat the original flavor of pepper, which is called original flavor and spicy.

In recent years, experts and scholars believe that climate factors determine the basic boundary between spicy food and light food. Lan Yong, a professor at Southwest University, divided the territory of China according to the "hotness": the hot areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, mainly in Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou and southern Shaanxi; Taking Beijing and Shandong as the core, east to the Korean peninsula and west to the spicy area in northern Xinjiang; From Jiangsu to Guangdong, we basically don't eat spicy areas with light taste along the southeast coast.

According to experts' analysis, areas that like to eat peppers must have less sunshine, cold winter and humid climate, and the habit of eating peppers will be formed because of the demand of dispelling cold and dampness. The spicy areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River often have less solar radiation, and the mountainous areas are foggy, cold and humid in winter, which is of course a heavy spicy area. In the southeast coastal areas, although the humidity is high, the winter is warm and the sunshine is strong, so there is no demand for spicy food. However, Qiandao Lake area in western Zhejiang is an anomaly. Qiandao Lake is mountainous, foggy, cold in winter and humid in climate. It's spicy here.

In the United States, the influx of immigrants who are used to eating spicy food has emboldened Americans' appetite. 1995 -2005, the consumption of peppers in the United States soared by 38%. According to the statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture, the per capita consumption in the United States is currently 5.9 pounds per year, which is more than asparagus, cauliflower and green beans. Among American presidents, there are many people who like to eat Chili. The first president, Washington, not only loved peppers, but also personally planted a large area of Mexican red peppers. Former President Bush's favorite food is fried pigskin dipped in Chili sauce. William lenoir, an American astronaut, loves spicy food, so he should take a bottle of Chili sauce with him when he is on a space mission. Music director Zhu Bin Meda is even more addicted to spicy food. Whether conducting at a large concert or going to a restaurant for dinner, he always takes a few peppers and puts them in a matchbox for dinner. Even when attending the banquet of Queen Elizabeth II, he explained: "A meal without Chili is like a disgusting meal."

In Asia, Indians call pepper "red steak". When cooking, the chef can combine dried Chili, Chili powder, Chili sauce, fresh Chili slices or shredded Chili, which is delicious and pleasing to the eye. Thai people eat 300 grams of pepper every day, and even drinking soup is burning. Sri lankans are always very spicy, and their bags often contain spicy dried peppers. Friends meet and respect spicy dried peppers, just like cigarettes in China, which makes Sri Lanka the largest pepper importer in the world, importing more than 6,543.8+0.6 million tons of peppers every year.

In the United States, Mexicans regard pepper as one of the "three major foods", and there are many corn stalls on the streets all over the country. They not only spread a layer of cheese-like pepper on the corn cob, but also sprinkled a layer of red pepper powder, which even children aged five or six love to eat. It's really "no pepper, no food, no spicy". However, the strangest thing is the "Chirapano" white wine brewed by residents in the southwestern United States with peppers. Drinking it can stimulate appetite, strengthen the body, strengthen the spleen, increase food intake and refresh the mind.

Eating peppers also breeds a unique pepper culture. In Hatch Town, New Mexico, USA, the famous "Chili Festival" is held from June 5438 to 10 every year. In rural China, farmers hang peppers at home, which means red sun; The nickname given to Wang Xifeng in a dream of red mansions is "Chili"; Some fashionable girls are called "spice girls"; There is even a saying that it is not spicy or revolutionary in special times. In Campr, the Indian "spicy capital", people regard eating Chili peppers as a symbol of courage and strength, and the degree of eating Chili peppers is the embodiment of masculinity. If a man eats Chili worse than a woman, his wife will look down on him and even ask for a divorce.

India's "Soul-grabbing Pepper" beat Mexico's "Devil Pepper" in 2007 and became the "world's hottest pepper" in the Guinness Book of World Records that year. The pungent degree of "Soul-Breaking Pepper" has caused harm to people, and now the Indian military has begun to use "Soul-Breaking Pepper" to make new weapons such as "pepper grenades" and "pepper spray".

It is said that no one can challenge to eat a complete "dead pepper" from Assam, India. This pepper used to be used as a fence for fields and villages to prevent elephants from breaking into residential areas. Later, the Indian Ministry of Defence used the non-toxic and super-spicy characteristics of "broken soul pepper" to make "pepper grenades" to deal with terrorists.

A British restaurant recently launched a campaign to "challenge abnormal spicy chicken wings". Participants need to swallow chicken wings made of the hottest pepper in the world, which is also called the hottest chicken wings in the world.

The challenge stipulated by the restaurant is to eat six "abnormal spicy chicken wings" within 10 minutes, and no water is allowed during this period. The chicken wings are sprinkled with the hottest pepper in the world-"Infinite" pepper. The person in charge of the activity said: "It is very painful to eat this kind of pepper. Your tongue will be numb, and then you will feel burning until you swallow it. This feeling will last for about an hour, and I don't want to talk to anyone or do anything. " Participants must wear gloves when eating Chili peppers, because it will be corrosive to grasp them directly with their hands.

For most people, eating Chili occasionally is good for health, because fresh Chili is rich in vitamin C, β-carotene, folic acid, magnesium and potassium. Capsaicin in pepper has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which helps to reduce the risk of heart disease, tumor and some chronic diseases with age.

However, Dr. Hall, a nutritionist at the University of London, believes that pepper is too irritating to the human gastrointestinal tract. People suffering from fever, ulcer, chronic gastrointestinal diseases, hemorrhoids, dermatitis, tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, hypertension and other diseases should not eat a lot of peppers, and thin people should not eat more peppers. If you eat more peppers, it will not only aggravate symptoms such as dry throat, bitter taste, bloodshot eyes, top-heavy, irritability and irritability, but also easily lead to bleeding, allergies and inflammation.

Many people feel very spicy when they eat Chili, so they naturally want to drink water or eat staple food to dilute the spicy taste. In fact, the effect of doing so will not be ideal. Capsaicin will closely bind to nerve receptors in the taste organs. Capsaicin is a water-insoluble substance that can only bind to fat, oil and alcohol. The best food to relieve spicy taste is milk, especially skim milk. Although some people thought that the lipid in milk can better combine with capsaicin, the current research found that the really effective ingredient is casein in milk.