However, there is one kind of food, whether it is eight major cuisines or street snacks, which is indispensable-pepper.
Some people may not eat ginger and garlic, some people may not eat coriander, but almost no one does not eat Chili.
Even people who don't eat spicy food have sweet peppers to eat.
Moreover, pepper is not only an indispensable ingredient on our table, but also an indispensable seasoning in delicious dishes.
Sichuan cuisine and Hunan cuisine in the eight major cuisines are famous for their spicy taste, which is the soul of their taste.
Eating Chili peppers is addictive and more spicy.
As the saying goes, Sichuan people are not afraid of spicy food, Guizhou people are not afraid of spicy food, and Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food. However, there are spicy oil in Shaanxi and spicy fried rice noodles in Jiangxi. ...
Eating spicy food has long lost the distinction between north and south, and the difference between east and west has become a unified trend.
According to statistics, China is the largest pepper producer and consumer in the world, with an area of 20 million mu and an annual output of 40 million tons.
Looking around, it is "China Red" in the east of Henan and Anhui, in the west of Ningxia and Xinjiang, and in the south of Sichuan and Hunan.
Even Fujian, which has the lightest taste, is not far behind. In the spirit of "I don't eat, I can plant it for others to eat", the planted peppers are of good quality and have a large out-of-season output, which sells well all over the country.
Who knows, however, that pepper is not only not native to China, but also the latest imported spice from China, with the largest usage and the widest range?
Pepper, what kind of "counterattack" has it experienced and has become the "king of seasoning"?
According to textual research, pepper originated in South America.
As early as 5000 BC, Central Americans (Mayans) began to eat peppers, and they grew here in 7000 BC. Pepper can be said to be one of the oldest crops planted by human beings.
/kloc-In the 5th century, Columbus discovered pepper on his way to America and brought it back to Spain. Pepper was introduced to Europe from Spain and then spread to the world from Europe.
Compared with the ancient history of pepper cultivation, the growth history of pepper in China is much shorter.
It is generally believed that pepper was introduced into China in the Ming Dynasty.
The earliest record of pepper is described in Gao Lian's "Eight Chapters of Respect for Life" in the Ming Dynasty, which said: "Pepper is full of flowers, and the fruit is like a bald pen, spicy and red, which is very impressive."
But at the beginning of 1986, Sichuan archaeologists excavated a garbage pit of the Tang Dynasty in Chengdu, and a lacquer box of the Tang Dynasty was unearthed in the pit, which contained two well-preserved peppers.
According to expert appraisal, these two peppers did come from the Tang Dynasty.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, there had been a "Gentiana macrophylla" in Justin Cheung's medicated diet, but it was always regarded as "Uncle Qin Dihua".
Compendium of Materia Medica, an ancient book, corrected this myth, holding that "Qinjiao" is another name for pepper, which, like the "May 6th Grass Carp" written by Du Fu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, was made of five kinds of auxiliary materials including pepper in the cooking history.
All of the above can explain that as early as the Tang Dynasty, China began to grow and eat peppers. This is at least 900 years before Columbus discovered pepper in South America and brought it to all parts of the world.
However, although pepper was cultivated and eaten in the Tang Dynasty, our ancestors did not use it in daily dishes, but preserved it as a flower.
In the "Nong Sang Jing" written by Pu Songling, pepper is still listed in the category of "flower spectrum", which is from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty 1000 years ago.
It wasn't until the 40th year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty that "Guangfang Qunpu" included chilies in the "menu" and chilies became a frequent visitor on the table of China people.
Before that, China people only had a "spicy" taste, mainly onions, ginger, garlic, peppers, mustard and even dogwood.
Interestingly, the earliest recorded chili eaters in China were all in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, that is, the so-called "Xiajiang people", that is, in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.
"Pepper" was recorded in Caohuashu in Ming Dynasty. Pepper was first introduced from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong.
However, pepper has not been fully utilized in those places, but has spread to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and southwest China.
According to historical records, in Guizhou and Hunan, which are famous for their spicy taste, they began to eat Chili as early as the Qing Dynasty, but generally began to eat Chili later than Daoguang.
During the Qianlong period, Guizhou began to eat a large number of peppers, followed by Zhenxiong in Yunnan and Chenzhou in Hunan, which were adjacent to Guizhou.
In the Chronicle of Taiwan Province Province in the 12th year of Qianlong, there is a record of eating Chili peppers on the island of Taiwan Province Province.
In contrast, the record of eating pepper in Sichuan is a little late.
The earliest record may be the last year of Jiaqing. After Tongzhi, the edible peppers in Sichuan became popular, and even "they were planted everywhere in Shan Ye".
After Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty, Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces have "planted peppers as vegetables".
During the Daoguang period, everything in northern Guizhou was "peppered"; During Tongzhi, Guizhou people "eat sea pepper in four seasons".
Corn rice was popular in Guizhou in the late Qing Dynasty, and the dishes were mostly tofu pudding, that is, soaked salt blocks and sea peppers were dipped in water, which was a bit like tofu pudding dipped in sea peppers in Fushun, Sichuan today.
After Daoguang, it became more common for Hunan people to eat Chili.
According to the Qing History of Qing Dynasty, "(Hunan and Hubei people) like spicy food" and "no pepper and mustard in soup".
It shows that people in Hunan and Hubei ate spicy food at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and even put pepper in the soup.
The record of Sichuan people eating Chili peppers was a little late, but it came from behind.
According to Fu Chongju's Survey of Chengdu in the Late Qing Dynasty, there were as many as 1328 kinds of dishes in Chengdu after Guangxu. Pepper has become one of the main ingredients in Sichuan cuisine, and spicy has become an important feature of Sichuan people's diet.
Xu Xinyu, a contemporary of Fu Chongju, has a similar record in Travel Notes in Shu Zhong: "Only Sichuanese must choose extremely spicy peppers, and every meal and dish should be spicy."
Now that Chili has conquered China, there are almost no blank areas.
It not only enters our family, but also is the most common ingredient on the table. It has also changed our cuisine, and the pepper in Sichuan and Hunan cuisine is its soul; It has also been integrated into our food culture in China and become a symbol of enthusiasm.
Pepper is everywhere, and people in China are neither hot nor happy.
Pepper is a perfect "counterattack" and a well-deserved "king of seasoning" in China. ?