Why do humans shake M collectively?

Chili-for a native of Chongqing (I was born in Sichuan Province), it seems like a label engraved in the gene. When I introduce my hometown to my international friends, most of them will be confused when they hear the words Chongqing or Sichuan, but suddenly realize and smile after I explain that "the food is very famous and very spicy."

Do I like spicy food personally? If you want to ask me when I was 18 years old and just left Chongqing and went northward, the answer must be yes. During the days of studying and eating canteens in Beijing, I always miss the back-pot meat, spicy chicken and Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce in my hometown. When the boiled meat slices are served, you can immediately tell whether they are authentic or not by the aroma of spicy seeds, and you will always spare no effort to use Amway red oil when eating hot pot.

Red oil nine palace grid. Picture: picture worm creativity

But if you want to ask me if I like spicy food now, I will certainly hesitate-not all spicy food is OK. During these days of living and traveling abroad, I have experienced some different spiciness, and I also understand that the spicy of Sichuan and Chongqing is not necessarily the hottest (don't be proud of the ability to eat spicy, fellow-townsman). My friend in Mexico took out taco (Taco) dipped in "Ghost pepper", which only needed one bite to make me cover my hot lips and not want to touch it again; accidentally chewed the small sharp pepper in Vietnamese rice noodles, so unprepared that I was so spicy that I sucked half a bowl of rice noodle soup. As for the authentic spicy curry dragged by my Indian friends to eat in North India, I do like it, but only if it comes with three slices of Naang, and I can only beg for mercy right away.

Curries and curry. Picture: wordpress.com

And I found that when I went back to Chongqing a few years later, even the "slightly spicy" hot pot could make me pour tons of sour plum soup. I even ate roast ribs once, and because I threw a few more rattan peppers, I actually made myself very spicy. I am indeed a fake native of Chongqing. So, what kind of spicy food did I like to eat before? What on earth is the label of "love spicy food" on your body? To answer these questions, you may have to start with chili peppers.

Variety of chili peppers

Most of the chili peppers we are talking about come from five cultivated species of the genus Capsicum of Solanaceae, among which Capsicum annuum is the most common. We are familiar with the long curved sharp pepper, the slightly shorter Chaotian pepper, and the large green pepper, which is almost unspicy, are all cultivated in this plant.

All kinds of chili peppers. Picture: pxhere

Chili peppers grow in the ground like ordinary perennial herbs, with alternate ovate leaves slightly pointed and white five-petaled flowers. The fruit is biologically a berry, holding kidney-shaped seeds like a small box (this is also the origin of the Latin genus name Capsicum-the Latin word capsa, meaning box, derived from the English word capsule for capsule).

The white flowers of chili peppers. Photo: H. Zell / wikipedia

Another common kind of pepper is C. frutescens, also known as millet pepper, which is born on relatively low shrubs with cute little pointed chili peppers, not only edible, but also a favorite variety in horticulture.

C. the fruit of frutescens generally grows upward. Picture: Sanu N / wikipedia

Why are chili peppers hot?

Where is the hottest chili? In fact, contrary to many people's intuition, chili seeds are not that hot and the skins are not that hot. The hottest part of the pepper is the white placenta inside the skin, which usually extends vertically against the handle and against the pepper skin. Scrape it off and the spicy taste of the chili will be reduced by more than half. For non-spicy green peppers, scraping off this part can also improve the bitter taste of green peppers.

The part of the white muscle is actually the placenta. Picture: natinspicygarden.com

In fact, the hot pepper is to protect the seeds from being eaten by the wrong animals. The chili itself hopes that the birds that are not afraid of spicy can eat more. Anyway, if they can't digest it, they will be discharged, just in time for the birds to spread the seeds. However, obnoxious mammals are always ignorant of the times to eat the fruit, and even the seeds are eaten before they are ripe, how can that work? As a result, capsaicin evolved as a defense mechanism against mammalian predation.

However, chili did not expect that several species of mammals fell in love with this exciting feeling. One of them is called shrew [Q ú jacked ng], which is good at eating spicy food, and it has evolved over the years so that it has no question of whether care is spicy at all. The other is hairless apes, of course they can eat spicy, and very masochistic M fell in love with this kind of stimulation, which is really puzzled by nature.

Where does the chili come from?

Chili peppers have a variety of genetic sources, but they all originated in the New World. In tropical regions from Central America to South America, several kinds of chili peppers were domesticated by early settlers-C. annuum came from Central America, and C. chinense (another species, which has the name china but has little to do with China) was born in the northern Amazon. The Andes have also domesticated their own chili peppers, but they are not very common today. New research has found the earliest evidence of domestication of chili peppers in southwestern Ecuador, dating back more than 6,000 years, so chili peppers are the earliest domesticated crops in the New World.

What really makes chili legendary is its pace from the new world to the old world, and people's love for it with an M-temperament but still can't stop. In 1493, Columbus, who crossed the Atlantic for the second time, and the doctors on board brought the plant, which grows "like a rose bush", back to Spain.

Chili is not really a plant that is very picky about its growing environment-whether it's for decoration or seasoning, people (and birds) begin to spread it spontaneously. Merchant ships from Iberia brought chili peppers to the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and chili peppers landed in Asia and spread inland. Ottoman and Arab businessmen also spread chili peppers through Eastern European trade routes to Germany through Hungary (so Hungarian paprika has always been regarded as a "tradition").

A small vendor selling paprika in Hungary. Picture: Takkk / wikipedia

The English word chilli, which is said to come from a native language of Mexico, sounds like a playful contrast to the "cold" chilly-chili peppers are actually something that creates a burning sensation. People around the world quickly associate this plant with the spices, hot words and other words in their culture and language, and have derived a variety of names-such as paprika, pepperoni, jalapeno, tabasco, Tang Xinzi, etc., which refer not only to chili peppers, but now also to certain kinds of chili peppers commonly used in various cultures.

In China, at first, this kind of "pepper" was only used as an ornamental plant or medicine, but as it was cultivated on a large scale, people found that the food seasoned with it had a different flavor. Guizhou and its neighboring areas were the first to eat chili peppers. In Guizhou, where there was a lack of salt, "soil seedlings were used instead of salt." during the reign of Qianlong and Jiaqing, Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan and other places also began to eat chili peppers. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the spicy food we are familiar with has entered the classic recipes of Sichuan cuisine, and the spicy habit of Sichuan cuisine based on oil spicy seeds was also formed at this time.

Spicy chili is used in many Sichuan cuisines. Picture: move a stool to see a play / beans and fruit delicacies

From dried chili, chili powder, chilli oil, chili sauce, to paste chili, pickled chili, and Zanba chili, they are adjusted to red oil, spicy, sour, spicy, and strange taste. Small chili peppers give rise to such a rich flavor (although I am not very good at eating spicy food, but at this point, the saliva has come down).

Why are we eating spicy food?

Since chili peppers are imported from the sea, why don't Fujian and Guangzhou eat spicy food, but people in inland Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan like to eat spicy food? This question may also haunt all kinds of people today-why do we choose to eat spicy food? Is it genetic or environmental?

Boiled sliced meat is a famous dish in many places. Picture: Xiaoyu's kitchen / bean and fruit delicacies

What chili brings to us is actually not a sense of taste, but a feeling of tingling and burning. Capsaicin acts on the pain pathway in the mouth, creating a burning sensation that gives the brain the illusion of injury and begins to release endorphins, the body's own painkiller. Therefore, eating spicy food is indeed an "exciting" experience, and it can even produce a pleasant feeling. By the way, the right way to relieve spice is dairy products, where casein binds to capsaicin, reducing oral irritation.

Spicy eating competitions are held in many parts of China to satisfy thrill seekers. Picture: AFP / channelstv.com

In fact, people began to look for exciting food before chili peppers were introduced into China. As early as more than 1600 years ago, the Huayang National Chronicles of the Jin Dynasty recorded the "good spice" of the Shu people. at that time, people often used ginger, prickly ash, dogwood and so on. Research shows that in ancient China, about 1/4 of foods were added to pepper, but today, pepper is squeezed into a corner of Sichuan by more exciting chili peppers, forming a special spicy flavor. As for the West, pepper is dominant.

However, for me, eating spicy food is always a trembling thing. My personality is not hot, the demand for stimulation is not too high, like to eat spicy, perhaps more is not spicy itself, but along with the spicy hometown food memory. Back-pot meat will not become back-to-pot meat without Douban, spicy chicken will not become spicy chicken unless picked from mountains of dried chili peppers, and Fish Filets in Hot Chili Oil will not become Fish Filets in Hot Chili Oil unless soaked in boiling hot red oil.

The chili chicken in my memory needs to look for chicken in the chili heap. Picture: greedy cat / bean and fruit delicacies that love life.

Now when I get home, I have to prepare milk, sour plum soup and Kuding tea before I can fight Sichuan cuisine and hot pot for 300 rounds-even so, I will not hesitate to do so, because it is something I am familiar with and defined as "delicious food".

This is the 243rd article in the fourth year of the species calendar, from @ plum, author of the species calendar.

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