Chili Peppers Only Introduced to China 400 Years Ago, New Book Reveals
Research from Sun Yat-sen University traces three-century history of spicy food in Chinese cuisine
L'essentiel
- Chili peppers have been in China for only about 400 years, with people eating them for roughly three centuries, according to new research.
- The ingredient has become ubiquitous in Chinese cuisine, with jokes about those who don't eat spice starving or losing friends due to social bonding around spicy food.
Résumé généré par IA
It is not an exaggeration to say that chilli peppers and spicy food are available on pretty much every street in China. The pungent, heat-infused foodstuff is so ubiquitous people joke that if a person does not indulge, they will starve, or at best lose friends, because eating spicy things fosters social bonding. However, the popular ingredient has only been around in China for a relatively short time. It first entered the country 400 years ago and people have been eating it for about three centuries. This is revealed in a book titled The History of Chinese People Eating Chili Peppers, written by Cao Yu, a researcher from Sun Yat-sen University in southern Guangdong province.
