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
Quick Look
- 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.
AI-generated summary
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.
