Why do humans collectively love to seek out suffering?

Chili peppers- for someone from Chongqing (which was still part of Sichuan Province when I was born), they seem like alabel written into my genes. When I introduce my hometown to international friends, most of them draw a blank upon hearing the words Chongqing or Sichuan, and after I explain“that the food there is especially famous and very spicy”, the penny drops and their faces light up.

Do I personally love spicy food? If you had asked the 18-year-old me who had just left Chongqing and headed north, the answer would definitely have been yes. During my days in Beijing eating in the school cafeteria, I missed my hometown'stwice-cooked pork, spicy chicken, and husband-and-wife lung slicesconstantly. When boiled pork slices arrived at the table, I could immediately tell by the aroma of thechili oilwhether it was authentic or not, and whenever I ate hotpot I would spare no effort in recommending thered oil nine-grid hotpot。

red oil nine-grid hotpot. Image: Tuchong Creative

But if you ask the present-day me whether I love spicy food, I would definitely hesitate - not all spiciness is acceptable. During my days living and traveling overseas, I experienced some different kinds of heat, and I came to understand thatthe spiciness of Sichuan and Chongqing is not necessarily the hottest(don't rush to be proud of your spice tolerance, fellow townsfolk). A Mexican friend brought out tacos with"ghost pepper sauce"(Ghost pepper), and just one bite made me clutch my burning lips and refuse a second; I accidentally chewed a small chili in Vietnamese pho, and caught completely off guard, I gulped down half a bowl of the broth to cool my mouth; as for being dragged by an Indian friend to eat authentic spicy curry from North India, I actually quite enjoyed it, but only with three large pieces of naan (Naang) on the side - eating the spicy curry on its own still had me begging for mercy immediately.

Naan and curry. Image: wordpress.com

And I discovered that when I returned to Chongqing a few years later, even a "mild" hotpot had me chugging down sour plum drink. There was even a time I ate braised pork ribs and, because I had tossed in a few extra green Sichuan peppercorns, it turned out spicy enough to knock me out. I am indeed a bona fide fake Chongqing native. So the spiciness I used to enjoy - what kind of spiciness was it? The"loves spicy food" labelon me - what is it really about? To answer these questions, I probably need to start with chili peppers themselves.

The diversity of chili peppers

Most of what we now call chili peppers come from the 5 cultivated species underthe genus Capsicum(Capsicum) in the nightshade family, among which Capsicum annuum is the most common. The familiar long, curvedpointed chili, the slightly shorterfacing heaven chili, and the large, almost heatlessgreen bell pepperare all cultivated varieties under this species.

All kinds of chili peppers. Image: pxhere

A chili pepper plant growing in the field is just an ordinary perennial herb, with alternate oval leaves that are slightly pointed, producingsmall white five-petaled flowers. The fruit it bears is, biologically speaking, aberry(berry), holdingkidney-shaped seedslike a little box (this is also the origin of the Latin genus name Capsicum - from the Latin capsa, meaning box, which gave rise to the English word capsule).

The small white flowers of a chili pepper. Image: H. Zell / wikipedia

Another relatively common chili pepper is C. frutescens, also known as"millet chili", which grows on a relatively low shrub and bears delicate, cute little pointed chilies. It is not only edible but also a much-loved variety in gardening.

The fruits of C. frutescens generally grow pointing upward. Image: Sanu N / wikipedia

Why are chili peppers spicy?

Which part of the chili pepper is the spiciest?In fact, contrary to many people's intuition, the seeds of a chili pepper are not spicy, and the skin is not that spicy either. The spiciest part of the chili is the layer ofwhite placentainside the skin, which generally runs right next to the stem and extends vertically along the inner wall of the pepper. Scrape it off, and the pepper's heat is reduced by more than half. For mild green bell peppers, removing this part also improves their bitter taste.

The white strip is actually the placenta. Image: natinspicygarden.com

In fact, the spiciness of chili peppers serves toprotect the seeds inside from being eaten by the wrong animals. The chili plant itself wants spice-tolerant birds to eat more of it, since the seeds cannot be digested anyway and will be excreted, conveniently allowing the birds to spread the seeds. However,those pesky mammalsalways cluelessly gnaw on the fruit, even eating the seeds before they mature - how could that be allowed? So capsaicin evolved as a mechanism to defend against mammals eating the fruit.

But the chili pepper never could have imagined that a few species of mammals would fall head over heels for this stimulating sensation. One of them is theshrew[qú jīng], a master at eating spicy food, whose long evolution has made it completely indifferent to whether something is spicy or not. Another is thehairless ape, who of course can taste the heat, and who verymasochistically falls in love with this stimulation- truly something nature cannot comprehend.

Where do chili peppers come from?

The genetic origins of chili peppers are very diverse, but they alloriginated in the New World. In the tropical regions from Central America to South America, several chili species were separately domesticated by early settlers - C. annuum came from Central America, while C. chinense (another species, whose name contains "china" but which has little to do with China) was born in the northern Amazon. The Andes also domesticated their own chili peppers, though these are not very common today. The latest research has found the earliest evidence of chili pepper domestication in southwestern Ecuador, dating back more than6,000 years ago, so chili peppers count as the earliest crop domesticated by humans in the New World.

What truly made the chili pepper legendary was its journey from the New World across the Old World, and people'sirresistible lovefor it despite its masochistic quality. In 1493, Columbus, on his second crossing of the Atlantic, along with the ship's doctor, brought this plant that grew"like a rose bush"back to Spain.

The chili pepper is actually not a very picky plant when it comes to growing conditions - whether for decoration or seasoning, people (and birds) began to spread it on their own. Merchant ships from Iberia brought chili peppers to the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian duringthe late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and thus the chili pepper landed in Asia and spread inland. Ottoman and Arab merchants also brought chili peppers through Eastern European trade routes, passing through Hungary into Germany (which is why Hungarians have always regarded their paprika as "traditional").

A vendor selling paprika in Hungary. Image: Takkk / wikipedia

The English word chilli (red chili pepper) is said to come from an indigenous Mexican language, and it sounds like a playful contrast with "chilly" (cold) - chili peppers are actuallythe very thing that creates a burning sensation. People around the world quickly linked this plant with words for spices and heat in their cultures and languages, giving rise to all kinds of names - such as the aforementioned paprika, pepperoni, jalapeno, tabasco, tougarashi, and so on, which not only refer to chili peppers in general but now also specifically refer to the type of chili commonly used in each culture.

In China, people initially used this "foreign pepper" only as an ornamental plant or medicine, but as it came to be cultivated on a large scale, people discovered that food seasoned with it truly had a distinctive flavor. The first to eat chili peppers were Guizhou and its neighboring regions; in Guizhou, where salt was scarce, "the local Miao used it as a substitute for salt"; by the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan, and other places had also begun eating chili peppers; by the late Qing dynasty, the spicy dishes we are familiar with today had entered the classic repertoire of Sichuan cuisine, and Sichuan cuisine's spiciness habit centered onchili oilwas also formed at this time.

Many Sichuan dishes are made with chili oil. Image: Ban Ge Deng Zi Kan Xi / Douguo Meishi

From dried chilies, chili powder, chili oil, and chili paste, to charred chilies, pickled chilies, and ciba chilies, seasoned into red oil flavor, numbing-spicy flavor, sour-spicy flavor, charred-spicy flavor, strange flavor... the tiny chili pepper has given rise to such a rich range of tastes (even though I cannot handle much spice, by the time I wrote this, my mouth was already watering).

Why do we eat spicy food?

Since chili peppers came in by sea, why is it that Fujian and Guangzhou do not eat spicy food, while it is specifically the inland people of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Hunan who love it? This question may still puzzle all kinds of people today -Why do we choose to eat spicy food?Is it determined by genes or shaped by environment?

Boiled pork slices is a famous dish in many places. Image: Xiao Yu De Chu Fang / Douguo Meishi

What chili peppers give us is actually not a taste,but a kind ofstinging, burning sensation. Capsaicin acts on the pain nerve pathways in the mouth, and the burning sensation it produces makes the brain create the illusion that the body is injured, and it begins to release the body's own painkilling substances - endorphins. So eating spicy food is indeed a "thrilling" experience, and can even produce a feeling of pleasure. By the way,the correct way to cool down the heatisdairy products

- the casein in milk can bind with capsaicin, thereby reducing the irritation to the mouth.

Many places in China hold spicy food eating contests to satisfy thrill-seekers. Image: AFP / channelstv.comIn fact, even before chili peppers were introduced to China, people had already begun seeking out stimulating foods. As early as more than 1,600 years ago, the Jin dynasty's Records of Huayang State recorded thatthe people of Shu "loved pungent and fragrant flavors", and at that time people mostly usedginger, Sichuan peppercorns, and dogwoodand so on. Research shows that about a quarter of foods in ancient China included Sichuan peppercorns, while today Sichuan peppercorns have been pushed by the more stimulating chili pepper into a corner of Sichuan, forming thenumbing-spicy

distinctive flavor profile. As for the West, pepper held the dominant position.However, for me, eating spicy food has always been a rather nerve-wracking affair. My personality is not particularly fiery, and my need to seek stimulation is not that high. My love of spicy food may have more to do with not the spiciness itself, butthe memories of hometown dishes that come along with the spiciness

. Twice-cooked pork without doubanjiang is not twice-cooked pork; spicy chicken without having to pick the chicken out of a mountain of dried chilies is not spicy chicken; boiled fish without soaking in scalding red oil is not boiled fish.

The spicy chicken in my memory requires digging through a pile of chilies to find the chicken. Image: Ai Sheng Huo De Chan Mao / Douguo MeishiNow when I go home, I have to prepare milk, sour plum drink, and kuding tea first in order to do battle with Sichuan food and hotpot for three hundred rounds - even so, I would not give it up for anything, because that is what I am familiar with,。

what I define as "delicious food"

This article is the 243rd article of the 4th year of Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @Li Zi.

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