Review expert: Shi Jun
Doctor of Botany, well-known popular science writer
Recently, the Central Radio and Television Corporation and the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee jointly released the menu of athletes for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The editor who saw the menu could only say that tears of envy flowed from the corners of his mouth...
Source 丨 Network
In terms of catering services, the service standards, time and content of the three Winter Olympic villages in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou are unified, and 12 kinds of tables have been set up, including world tables, Asian tables, Chinese tables, Ming stalls, halal tables, pizza and pasta tables, salad tables and condiment tables, fresh fruit tables, bread and dessert tables, providing a total of 678 specialties from all over the world. About 200 dishes are served daily by athletes from all over the world, rotated every 8 days as a cycle.
I can't be the only one hungry source 丨 CCTV News
To summarize briefly:
Hungry and hungry,
Hungry hungry hungry,
Fragrant and fragrant.
However, there is one thing that makes people very concerned. According to Yang Chen, chef of Yanqing Village at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, pepper will not appear in the menu of Winter Olympic athletes because it is a foodborne stimulant. 48 common kitchen ingredients such as incense leaves cannot be found.
Athlete Feng Zhe previously posted a picture of food that athletes can't eat when they go out Source 丨 Weibo
Emmmmm, Peppery Soup was forced out of the group chat. Without pepper, wouldn't the steak have lost its soul...? Why is pepper a foodborne stimulant? What kind of pepper is it? Let's get to know pepper and several other spices in the kitchen today, some of which are listed as foodborne stimulants, just like pepper.
Piper nigrum belongs to the piperidge family and is the fruit of a flowering vine in the genus Piper . Pepper is largely spherical, aromatic, spicy, native to the tropical rainforests of South India, and has been cultivated for more than 4,000 years.
In ancient maritime trade, pepper was transported through India to Central Asia via the road and maritime Silk Road, and from here it was further introduced to Europe.
Unripe pepper Source 丨 Wikipedia
In the 16th century, pepper accounted for 70% of the world's spice trade. Due to the high cost of transportation, the price of pepper remained high, known as "black gold", which became a luxury item at that time.
During the Han Dynasty, pepper was introduced to China. The earliest record of pepper in China comes from Sima Biao's Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty in the Western Jin Dynasty: "The Tianzhu Kingdom produced stone honey, pepper, and black salt." "Tianzhu is now India.
Raw pepper Source 丨 Baidu
In modern times, we often divide pepper into black pepper and white pepper, but in fact, if the pepper fruit is not shelled and directly ground to get black pepper powder, and pepper fruit is shelled and ground, what is obtained is white pepper powder. Except for the difference in color, there is not much difference.
The spicy taste of pepper is mainly derived from the piperine contained in it, and the outer peel of pepper also contains terpenes such as pinene, juniperene, phenylene, caryophyllene and linalool that can produce odors. Sometimes we think that the flavor of white pepper is not as complex and deep as black pepper, because white pepper removes the peel layer, and the flavor substances contained in it are reduced.
It is also the main source of pepper flavor, piperine, that makes it a foodborne stimulant. According to studies, piperine has the effect of excitating the nerves.
The toxicological effect of piperine on mice and rats in experiments can be seen to have an excitatory effect. Relevant information and literature sources 丨 Baidu Encyclopedia
In addition to pepper, peppercorns and vine peppers are also two common "peppers" in the kitchen. Peppercorns (Zanthoxylum) belong to the family Rubiaceae and are small deciduous trees whose fruit we eat.
In Italian, the pepper is "pepe di sichuan", and the literal translation is Sichuan pepper. Peppercorns have a long history of cultivation in China and are a veritable native spice.
Source 丨 Baidu
Pepper in the mouth to give people the feeling is mainly hemp, usually seen peppercorns are generally red or purple red, there are also some peppercorns are black, green color, is called green peppercorns.
The earliest cultivation of peppercorns in China can be traced back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In the "Book of Poetry", it is recorded: "The truth of pepper talking, multiplication and ascension" and "there are peppers and their sweetness".
Rattan peppers and peppercorns have similar appearances, but are not the same.
Rattan pepper is actually the fruit of the "bamboo leaf pepper" in the genus Peppercorn, scientifically known as Zanthoxylum armatum. Bamboo leaves and peppercorn branches are scattered, like vines, so it is called vine pepper. The color of the vine pepper is turquoise, and when dried, it is dark yellow-green, the smell is more intense, and there is a heavy numbness in the mouth.
Rattan pepper is native to East Asia and has a long history of cultivation in China. Nowadays, Sichuan Hongya in China produces a lot of rattan peppers, and is known as the hometown of rattan peppers. The process of making rattan pepper oil is also listed as an "intangible cultural heritage".
Cinnamon, also known as cinnamon and cinnamon, is a common name for the bark of the Lauraceae plant Yin xiang, fine leaf cinnamon, cinnamon and other trees.
Cinnamon is a native spice in China, and the earliest record in China appears in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas": "The Mountain of Flaunting Is More Gui".
Cinnamon trees and branches contain cinnamaldehyde, which is spicy and irritating, with a slight sweetness, and a faint bitter taste after entering.
There is also a kind of cinnamon that is often mentioned together, called laurel. Laurus nobilis is native to the Mediterranean region and is a genus of laurus in the laurendae family, which, when dried, produces a sweet and pungent taste, which is the fragrance leaf in the spice. Fragrant leaves are also classified as foodborne stimulants and excluded from the Olympic menu.
Cloves are also a spice that athletes need to avoid. Syzygium aromaticum is a plant of the myrtle family, a plant of the genus Pu peach, also known as cloves, chicken tongue and so on. It should be noted that it is not the same thing as the lilac flowers in our common green trees, lilacs (lilac syringa) belongs to the family Xylariaceae, which we generally call "lilac flowers" to distinguish it from the spice lilac.
Dried cloves source 丨 Baidu
Cloves are produced in the Maluku Archipelago of Indonesia, spread around the world through maritime trade in the 14th century, and were cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and other places in China. Cloves have the properties of preservatives and fungicides and also assist in digestion. Essential oils were applied topically to relieve toothache and mouth pain, and when Song Dynasty courtiers played to the emperor, they needed to put some in their mouths to remove bad breath. In other Asian countries such as Vietnam and India, cloves are also a popular spice.
Tangerine peel is orange peel, also known as broad peel or broad tangerine peel, is a spice obtained by drying or drying the ripe peel of the citrus reticulata plant and its cultivated varieties.
Tangerine peel is one of the traditional spices in Guangdong and also has high medicinal value.
It was first recorded as an orange grapefruit in the Shennong Materia Medica, and in the Daily Materia Medica, it is said, "Only those who come out of Guangdong are superior, the rest are secondary, and those who have been for many years are even better."
Tangerine Peel Source 丨 Wikipedia
The older the tangerine peel, the better, and the smell is more mellow and sweet.
Lanxangia tsaoko, also known as grass cardamom, is a perennial herb of the cardamom genus. The ripe fruit is purple-red and tan when dried.
Grass fruit is not native to China, according to the Ming "Kaihua Fu Zhi" record, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, grass fruit was introduced by the Yao people from Vietnam to be artificially cultivated in southeastErn Yunnan, which has a history of more than 300 years.
The current grass and fruits are mainly planted in the mountainous areas of Yunnan, China, with an output of about 95% of the country, and the economic benefits are very impressive, known as "the cash cow in the mountains".
After reading today's article, do you have more knowledge of these spices?
Black pepper powder source 丨 Wikipedia
In the world of gastronomy, spices are truly a finishing touch. A lot of food relies on it for its unique taste. Although athletes do not have the flavor of some of these spices because of doping, for ordinary people, these spices listed as foodborne stimulants can actually be added and eaten normally.
Next time you cook, remember to add some suitable spices