In the last two years of the last century, as a middle school student, I was crazy about a game - Age of Sail 4. I'm ashamed to say that although I work at China National Geographic magazine, my knowledge of world geography is not mainly learned from teachers, but accumulated from this game. The protagonist in the game sails around the globe and trades between ports. For example, tea in China, tobacco in the Americas, sapphires in Sri Lanka, and platinum in West Africa are all valuable things.
Another day of age exposure...
However, there is a specialty in Southeast Asia (now Aceh, Indonesia) that I have never heard of, and its name is tamarind.
If there is no vinegar, just rely on it
Although I was curious to know what this tamarind was, the Internet was not yet developed, and I did not enter college to start studying botany, so the matter was put on hold. After another two years, I accidentally ate a sour preserved fruit called "sour horn". When I checked on the Internet, it turned out that this sour corner was a tamarind that I didn't know at the beginning.
Speaking of this, many fans must know that the kind of thing that looks like a large edamame, some are called sour horns, some are called sweet horns, they taste saucey, and the taste is not bad.
Hiss, saliva is already going to be set aside ...
Most of you should have eaten this, and it is super delicious after sweetness
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The Chinese name of this thing is "capers", which is not surprising to be a legume plant, and it is a single species, and the capers family is this old brother. But below we mainly call it sour horn, popular.
The hometown of the acid horn is in distant Africa, and after the research of botanists in recent years, its origin should only be in Madagascar, the outer island of East Africa, which was planted later on the African continent. Fortunately, the sour horn is easy to survive and eat, and slowly came from the tropics of Africa to the tropics of South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The distribution range of acid horns, green is the origin, purple is the introduction.
Source: Kew Gardens official website
Perhaps Africans do not like to eat sour, and sour horns have an average status in Africa. When you come to Asia, it's different, Southeast Asian people can't eat if they don't have a little sour and spicy all day! Coincidentally, Southeast Asia and South Asia, which like sour taste so much, did not invent vinegar brewing technology in ancient times, and today mainly rely on lemons and green papayas to provide sourness. The arrival of the acid horn really saved the people from fire and water, belonging to yes.
Add the sour soup made with tamarind
Moreover, the main component of the acid of the acid horn is tartaric acid, which is not as stimulating as acetic acid, and it is easier to integrate with various spices and spices. If you don't believe it, in tropical Asia, especially India, sour horns are everywhere.
The people of India harvest acid horns
What eggplant, tofu, curry shrimp, grilled chicken, all have the participation of sour horn, especially the sour horn that is not too ripe, the taste is enough, mashed into jam, sealed can be sold directly. Fresh fruit fills the market with various beverage stalls. The first producer and first consumer of acid horn are India, you probably wouldn't think of it.
Liu Yong has a video of a sour corner on the streets of India, and he understands everything
What you don't expect is that the acid horn has also deeply affected the diet of the mainland. Most of my friends who have been to Shanghai have tried Shanghai's Shanghai-style Western food bars, and what Haipai borscht, yam salad, and fried pork cutlet with spicy soy sauce are all famous. This "spicy soy sauce" is not originally soy sauce, it is called jiē juice in Cantonese, also translated as English black vinegar, and the most authentic name is "Worcestershire sauce".
Worcester sauce mixed with seafood, this is mainly seafood to be fresh
The story goes back to 1835, when Sandys, an Englishman who was then the governor of Bengal, retired and returned home, found two friends who opened a seasoning workshop in Worcestershire, and produced this Indian-flavored seasoning according to the recipe he brought back from India. It wasn't until the following year that the cellar was cleaned and found that this seasoning had become very tasty over time, and it became a hit and marketed the world. We can't say whether the story is true or not, it's a bit similar to Wang Zhihe's invention of stinky tofu.
However, in addition to various Indian spices, the most important thing is to add two raw materials, anchovies and sour horns, so that the sauce presents a sour and fresh taste. However, now Shanghai's spicy soy sauce has been improved several times, and several Chinese herbs have been added, and I don't know if there is any sour horn involved.
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Are they all one thing?
The first Chinese to record the acid horn was a big man, he was the famous lyricist Fan Chengda of the Southern Song Dynasty. When he was an official in Guilin, Guangxi, he did a lot of naturalist work, and later collected a book "Gui Hai Yu Hengzhi". Interestingly, in addition to Mr. Fan's record of "the shell of tamarind is several inches long, like soap and knife beans, the color is zhengdan, there are two or three solids inside, and the simmering food is sweet", and there is also a "luo huangzi is like an olive, and its skin is sevenfold".
What do you look like when you fall tamarind?
In later books of the ancients, the two were gradually confused. Also, let today's friends in the two cantons read "Tamarind", probably also listen to it like "Luo Huangzi", I have made up the audio in my brain.
The trouble is that Mr. Fan's record of "like soap and like knife beans" is indeed quite like a sour horn, so modern scholars have identified the sour horn as tamarind and luo huangzi. However, "simmering luscious" prominently points to another plant in Liangguang, Pingpo, whose seeds are simmered and delicious, like chestnuts. If you look at the "one petal" of the gū tū fruit, it is also a bit like a pod. And today, in the two Guangxi generation of Pingpo, there is indeed a common name of Luo Huangzi, and tamarind and Luo Huangzi in Chinese medicine are also two different medicinal effects.
Sezhengdan, with two or three solids inside, simmering and sweet, all perfectly match Pingpo
So, almost certainly, tamarind, luo huangzi, and sour horn are certainly not a thing in history. Maybe tamarind is a sour horn, and Luo Huangzi is a Pingpo; Maybe tamarind Luo Huangzi is just a misrepresentation of the accent, they all refer to Pingpo, and it has nothing to do with the acid horn at all. Anyway, from the Southern Song Dynasty to the present, hundreds of years ago, no one knows the truth. After the excavation and revision of successive generations of scholars, tamarind specifically refers to sour horn in modern Chinese, anyway, Pingpo still has a good name for "phoenix eye fruit", and she can't compete with sour horn.
This stew is not a sour soup
In the snack world, there is also a "sweet corner", which looks similar to the sour horn, but the taste is sweeter and not so sour. What is the relationship between these two things?
It's simply a thing. The difference between sweet and sour is not caused by the processing method, but is innate. The distribution of acid horns spans the entire tropics, and the area is so large that individual differences are normal. Some acid horns are acidic, such as Indians like acid, they mainly grow acid; Some are sweet, such as Thailand, which loves to grow sweet. In general, the vast majority is acidic.
Sweet horn and sweet corner cake, sweet pie sour pie fight time comes
If you haven't eaten sour horn, you may have used sour horn
Don't look at the sour horn fruit bare and not very good-looking, its flowers are very good-looking, large and bright, at first glance I think it is an orchid. In many places, street trees and trees for landscaping are selected with acid horns, and the flowering period lasts for several months.
Nice sour horn flowers
In addition to being eaten fresh, fruit juice and sugar water are also a good refreshing drink, and pulp boiled into tamarind sauce is a common seasoning for Southeast Asian cuisine; The oil extracted from the seed kernels is ready for consumption. The fruit is used in medicine, and traditional medicine believes that it has the effect of repelling car. The seeds of the acid horn are also rich in gum, called "tamarind gum", which is a good choice for edible gum, and many processed foods we eat may have tamarind gum.
Tamarind gum acts as a stabilizer to make ice cream delicate, dense and soft
Its leaves, flowers, and fruits also contain an acidic substance that can be used as a dye when mixed with other flowers containing dyes.
Even its wood is heavy, hard and finely grained, and is used in construction, making farm implements, vehicles and high-end furniture. In the timber market, it is called "Madeira mahogany", and if you encounter an older tree, it is also very beautiful and atmospheric to make a table out of the whole wood, of course, it also costs a lot of money.
When I have money, I use this table to eat sour horn cake, and the family is neat
Anyway, this extreme taste, the loved ones must love to eat everything it makes, but let the people who don't like to chew such a sour tooth and paste on the teeth to continue to attack, they would rather drink vinegar!
Written by | Letters float and sink
Partial image | Figureworm Creative
WeChat Edit | Zhao's encounter