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Culture
文艺版块
World in a dish
盘中世界
Coming in hot
热辣而来
How the once-derided chilli pepper revolutionised Chinese palates.
曾经受到嘲讽的辣椒如何彻底改变了中国人的口味。
Tianshui, a city tucked away in China's north-western hills, does not normally make headline news.
天水，一个位于中国西北山区的城市，通常不会成为头条新闻。
But a fiery soup that owes its unique flavour to locally grown Gangu chillies has lit up the internet.
但是，一种因当地种植的甘谷辣椒而具有独特风味的辣味汤点燃了互联网。
Since March, the hashtag #TianshuiMalatang, referring to a popular type of street food, has racked up more than 140m views on Weibo, a social-media platform.
自今年3月以来，在社交媒体平台新浪微博上，“天水麻辣烫”（指的是一种流行的街头小吃）话题标签已获得超过1.4亿浏览量。
Millions have flocked to the city to try it themselves.
数百万人涌入这座城市亲自品尝。
Increasingly the Chinese palette is craving spice.
越来越多的中国味蕾渴望尝到辣味。
Last year Meituan, China's biggest food-delivery app, reported that nearly 80% of restaurants now offer spicy fare, a taste known as la in Chinese.
中国最大的外卖app美团去年报告称，近八成的餐厅现在提供辣味饭菜，这种味道用中文表示为“辣”。
Look back a few hundred years, though, and chillies were nowhere to be found.
然而，回顾几百年前，辣椒无处可寻。
Unlike ginger and Sichuan peppers, which are native to the region and widely used, chilli peppers were brought to China from the Americas by Portuguese and Dutch explorers only in the 16th century.
生姜和花椒是本土植物，使用广泛，辣椒与它们不同，辣椒是在16世纪才由葡萄牙和荷兰探险家从美洲带到中国。
At first, nobody ate them.
起初，没有人吃辣椒。
For at least 50 years, they were grown as decorative plants, prized for their cheerfully bright colour and tiny white flowers, and occasionally used as medicinal herbs.
至少50年来，它们被当作装饰性植物种植，因其鲜艳的颜色和小巧的白色花朵而备受珍视，偶尔被用作草药。
During China's last imperial period, a stringent system that taxed salt forced peasants in Guizhou province to look for an alternative to the condiment.
在中国最后一个皇朝时期，严格的盐税制度迫使贵州省的农民寻找盐的替代品。
They chose chillies, which produce several crops a year and take up little land.
他们选择了辣椒，辣椒一年可多次收获，而且只占用很少的土地。
From there, a new flavour was unlocked.
从此，一种新的味道被解锁。
The pepper steadily spread to other rural regions of China, but its pungent, overpowering flavour barred it from getting near the tables of imperial or upper-class families.
辣椒逐渐传播到中国其他农村地区，但它辛辣、强烈的味道使它无法接近皇室或上流家族的餐桌。
For a long time, la was used to describe vicious-natured people, and the few urbanites who enjoyed chillies did not trumpet their taste.
在很长一段时间里，“辣”被用来形容性情凶残的人，少数喜欢吃辣椒的城里人也不会宣扬他们的口味。
But the Communist revolution revolutionised the kitchen.
但共产主义革命也带来了厨房的革命。
The chefs of nobles were out of favour, and their traditions discontinued.
贵族的厨师不再受欢迎，他们的传统也不复存在。
The new leader, Mao Zedong, was the son of a peasant and a fan of chillies.
新的领导人毛主席是农民的儿子，也很爱吃辣椒。
Mao made Russian envoys eat sweat-inducing dishes and laughed when they could not handle the heat.
毛主席让苏联特使吃让人冒汗的菜肴，当他们受不了辣时，他笑了起来。
“You can't be a revolutionary if you don't eat chillies," he said.
“不能吃辣椒就是不能革命哩。”他说。
What was once a poor man's food became a symbol of China's working class.
曾经的穷人的食物就变成了中国工人阶级的象征。
Industrialisation after Mao created the largest migration in human history.
毛主席之后的工业化创造了人类历史上最大规模的移民。
Hundreds of millions of migrants poured into big cities, bringing with them the spicy favours of home.
数百万移民涌入大城市，把家乡的辣味也带了进来。
Chillies are now incorporated into street food, fine dining and snacks in regions with little tradition of heat.
如今，在没有什么吃辣传统的地区，辣椒已进入街头小吃、精致餐饮和零食中。
Cao Yu, a food writer and author of "The History of Eating La", argues that part of the chilli's charm also comes from its social function.
美食作家曹雨写了《中国食辣史》，他认为，辣椒的部分魅力来自它的社会功能。
“If we've had spicy food together, we've endured pain together," he says.
“如果我们一起吃了辛辣的食物，那么我们就一起忍受了痛苦，”他说，
“It's just like drinking, it brings us closer to one another.”
“这就像喝酒，吃辣让我们彼此更亲近。”
