Chili peppers (Capsicum) are a group of flowering plants from the family Solanaceae native to the Americas, specifically to the areas of what is today Peru, Bolivia, and Central Mexico. Once used to spice up traditional indigenous foods, in the 500 years since the conquest, the humble berry has spread around the world, evolving numerous varieties, introducing new flavors to old cuisines, and testing heat tolerances from Hungary to India.   Origin Story: The First Chili Peppers Photograph of dried chili peppers found in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, dating back to 600–1521 BCE. Source: Precolumbian use of chili peppers in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Linda Perry and Kent V. Flannery, July 17, 2007   Archeological findings have shown chili seeds associated with cooking, war, and ritual utensils and suggest that the berry had been domesticated as a spice by pre-Columbian civilizations and communities 7,500 years ago, in line with the beginning of agriculture. It was most likely domesticated because of its ability to preserve foods for extended periods. Its seeds were spread by different species of birds to the north and south of the Americas, allowing for the evolution of different varieties.   The scientific name capsicum comes from the Greek word kapsimo, which means “to burn.” The original name chili comes from the Nahuatl chīlli, while pepper (pimiento) is believed to have been used by the first conquistadors, as they found the berry’s characteristic spiciness similar to the already-known black pepper.   Illustration of capsicum annum. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Today, various domesticated varieties of chili peppers dominate a big part of the world’s cuisine. The species cultivated include capsicum annuum (jalapeños, cayenne, bell peppers), capsicum frutescens (tabasco, malagueta, piri piri), capsicum chinense (naga and habanero), capsicum pubescens (rocoto peppers) and capsicum baccatum (aji peppers). This berry has become one of the most widely cultivated plants around the globe, serving as an essential spice for the gastronomy and culture of different countries as it adds a unique taste and a feeling of heat to food in Chinese, Mexican, Thai, and Indian cuisine.   Consuming chili peppers has been found to have some health benefits, such as boosting the immune system, reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes, preventing allergies, and reducing cancer risk. Chilis are also rich in vitamins A, C, and E and contain capsanthin, a potent, cancer-fighting antioxidant that gives them their distinctive red color.   Feel the Burn: What Makes Peppers Spicy? Photograph of chili collectors near the Mekong River in Cambodia. Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation   Capsaicin and other related chemicals are what create peppers’ pungency, which is the characteristic taste and feeling of spiciness, hotness, or heat caused in the body when ingested or applied topically. Both the pepper species and the growing environment affect their pungency; those grown in environments with low water availability are the spiciest, for example, the habanero. The spiciness of chili peppers is measured with the Scoville Heat Scale, which puts in the lowest levels variants such as the bell pepper, the sweet pepper, and the paprika, and in the highest, variants such as the Red Savina habanero, the chocolate habanero, and the Dragon’s Breath chili pepper, the hottest pepper in the world.   The sensation of spiciness is generated when capsaicin meets the body’s pain receptors. When these sensory neurons are stimulated, they send signals to the brain through the spinal cord. The brain sends back signals that create the feeling of pain, making the body direct attention to the “affected” area. Some chili peppers can generate so much pain that they have been used as a type of non-lethal weapon in India, where it has been used against people in Kashmir.   When consumed regularly, resistance and tolerance to capsaicin increases, which explains how different people have different tolerance levels to spicy foods. Interestingly, one of the effects of chili peppers’ pungency is that the brain releases endorphins and dopamine to help the body fight against the “threat,” which also causes a feeling of pleasure. The body believes it is in danger, but the mind knows it is not, creating an exciting contrast between pain and pleasure.   Photograph of different varieties of Tabasco sauce. Source: Food and Wine   Contrary to many other mammals, humans do not “flee” the pain caused by chili peppers. Although most mammals identify ingesting them as a threat, humans, in contrast, have actually been a primary method through which the plant fulfills its evolutionary drive to spread into new environments. Before humans, birds fulfilled this role; they do not experience the same chemical reaction that capsaicin causes in the human body because they do not have the same pain receptors.   In many countries, high tolerance to spiciness is associated with masculinity. In Hungary, for example, peppers are a symbol of virility, and the Kalocsa variety is known as “cat penis.” In Mexico, men tend to eat hotter foods than women, aiming to sweat while consuming them. For some cultures, consuming “hot” food is related to preserving the vital heat one acquires as one grows older, as it “gives strength” or fosters sexual activity.   The Columbian Exchange: How Chili Peppers Took Over Possible routes of chili spread around the Globe. Source: Nautilus Magazine   Chili peppers were first domesticated as a spice in what is now Mexico and were mainly diversified in Peru through agriculture and artificial selection. The plant was registered for the first time in Western historical records at the end of the 15th century. Shortly after the arrival of Spanish invaders to the Americas, the Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún had already noted various chilmolli (a Nahuatl word for chili pepper sauces) in the central Mexican highlands.   With the commercialization of goods as well as the routes of the slave trade, Europeans brought chili peppers to the Old World in what is known today as “The Columbian Exchange.” Two empires dominated these routes: the Spanish, ruled by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Spain to Italy and the Middle East), and the Ottoman Empire (to the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean, the Balkans, and up to Hungary).   After its introduction, a variety of the species capsicum annuum most commonly known as the bell pepper started to be successfully cultivated in regions of southern Europe. Although the plant was first used as an ornament in aristocratic houses, farmers began to rapidly cultivate it in the 16th century as a spice. In Europe, chili peppers were considered the “poor people’s peppers,” as they were more affordable than Asian black peppers, which likely resulted in the artificially developed variety of bell peppers in Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria. In Hungary, the production of chili peppers became industrialized in the 19th century, gaining culinary and cultural importance through the production of paprika, which (believe it or not) is made from grinding dry red bell peppers. Today, paprika is used all over Europe to spice up hams, sausages, and many other dishes.   A vendor displays chili peppers at a local market in India. Source: Smithsonian Magazine   Different cultures discovered or ascribed different gastronomic or therapeutic uses to the plant, which ultimately reached regions including Ethiopia, South India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, the Pacific Islands, China, and Japan. Today, chili production is concentrated in China, Indonesia, Mexico, and India, where the Portuguese introduced it in the 17th century. The integration of chili peppers in Indian cuisine is an example of how some foreign cultural elements brought to new places by the historical trade of goods, often linked to colonization and imperialism, become important local cultural elements.   The uses and culinary techniques related to chili peppers vary in different geographical locations and are dependent on many factors, including the maturity of the berry or culturally codified color schemes. Among the Aztecs, for example, red and green were considered naturally complementary colors; the green chili was associated with the Rain God as the green color symbolizes water, while the red chili represents the feeling of hotness. In Europe, red chili peppers are often associated with emotions and historically viewed as stimulants or aphrodisiacs. For instance, Hungarians refer to being angry or agitated as praprikás: “to be like pepper.” Rather than blushing “like a tomato,” they “blush like a paprika.”   Spicing Things Up: The Culinary Popularity of Chili Peppers Photo of Hungarian paprika. 2013. Source: CNN   Cultural gastronomies demonstrate how spicy food can become a great marker of identity. In Italy, for example, Calabrians have come to use peppers as a significant element of their identity, while in Hungary, the distinctive use of paprika in goulash marked an identitarian differentiation from Austrians in the 18th century.   In Mexico, beans and stews are cooked with small chili peppers as the base. Spiciness has dominated Mexican cuisine to the point that it’s even added to sweets and desserts. Hot sauces are common in all of Latin America, varying in taste, color or pungency depending on the kinds of chili peppers used. Large green chili peppers can be consumed as vegetables in Mexico, similar to bell peppers in Spain.   The chili pepper’s popularity has made Hatch, a village in New Mexico in the United States, known as the chili capital of the world—the town hosts the Hatch Chile Festival every year. In Budapest, there’s a whole museum dedicated to the chili, and after a great flood that destroyed the southern city of Szeged, it became a symbol of revival. Other museums dedicated to chili peppers can be found in Diamante in Calabria and Espelette in the Basque Country, showcasing how chili peppers have become a tourist attraction as well as a marker of cultural heritage.   Chili Culture Under Threat? Photo of dried chili peppers in the Calabria region of Italy by Toni Anzanberger, 2022. Source: National Geographic.   Today, Mexico is experiencing adverse cultural and economic effects caused by gentrification and the touristification of its cities, and the chili is not immune. This gentrification has been driven by the arrival and takeover of foreigners, specifically digital nomads, who often prefer non-spicy food, leading some traditional dishes to lose the characteristic spiciness that has been present throughout the country’s entire cultural history. This is affecting the evolution of food traditions in the country and prompting different urban local communities to raise their voices against the adverse economic and cultural effects gentrification is having in Mexico’s main cities.   It’s clear that spiciness in food is an essential gastronomic tradition as well as a cultural identifier—is it time to protect and treat it as a cultural heritage amid globalization and the increase in migration around the globe?   Bibliography:   Katz, E. (2009). Chili Pepper, from Mexico to Europe: Food, imaginary and cultural identity. Estudios del Hombre, Serie Antropología de la Alimentación. Food, Imaginaries and Cultural Frontiers. Essays in Honour of Helen Macbeth. Guadalajara, Mexico: Universidad de Guadalajara, 213-232.   Long-Solis, J. (1992). Les apports mexicains dans le monde méditerranéen. Diogène 159. 41-54.   ____________ (1990). Creencias acerca del Capsicum. In Barbro Dahlgren (ed.) II Coloquio de historia de la religión en Mesoamérica y áreas afines. México: iia/unam. 271-278.   Normah MN, Chin HF, Reed BM (2013). Conservation of tropical plant species. New York: Springer. p. 397. ISBN 9781461437758. Retrieved 28 November 2018.   Nunn, N., & Qian, N. (2010). The Columbian exchange: A history of disease, food, and ideas. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(2), 163-188.   Pandit, M. K., Pandit, R., & Bairagi, S. (2020). Chili. In Ethnopharmacological Investigation of Indian Spices (pp. 253-268). IGI Global.

A newly leaked Pfizer report reveals that the hearts of vaccinated people are “rapidly decaying,” leading to various serious heart conditions. According to a leaked MHRA report obtained by journalist Nick Hunt, vaccinated people are [...] The post Leaked Pfizer Report Reveals Hearts of Vaccinated People Are ‘Rapidly Decaying’ appeared first on The People's Voice.

Biden’s DOJ has warned January 6 prisoners that if they accept a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump they will be rearrested. In a new court filling the Biden regime argues that prisoners who accept a [...] The post Biden’s DOJ Threatens to Rearrest JG Prisoners Pardoned by Trump appeared first on The People's Voice.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are reportedly in talks with President Biden about obtaining a preemptive pardon for their various crimes, including crimes against children. Bill Clinton joined “The View” on Wednesday, where he admitted that [...] The post Clintons in Talks With Biden About Preemptive Pardon for Child Trafficking Crimes appeared first on The People's Voice.

Wouldn’t this be one of the proverbial “Learning by doing” moments? pic.twitter.com/xVNPPtIn1B — Jon Funder de Linde (@FunderJon) December 10, 2024

Absinthe: From Green Fairy to Moral Panic JamesHoare Thu, 12/12/2024 - 09:28

President-elect Donald Trump will inherit a far more unstable world than the one he left President Joe Biden just four years ago. The war between Russia and Ukraine continues to grind on, escalating at the behest of the Biden administration. The situation in the Middle East, with the fall of the Assad government in Syria, only becomes more precarious by the day.  While the experts in Washington will never say we’re already in the midst of World War III, these conflicts span two continents and are deeply intertwined. But if World War III does come, these years will be remembered as its opening phase. This week on “The Signal Sitdown,” I discuss these conflicts and more with Kelley Vlahos, editorial director at Responsible Statecraft. “Once you make your adversary the devil, it’s hard to say, ‘Well, let’s sit down and talk with the devil,’” Vlahos said of the continuation of the Ukraine war, despite signs that it’s only a matter of time before the Ukrainians will have to negotiate a peace with Russia. “That’s something that Biden and NATO did to themselves by making this an existential crisis, with the future of democracy of the whole, entire world at stake.” But “it’s not just Biden” and his administration, Vlahos told me. “All of these European capitals are hell-bent on continuing this war, and under the rubric of NATO.” Vlahos bemoaned that “European establishments would love to see the Ukraine war fought to the last Ukrainian.” Though American conservatives are prone to attack the Establishment in Washington, “anybody that you talk to will tell you that the establishments over there are worse than they are here,” Vlahos said. “They’re monochrome. They don’t allow for dissent. You know, everything is an ivory tower. They’re moving people around like chess pieces in Ukraine.” “We have a blob here in Washington; you have a blob there in Brussels,” Vlahos told me. The blob, Vlahos said, is “a self-licking ice cream cone.” And whether it’s increased involvement in Ukraine or Syria, there is “this strange Borg logic in Washington, that any time that we talk about retrenching or taking back or cutting a budget, that means a loss of power.” “That’s a bad thing,” he said of the blob’s justification to get involved in foreign conflicts. Nevertheless, “everybody just goes rushing to battle stations to keep the troops there, and they’ll use any excuse to keep them there.” “And so what have we done to our own national security?” Vlahos asked rhetorically. “We can’t make missiles as fast as we’re giving them away. There’s plenty of money that we’re giving to defense contractors, and they got all the contracts, but a lot of these things won’t be ready for another five, 10 years to replenish what we’ve given away.” “At a pure national interest angle,” Vlahos continued, “we need to stop these wars, because we’re making ourselves vulnerable in the effort to try to change the world and fix things overseas, that for many Americans, they don’t know what the connection is.” “As much as Trump has a lot of authority right now, and has basically put on notice where we stand—and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does recognize that—I think there is a serious fight ahead, because NATO is not going to give up,” he said. “They’re not about to sort of retrench because Donald Trump says they got to end the war.” Nevertheless, Vlahos has hope that it all “might come crashing down” on the blob at some point. “The people are going to be the ones that rise up and say, ‘Enough is enough. We can’t do anymore. We have to start looking back inward.’” The post How Close Are We to World War III? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The rice beer was produced using a technique that is still used in Taiwan.

Physicists keep theorizing things that seem too weird to exist, but then the universe delivers.