Almost all of the traditionally spicy (as in capsaicin spicy) cuisines of the world come from hot weather locations. Korea is the only real exception I can think of where spice is an integral part of the cuisine yet it’s a cold weather climate. Are there any other exceptions?
The Sichuan region of China is not known for its hot weather (at least not year round).
Buffalo wings
Define “cold weather climate”.
The sub-continent has spicy foods but, it has some very heavily glaciated (and populated) areas. Even in the plains, winter temperatures routinely fall to or even below freezing.
Most of the inhabited parts of the ME also see cold winters.
Sichuan is well known for being baking hot in the summer. Anyone that has spent the summer in the Sichuan plain will attest to this. I mean 90F average high temperature isn’t *that *hot, but it doesn’t count as a cold winter climate in my book if a region is uncomfortably hot for 3-4 months per year.
Here’s one travel site description of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province: Summers in Chengdu are hot and humid. The average daily high in June is 28°C, rising to 32°C (90 F) in July and August. Since this is an average, you can expect plenty of days when it’s much hotter than this. With high humidity levels, it will feel hotter in any case, and sticky.
Chongqing is popularly known as one of the Three Furnaces of China, for what it’s worth.
Well Britain is not known for its nice weather, and many “Indian” dishes were invented there, or at least in the current form, some of which can be spicy like tikka masala. They blanded down chutney, though.
It’s not cold, but good parts of Ethiopia are just warm, especially compared to neighboring countries. Addis Ababa has an average high of 68-77F. It rarely hits 90F. The food is often hot.
Parts of the Middle East get cold, sure. I’m not sure if it’s known as a “spicy” cuisine though (certainly spiced, but your taste buds remain).
I think a confounding factor is that really cold places might not have an abundance of plant life with capsaicin?
Does chili grow in cold climates to allow spicy food to develop?
During the summer, sure. Any place you can grow green peppers you can grow chili peppers.
But that’s irrelevant. Most cuisines use imported spices that are not grown locally. European cooking often uses black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc that come from the tropics.
Hungarian cuisine is often spicy, especially favoring hot paprika.
Italian cuisine can be spicy, including hot sausages and Fra Diavolo sauces.
Cajun cooking is often spicy, but maybe winters are cold enough in Louisiana to qualify.
How about Tibetan cuisine? It’s very spicy. Is Tibet considered a cold weather region?
Korea’s a cold weather climate? Huh. TIL.
Tibet definitely counts as a cold weather region. I had no idea Tibetian cuisine was spicy though!
Shalmanese writes:
> . . . traditionally spicy (as in capsaicin spicy) . . .
You do realize, don’t you, that before 1492 nowhere in the world knew about capsaicin spicy except for the Americas, since their introduction in the rest of the world happened only after Columbus and his crew brought them back to Spain?:
Traditional cuisine, in practice, means “what Grandma made”. What people were eating half a millennium ago is irrelevant.
Not capsicum peppers, but I was watching the recent NOVA special about Viking settlements and one of the people on the show was trying out some of the traditional Norse foods the Vikings would have carried with them on their voyages. That included cod fish smoked with reindeer droppings. The guy mentioned something about the droppings giving the fish some kind of a kick.
Vinegar is another source of spiciness. I believe Kimchi produces lactic acid not acetic, but it’s the same principle, so the Korean spiciness isn’t all from peppers, and vinegar was also used in Northern Europe, though I don’t know for how long, but they were making wine for a long time and must have ended up with plenty of vinegar also, using it for preservation and for seasoning.
The winters are brutal, but only last three months. The sweltering summers last about six.
Tikka masala has heat to it, but it’s fairly mild, in my experience. That said, AFAIK, tindaloo (a spicier version of the already spicy vindaloo) also originated in the UK and is blazingly hot. Phal is similarly extra spicy, and also seems to have originated in the UK, although I see conflicting reports on this.
It snows in Punjabi sometimes and they make pretty spicy food, does that not count? And I’m not even looking at Jammu-Kashmir and the like.
I hate that. I perfer when they snow in Pashto and Tamil.
Actually, Kashmir and the erstwhile NWFP both have significantly less spicy cuisine. They prefer loads of meats which clog your arteries rather than abolish your taste buds.
Right. Before 1492 spiciness in Old World cuisines would have had to come from black pepper (Piper), mustard, horse radish, and ginger.