Contents

  • Introduction
  • The Spread of Chilli and Its Adoption in China
    • The Indian Pepper
    • The Spread to China
  • Learning to Eat Hot
    • The Pain of Chilli – Why Eating Chilli Is Painful
    • The Strange Attraction
    • The Evolution of Chilli Eating
    • The First Cool Example of Hot China
  • Peppers, Places, People – and Chilli in China
    • “This Here Chilli”
    • Botany
    • Varieties
    • Landraces and Heirlooms: Chilli of a Place
    • Let’s Talk Chilli
  • Locating Spicy Chinese Cuisines
    • Eight Great Cuisines
    • The Problem with Chilli
    • Cooking North, South, East, West
    • “Ethnic” Flavors and Flavor Principles
    • Food Pairing and Flavor Networks
    • The Chilli as Flavor Principle
  • Hunan
    • Spicy History
    • Changsha (Food) Impressions
    • Youxian, Development and the Local Chilli
    • Hunan Cuisine – XiangCai
    • Types of Chilli, Once or Twice
    • Cooking a Province
  • Guizhou
    • Essential Flavors of Guizhou
    • Chilli, the Salt of Guizhou?
    • The Chilli (Varieties) of Guizhou
    • Zunyi, Xiazi Chilli City, and the Chilli Marketplace
    • The Guizhou, Zunyi International Chili Expo
    • “Generous” Dafang Discoveries
    • Kaili and Miao Traditions: Lianghuanzhai
  • Henan: Zhecheng, the City of Chaotianjiao
  • Guangxi
    • Guilin Foodways
    • The Problem of Guilin Lajiaojiang
    • Chilli in the Rice Terraces
  • Sichuan
    • The Chilli of Sichuan
    • Cuihong and the Chilli Industry
    • Pidu and Sichuan’s Pixian Doubanjiang
    • Seeing Pixian
  • Chongqing
    • City of Hot Pot
    • Dezhuang, by Spicy Degrees
    • Chongqing’s “Chilli Mama”
    • Shizhu Chilli
  • Yunnan
    • Qiubei
    • China’s Tropics
    • Into the Himalayas
    • Shangri-la
    • On the Road to Lhasa
  • Postscript