[Sca-cooks] Hot Peppers

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> Question: If capsicum peppers are New World, what were people in
> southern Asia using to make their food hot?
>
> Thanks,
> Irmele

Ummm, fire?

;-)

First, you need to decide if in fact southern asians were in fact making hot
and spicy foods in your period of interest ;-) and secondly, there are quite
a few spices and herbs which add hotness to foods, beyond capsicum peppers.
Try, galingale, wasabi, horseradish, other radishes, long pepper, various
peppercorns, ginger, all sorts of stuff.

Your question reminds me of the people who ask here on the List, having
discovered that potatoes are New World, "What did they eat instead of
potatoes?" That assumes that potatoes are an important part of any human's
diet, when in reality, the question should be, "What were people
eating?".Granted, today, you'd wonder what someone was eating instead of a
common modern food, but not having ever had that common modern food, people
were eating what they did have, and there's lots of tasty edibles out there
that aren't necessarily included in the modern American diet.

Phlip, wondering what kids ate instead of hot dogs, cheese whiz, soda pop,
potato chips, and McDonalds.....

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....