Text 2449, 90 rader
Skriven 2006-06-23 06:43:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: old influences 862
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 DS> :the light dawns:

I'm not being terribly dense here, just a little dense.
It's a culturally-mediated denseness, too, see last paragraph.

 DS> I concede that birds probably do experience some effect
 DS> (flavor? reaction? something!) from capsaicin, though I

That's sort of what I was aiming at. Some birds, you have
seen, like hot food better than others. The general wisdom
is that they like color, and that's what draws them to
peppers ... I'm not sure I buy that as the entire story,
though. There has got to be a whole string of stimuli that
contribute to bird preferences (as well as ours). Saying
that birds are impervious to capsaicin is a macro way of
looking at things and may be true on a macro level, but
the main interest of the investigation isn't on that level.

 DS> still maintain that they are not experiencing it in a way
 DS> that their nervous systems interpret as "heat." 

If you think about it, pepper heat really doesn't have the
same effect as hot heat. To me, in the mouth it may make a
facsimile of heat, but think of the heat of a sip of hot
broth vs., say, the heat of a sip of cold Tabasco - there is
a substantial difference. Not to minimize the effects of
thermally hot food that is also very spicy - a catastrophic
combination to me. As far as on the skin heat, it's more an
irritation ... and with bum heat or rubbing your eye heat,
I'm put in mind of sharp stabbing pain or that of a skin-
breaking scrape rather than hot heat.

Again I draw from the Chinese evidence. The language has at
least three words for what we call "hot." Ji (pronounced "rrr")
refers to atmospheric temperature heat, perhaps with a humidity
component as in the "heat index," I'm not sure. Tang means hot
to the touch. La refers to capsicum heat. Szechwan pepper heat
and black pepper heat are not la - I don't know what they are;
this is just stuff I remember, and there clearly must be other
words for heat (just in the same way that the various northern
peoples are said to have many words for snow).

Cucumber salad
cat: salad
servings: 4

1 md cucumber
1/4 c soy sauce
1 ts (or more to taste) Chinese chili sauce
2 ts sugar
2 Tb rice wine vinegar
2 cloves finely chopped garlic

Wash off the wax on the skin and cut it in half lengthwise
(do not peel). Scrape out the seeds from both halves and
cut each half into large bite size pieces. Put the pieces
into a deep bowl.

Heat soy, Chinese chili sauce, sugar, and rice wine vinegar
together. Off heat stir in 1-2 cloves finely chopped garlic.
While this sauce is hot, add it to the cukes. When the cukes
and sauce have cooled down, the salad is ready to serve.

after sundaysupper.com


Cabbage salad
cat: salad
servings: 4

1/2 sm head cabbage
oil
1/2 Tb dried chile flakes
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c cider vinegar
2 Tb soy sauce
salt

Cut about 1/3 or 1/2 of a small head of round cabbage into
bite-size pieces. Stir fry the pieces in peanut oil in a
wok or shallow pan until they are translucent, but not fully
cooked. Add dry chili flakes and stir fry over high heat for
a few minutes. Transfer the cabbage to a bowl and add a premixed
sauce of brown sugar, cider vinegar, soy sauce, and salt to
taste. Mix the sauce with the hot cabbage. When the cabbage is
cool, it is ready to serve.

after sundaysupper.com
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