{"id":2121613,"date":"2026-10-09T11:10:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/?p=2121613"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:10:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:10:05","slug":"what-was-sichuan-food-before-the-chili-pepper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/2026\/10\/09\/what-was-sichuan-food-before-the-chili-pepper\/","title":{"rendered":"What was Sichuan Food before the chili pepper?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Date: <b>2026-10-08 23:40:15<\/b><\/p>\n\n<div id=\"wrap_aoaa74e7\" class=\"aoa_wrap \">\n  <iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"750\" height=\"440\"\r\n  \t\t\t\t\tstyle=\"width:750px;height:440px;\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tsuSylVVx2w?enablejsapi=1\"\r\n  \t\t\t\t\tframeborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n    <div id=\"aoaa74e7\" class=\"aoa_overlay \">\n        <div class=\"aoa_content\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\"><img style=\"margin:0 auto;max-height:400px;\" data-src=\"\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n        <span id=\"close_aoaa74e7\" class=\"aoa_close\"><\/span>\n        <a id=\"close_btn_aoaa74e7\" class=\"aoa_close_btn\" onclick=\"setVisibility('aoaa74e7', 'none');\">&times;<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>The chili pepper came to China in ~1591. Sichuan has been part of China since 300 BCE. What happened in the middle?<\/p>\n<p>0:00 &#8211; sichuan food is newer than you think<br \/>\n1:55 &#8211; the ming qing rupture<br \/>\n12:17 &#8211; the creation of the new sichuanese<br \/>\n13:17 &#8211; the food of the old sichuanese<br \/>\n14:56 &#8211; spicy food in china before the chili<br \/>\n17:20 &#8211; ming cooking was different<br \/>\n22:19 &#8211; spicy fried chicken<br \/>\n24:50 &#8211; mustard pork salad<br \/>\n31:32 &#8211; taste test<\/p>\n<p>FULL RECIPES<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and WAY more detail is over on Substack! Free as always, if it had to be said:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/chinesecookingdemystified.substack.com\/p\/what-was-sichuan-food-before-the<\/p>\n<p>IF YOU&#8217;RE A DWEEB LIKE ME<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and want to learn more about Zhang Xianzhong and the Ming-Qing transition, definitely check out &#8220;On the Trail of the Yellow Tiger&#8221; here:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"On the Trail of the Yellow Tiger: War, Trauma, and Social Dislocation in Southwest China during the Ming-Qing Transition (Studies in War, Society, and the Military)\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"1000\" height=\"550\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"clipboard-write\" style=\"max-width:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/read.amazon.com\/kp\/card?asin=B077FHWFQS\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>(not an affiliate link, just a good ol fashioned recommendation)<br \/>\n______<br \/>\nAnd check out our Patreon if you&#8217;d like to support the project!<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ChineseCookingDemystified<\/p>\n<p>Outro Music: \u0e04\u0e34\u0e14\u0e16\u0e36\u0e07\u0e04\u0e38\u0e13\u0e08\u0e31\u0e07 by \u0e18\u0e32\u0e19\u0e34\u0e19\u0e17\u0e23\u0e4c \u0e2d\u0e34\u0e19\u0e17\u0e23\u0e40\u0e17\u0e1e<br \/>\nFound via My Analog Journal (great channel):   https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GHaL5H-VYRg&amp;t=896s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: 2026-10-08 23:40:15 The chili pepper came to China in ~1591. Sichuan has been part of China since 300 BCE. What happened in the middle? 0:00 &#8211; sichuan food is newer than you think 1:55 &#8211; the ming qing rupture 12:17 &#8211; the creation of the new sichuanese 13:17 &#8211; the food of the old [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2121614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2121613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chinese-cooking","traffikrr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2121613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2121615,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121613\/revisions\/2121615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2121614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2121613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2121613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenhousetucson.com\/chinese-food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2121613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}