Starbucks 'Trenta': How The New Size Compares To Your Stomach
Famous Death Row Last Meals
Natural insitinct when the mercury creeps into triple digits is to reach for something cold and refreshing to eat or drink – iced tea, frozen smoothies, crisp salads, and even cool, raw sushi. But what can really help a body physiologically cool down is heating it up by eating "hot" foods, either temperature "hot" or spicy "hot." That's a pretty good explanation for why chili peppers are so prominent in cuisines near the equator.
It isn’t quite a hundred degrees in LA, but it’s still the hottest time of the year, so frequent visits to Indian restaurants help beat the heat, with heat. Though Pioneer Blvd, in Artesia is well-known as "Little India, " LA’s westside is starting to sprout a number of new Indian restaurants to add to an already decent list that includes everything from all-vegetarian buffets like Annapurna and Chandni to homestyle southern Indian like Ambala Dhaba to upscale contemporary Indian cuisine at Bombay Cafe. Our latest favorite...New
Jane Seymour's Modest And Modern Style
Broke Stars: 11 Celebrities Who Went Bankrupt
LOOK: Amazing Underwater Photos Of Dogs
Adele Five-Year Break? Singer Plans to Focus on Relationship, Write 'Happy Record'
Social Security Is Failing Even Faster Than We Thought
PHOTOS: How You Can Get The 'Miracle' Dress
Man Says Starbucks Discriminated Against Him Because He Has Half An Arm
Chris Brown, Grammys 2012: Embattled Singer Slams Critics
Janice Dickinson's Outrageous Style
Ford's clever Sports Illustrated Swimsuit ad features phantom model
Trace Adkins Reunites With College Crush, 30 Years Later
Photos Of Dead Lacrosse Player's Injured Body Shown To Jury
3 Economic Misconceptions That Need to Die
Van Gogh's Starry Night modded into beautiful interactive light and sound show (video)
PHOTOS: Model Falls At Dennis Basso Show
'Hooker Teacher' Forced To Resign, Now Can't Find Work
Lauren Scruggs Goes On Ski Vacation
WATCH AND LAUGH: Cops In 2-Hour Standoff With Empty Car
Woman's Dead Fiance Is Behind Her Disappearance: Cops
Stephen Wiltshire Draws Cities From Memory
We Meant There WERE Nukes In The Fire
8-23-2005 @8:10AM CarbonNYC said... A better explanation for the preference for spicy foods in equatorial regions is the historical AVAILABILITY of native spicy foods in the tropics. Chilis and most other spicy foods don't grow at higher latitudes.
This regional bias could be a consequence of a number of factors, from the high energetical requirements for plants to produce the compounds or perhaps a greater ecological need for the compounds in the more diverse tropical systems.
Reply
8-23-2005 @3:26PM eems said... but available ingredients don't drop in to people's pots & pans...
i think the point is that despite the climate, people use a lot of chilis (fight heat with heat -> sweat + cooler ?)
How it's available in the environment & how it's selected to go in people's foods so often is different (availability vs. preference). and if it's prefered & used to such an extent in a culture's cuisine (in other words, prominently for a long time), isn't it a given that it must be available?
anyway, interesting info. but it's not a better explanantion of ANYTHING.
I've never tried New India Grill, so that'll be my next Indian restaurant.
Reply
8-30-2005 @11:38AM David Goehring said... You misunderstand my point. I'm not suggesting that availability guarantees usage (though authors like Jared Diamond do make this sort of point -- that everything domesticatible becomes domesticated), but rather that UNavailability absolutely precludes usage. Therefore you CANNOT find historical usage of most spicy foods outside the tropics. Thus, the selection argument I'm posing can completely account for the observed difference in (historical) cuisine, without resorting to any ad hoc "cooling" hypothesis...
Reply