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I saw a QQ signature on the Internet: "Only pepper can relieve homesickness in my stomach." Feeling is a beautiful poem, and its romantic atmosphere is no less than Yu Guangzhong's homesickness. A wanderer who is far away in a foreign land seldom comes home for several years, and his heart is naturally full of homesickness. The mountains, water, clouds, rain and curling kitchen smoke in my hometown have all entered my heart and lingered in my mind for a long time.

Pepper is an indelible homesickness. I remember going to Shenzhen ten years ago and staying for a few days. Eating a dish of Guangdong meat with sugar makes me sick and uncomfortable, and I can't swallow it. After only a few days, I was pale and dizzy, like a fish out of water, suffocating. There is a saying in my hometown: "Guizhou people are not afraid of spicy food, Sichuan people are not afraid of spicy food, and Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food." I dare to eat hot peppers. Pepper is the flame of life. Without pepper, it is like a red rose, losing its bright color and being lively and agile.

Pepper is an exotic product, called sweet pepper. Mexico from South America began to spread to Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai in the late Ming Dynasty. Nobody likes it. Later it spread to Hunan, but it was madly loved by the villagers here. According to legend, there was a particularly serious plague in Jingchu, and ten families were empty, but chewing pepper actually escaped the plague and miraculously survived. For hundreds of years, pepper has become a civilization, deeply rooted in the blood of villagers, flowing into a domineering. Pepper created Mao Zedong's unique great temperament-courage, atmosphere, enthusiasm, heroism, firmness, stubbornness and impulsiveness. It has also created the unique temperament and extraordinary charm of Hunan girls who are brave and warm, dare to love and hate, indomitable, gentle and firm. Bullying is a symbol of Hunan people, and this character is not very popular in Guangdong. Many big factories have a small sign at the door: Hunan people don't want it. For example, "Chinese and dogs are not allowed in" makes Hunan people feel humiliated and has a flame in their hearts.

There are not many poems about peppers, but the best one is: "The green shoots are blooming at first, the flowers are turning over gradually, and the stamens are inclined." The other is "Ode to Pepper": "Green branches and leaves are long. Spicy and sweet for everyone to taste. Although the red makeup is bright and straightforward, it is slim and beautiful. " At first glance, it is made by modern people, not old. The earliest record of pepper is a poem in the Book of Songs: "Pepper is a true story, rich and glorious." His son, huge. Pepper chats, far away. "Wang Wei's Wangchuan Collection in the Tang Dynasty? Jiaoyuan said, "Your honour welcomes Di Zi, and Du Ruo presents beauty. Pepper paste is a Yao mat, and it wants to go to the clouds. "But this pepper is not other peppers, but also belongs to spicy things. Spicy, I like it, just dim it a little, and give Chili a little poetic beauty.

The hottest pepper in the world is "Indian devil pepper", which exceeds 654.38+0 million Scoville spicy units. In 2007, it was declared the Guinness Book of World Records. "Devil Pepper" grows in the mountains of northeast India and is a veritable king of peppers. The Indian military intends to use it to make a new type of Grenade to achieve the effect of tearing and restricting the enemy's actions. Local villagers also use it as a dish to strengthen the stomach and treat stomach diseases. Ordinary people will faint or even die if they take a sip of spicy food. It can really be said: there are days outside, there are people outside, and the strong are always strong. A few years ago, I also met such hot peppers. It was in the first month, when I was having dinner, I heard a scream. A relative jumped up from his seat, dancing and crazy, with hot air in his mouth, like a fire baby spitting fire. A table is full of experts who eat Chili peppers and want to challenge them. The three men cleaned up the pepper king, all sweating with heat, smoking in their noses and lungs, and their hair stood on end.

When I was a child, my mother loved to steam peppers in rice, pick them out one by one, mash them in a bowl, add some oil and salt, and call them "loach peppers". Once, my mother suddenly fell to the ground and rolled over because she ate spicy peppers, which frightened the whole family. Spicy, really deadly, but not eating is even more deadly. Once, I bought a pound of pickled wild peppers in bags, and ate less than half of them on the train. Suddenly, I felt a fire in my stomach, which hurt for a long time, but peppers were all used to treat stomach diseases. No matter how painful they are, they won't get in the way. My stomach will be strong.

Pepper can drive away the cold. One pepper will keep you warm, and several peppers will make you sweat. When Mao Zedong climbed the snow-capped mountains, it played an unexpected role for every Red Army soldier to bring three peppers for a cotton-padded jacket. Pepper can stimulate appetite, promote appetite, and treat colds. If you have a cold, get dozens of dried peppers, boil a thick Chili soup with water for one night, pour it down at one breath, sweat in the quilt for one night, and get better the next day.

This time I moved to a new place and opened the refrigerator. I found more than a dozen cans of Chili sauce in it, with different origins, varieties and textures. What a "hot idiot"! A month later, the couple were still obsessed with it and made a special trip for dozens of miles to ask for these bottles and cans. It is lovely and respectable that some people in the world love Chili so much. My aunt who lives in Changsha is also the "pepper king" like me. Millet and pepper are eaten as rice. Every time I go out, I carry wild peppers in my bag, but it looks thin and tender. It turns out that peppers are still beautiful. My elder sister lives in Shenzhen. Every Spring Festival, she takes away dozens of pounds of dried peppers. The dried Chili she eats in a year is heavier than her body. No spicy food, no spicy food. Hunan people love to eat Chili, and they are all moved.

The earliest memory of pepper is in childhood, when I was five or six years old, I was a particularly good playmate (commonly known as the Seven Brothers). Once a big frog was caught, two people picked some green peppers and cooked them, which seemed to be the most beautiful meal in the world. So far, delicious food is still flowing on the tip of the tongue. I am an excellent swimmer and learned to swim at the age of three. When I was a child and a teenager, as long as it was summer, I would soak in ponds and reservoirs every day to touch snails and mussels, touch a big washbasin every day and catch some small fish, shrimps and loaches. In the evening, my parents will cook peppers for them, and the whole family will eat and drink. Those delicious and hot, from the tip of the tongue to the stomach, spread to every pore, melt into the blood, full of vitality, feel warm all my life.

My favorite vegetable is pepper. Growing peppers every year is a top priority at home, and parents will attach importance to it like planting millet-nothing is more important than growing rice. Sometimes parents raise seedlings by themselves, and more often they buy pepper seedlings cultivated by others. The seedlings must be tightly covered with film. Rats can't make holes, and pepper seedlings will freeze to death. This is very cautious. It seems that after the Lantern Festival, seedlings were transplanted in February and March of the lunar calendar. I don't remember the details. Pepper seedlings are easy to transplant and can be planted on ridges, hillsides and dry fields. After growing up, for more than ten years in a row, I went to the agricultural school to buy high-quality pepper seedlings cultivated in Yuan Longping, and went home to plant them with my parents. I don't care about other dishes, only peppers, and I personally participate almost every year. Of course, fertilizing and watering are all parents' business. I often check and observe carefully, and see that the pepper seedlings grow up day by day, and the small "bean sprouts" grow stronger and stronger day by day, producing white flowers. Those soft flowers in Jiao Jiao are the loveliest, and that feeling is the warmest. It wasn't until around the Dragon Boat Festival that my parents suddenly said that peppers were ready to eat. I was surprised to find jade-like peppers, which were as happy as rare treasures in my hand. I grow my own peppers, just like my own children. That feeling is just different.

In midsummer, the sun shines, and there will be a spectacular scene of half red and half green in the pepper field. The irregular prismatic pepper leaves are green, as if the green velvet is inlaid with countless rubies and emeralds. String, line, hanging, full, swinging like a child. Such a scene is beating before my eyes, and the joy in my heart is beyond words. Pepper is the hottest in autumn. After first frost, peppers are as thin as little fingers. Eating one can be so spicy that it hurts. Pepper in summer has the best quality, big size and low moisture. Pickled peppers and chopped peppers are cooked at this time. There is no seasonality of peppers on the market now. There are all kinds of peppers, such as lantern pepper, long pepper, line pepper and rice pepper, which are available for 365 days, but I feel that I lack my own flavor.

I planted peppers once by myself, which was more than ten years ago at Hutang School. There are stones on the hillside behind the campus. I happened to pass by and found a small square piece of soil on the stone, which was long and narrow and I liked it very much. So I bought a hoe, hoeed weeds, picked up stones, planted dozens of pepper seedlings, carefully managed them, watered them and fertilized them. For the first time in my life, I took urine from the toilet to water it. A young scholar doesn't know what shyness is, and his enthusiasm is absolutely remarkable. Summer is coming, and peppers are blooming and bearing fruit. In fact, it is morning pepper, there are flowers in the sky, clusters; The fruits that bear the sky are also clusters. Each one is only the size of a cigarette butt, so disappointed that I want to cry. If you don't eat it twice, it's all gone Pepper is like this, so are people. It is the same. If you don't get much, you'd better keep your feet on the ground. So I lost my enthusiasm and let others plant it the next year. The result was not harvested, but it was dug away by the excavator and became a flat ground. Seemingly simple things are often not so easy to do, so old people always say that "it is easier to see things than to do them."

There are many ways to eat Chili. There are dried Chili, chopped Chili, sour Chili, Chili ash, Chili sauce and Chili oil. Can be boiled, fried, steamed, and the meat can be cut open to make Chili balls. Dog meat and mutton hot pot should use dried Chili; Stir-fried beef should use sour rice pepper; Braised fish should have a little green pepper with red pepper; Steamed fish head is chopped pepper, half green and half red, which is delicious. When drinking snails in Yongzhou, it was even cooked with Chili. Shell the screw, cut the tail, wash it, stir fry, and add ingredients such as star anise, cinnamon, ginger, garlic and pepper. Cook it with strong fire, spoon it in a small bowl, put it on the table, a bottle of beer and a plate of peanuts, and suck it with your mouth, spicy and hot, until you are sweating, your blood is boiling, your scalp is smoking and you feel comfortable. One word: cool! Two words: how cool! Three words: cool!

Pepper in my hometown is a flame from the earth, the most beautiful poem in my hometown, and an indelible homesickness in my blood, bones and stomach.