Pre-Red Pepper Asian Cuisine?

October 5, 2009 8:13 PM

Help me find Asian food before the Columbian Exchange?

This article mentions ancient Indian curries before the Portuguese brought red peppers to the subcontinent

Much of the food is worth the wait. Take the chicken pepper roast ($9.95), a splendid heap of irregular poultry tidbits thickly coated with black mustard seeds, coconut shreds, and crushed black peppercorns. Recipes such as this are ancient: They date from before the Portuguese introduced chilies to the subcontinent, sometime in the late 16th century. Indeed, the Sanskrit term for black pepper is "kari"—a word that evolved in succeeding centuries into the colonial catch-all expression for spice combinations: "curry."

Reminded me of this absolutely delicious black pepper tempeh I once had cooked for me by an Indonesian friend. Does anyone know of any good recipes for Korean/Indonesian/Indian food before the arrival of the red pepper? What would the major flavors have been besides black pepper, coconut, and mustard? Would kimchee have tasted like German sauerkraut?

posted by melissam to Food & Drink (2 answers total)

As for Kimchi/Kimchee, the typical spicy red cabbage/cucumber/whatever version is the most popular kind, but its' just one of many different kinds you can still definitely find in Korea. A lot of pepper-less kimchi is sour-ish and kept in liquid -- think something like a clear, crisp, beety gaspacho-tasting liquid. There's also white kimchi, or behk-kimchi, which isn't spicy but is similarly salty and sour-ish. The Wikipedia article on Kimchi looks like a pretty good resource.
posted by suedehead at 11:44 PM on October 5, 2009

Yellow curry! Turmeric, nutmeg, and YUM.
posted by divabat at 1:40 AM on October 6, 2009