Soup with Pepper,Genuine Hot and Spicy
2 min readPepper was introduced from Middle East to China through the Silk Road in Tang Dynasty.As experts have verified,the forefather of spicy soup was spicy and sour soup and broth. According to the widely circulated Prescription of Peaceful Benevolent Dispensary in Song Dynasty,if dry and hot elements were added into food,they would help to dispel the effect of alcohol and beneficial to digestion.From the content of this book,it might be a trend of the society to add some spice in food.Judging from this point of view,spicy soup was developed on the foundation of these two foods.
Another legend was that Yan Song,a cabinet member in the year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty,strived to please the Emperor by searching for a formula to prolong the Emperor’s life.But the medicine must be taken with soup.The soup was extremely delicious and pleased the Emperor greatly and it was titled”imperial soup”.When Ming Dynasty was out of existence,the royal chef Zhao Ji ran to Xiaoyao(Today’s Xiaoyao town in Huaxi County)with the secret formula to make the soup.So natives in Xiaoyao changed its name to Spicy Soup due to its pungent spiciness.
Another tale was related to Hu.There appeared a celebrated,honest and upright official Yu Qian who had caught cold for years.He resided in Kaifeng during the time when he was appointed the Grand Coordinator of Henan and Shanxl.l happened to be his birthday when he was inspecting Zhengzhou(capital of Herian Province).For the convention of frugality,he found a food stall named Huji to niav a bowl of spicy soup in celebration of his birthdav.It was this bowl of spicy soup tire impressed Yu Qian deeply.He deemed it as a special birthday present.
One day,Yu Qian passed by Zhengzhou back from the tour of inspection in Shanxi.Busy and wearied,he caught another cold and didn’t recover for several days. The soup of Huji occurred in his mind one night and he sent a servant to buy a bowl of it.The owner of Huji made the soup with heart and put sufficient spice into it when he was instructed that the Grand Coordinator would have it.Yu Qian sweated a lot and felt comfortable and energetic the next day,dispelling the cold.Feeling grateful,Yu Qian rewarded the owner ten liang(a unit of weight in ancient China) silver.Yu Qian suggested naming the soup with.the owner’s surname Hu,hence this soup being called Hu Spicy Soup since then.
