A pictorial guide to Chinese cooking ingredients

[liuzhou]

I’ve often mumped and moaned about the lack of culinary spices in China. They have thousands of herbs and spices in TCM to simultaneously purge your tubes while curing your cancer and syphilis and making you more intelligent, but for your dinner, forget it.

 

So, I was pleasantly surprised today to find this.

 

多香果 (duō xiāng guǒ), Pimenta dioica, allspice. Of course, as I’m sure everyone knows, this is native to the Caribbean (especially Jamaica) and Mexico, but it has been introduced around the world, including Yunnan province, here. The Chinese name literally means 'many spices'.

 

Also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, this was named allspice in English in the 17th century, as it was considered a spice that combined the flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove.

 

So, expect some Jamaican food from China in the near future! What the locals might do with it, I have no idea.

 

So-called Japanese allspice, actually from China where it is 蜡梅属 (là méi shǔ), Chimonanthus fragrans is completely unrelated. It is an early-flowering shrub introduced to Japan from China in 1766.