The reasons and distribution of pungent flavour districts in China’s dietetics
中国饮食辛辣口味的地理分布及其成因研究

Previous studies on pungent flavour districts in China are fully on the basis of perceptual knowledge, for example, it was simply thought that taste of food in southen China was hot but less pungent in northern China. Opinions differ greatly on pungent degrees of food in different districts This paper holds that there are three flavour districts on food and drink in China:1)Strong pungent flavour district in the middle amd upper reaches of the Yangtze River,includeing Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhouand southern Shaanxi with pungent index being 151-25.2)Pungent flavour district in northern China, including Beijing,Shandong, Shanxi,Guanzhong in northern Shaanxi and greater part of Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang with pungent index being 26-15 3)Light flavour district along the southeast coast, including Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong with pungent index being 17-8 Previous veiw held that the reason for eating pungent food was to disperse damp vapours and keep warm in light with statistics and analyses as well as on the spot investigations and document records Present study holds that the principal environmental factors for the formation of heavy pungent flavour district are inadequate sunshine, mosit and cold in winter. Social reasons such as migration are also analyzed in the paper