Changes

What were they like? I had known that PS1s were made from deep-fried yeast-raised dough so they couldn’t have been like the puff-pastry ''paszteciki'' I’m more familiar with. But I must admit I was still surprised by their fragrant spongy cake-like interior hidden beneath a very thin crispy skin. In my opinion, their name, "''``paszteciki"''" or "``little pies", is somewhat misleading. I would rather describe them as elongated savoury doughnuts.

I’ve already written about the West African dish, allegedly called "``chop-chop", which inspired the recipë for PS2. I’ve also written about "``pima", the "``very hot spice" that was commonly added to that dish, as well as about my suspicion that it was really nothing more than ''piment'' or chili pepper in French. But Andrzej added to this his own memories and conclusions which I would like to share with you:

Whether "``pima" is a loanword from Portuguese or French (I’m going with the latter, for phonetic reasons), there’s no doubt that it’s a kind of chili pepper. All species of pepper belonging to the genus ''Capsicum'', including bell peppers and chili peppers, come originally from the Americas. But once Columbus had made his discoveries, the Europeans found these peppers so appealing that they started to grow them wherever they could. The Portuguese developed one of the hotter varieties and grew them throughout their vast empire, from Brazil, where it’s still known as "''``pimenta malagueta"''", to Mozambique, from where it’s spread all over Africa under the name "``piri-piri".

It’s this "``Nigerian pepper" that was a mystery to me for a long time. I had a few guesses about the exact identity of this spice, but couldn’t settle on any of them. One of the suspects was Ashanti pepper (''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_guineense Piper guineense]''), also known as "``West African pepper" or "``Guinea pepper". Closely related to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_cubeba cubeb pepper,] it was very popular in Medieval Europe, but is today largely marginalised to West Africa. Another possible candidate I was thinking of was [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grains_of_Selim grains of Selim] (''Xylopia aethiopica''), a spice that tastes similar to pepper and hence is known as "``Ethiopian pepper", "``Senegal pepper", "``Guinea pepper", "``African pepper" or even simply "``Negro pepper". Could this latter name have been interpreted in Poland as "``Nigerian pepper"?

When googling for "``Nigerian pepper", most hits I got were for "``Nigerian pepper soup", a traditional delicacy of that country. Contrary to its name, it isn’t flavoured solely with pepper, but with an entire mix of various exotic spices that are hard to get outside Nigeria. This is how Andrzej described it:

[[File:Negroland and Guinea with the European Settlements, 1736.jpg|thumb|An English map of West Africa from 1736 with what is now Liberia labelled as "``Grain Coast". It was the major trade hub for grains of paradise and other African spices.]]

So I thought that maybe "``Nigerian pepper" didn’t refer to a single spice, but to a whole mix. A mix of what exactly, though? Well, [https://www.amazon.co.uk/African-Sun-Pepper-Soup-Pack/dp/B00KLD1FBO you can buy it on Amazon,] which means you can also go there to read the list of ingredients:

But eventually it was Andrzej again who clarified all this by identifying "``Nigerian pepper" as "``Guinea pepper" (but not the same as ''Piper guineense''), which is also known as grains of paradise:

It’s a spice obtained from a plant which is more closely related to cardamon and ginger than to pepper and whose scientific name is ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aframomum_melegueta Aframomum melegueta]''. Now, if you’re thinking that "''``melegueta"''" sounds strangely familiar, then you’re right. We’ve just talked about piri-piri, which is known as "''``pimenta malagueta"'' in Brazil. How come two quite unrelated spices have almost identical names? Well, for the same reason both ''Capsicum'' and ''Piper'' plants are called "``pepper" in English. It’s New World spices being named by Europeans after similarly pungent, but more familiar Old World spices. For centuries, many spices were not only used, but also named interchangeably.