ketchup：從中國魚露到番茄醬

Ketchup seems like the most American thing in the world. It goes on burgers, hot dogs and chips, and there's a bottle on almost every diner table. But the word – and the original sauce – came from southern China. In the Hokkien language, spoken in Fujian province and by many Chinese communities across South-East Asia, there was a word kê-tsiap. It referred to a salty sauce made from fermented fish. Chinese traders and sailors carried it around the region, and it became popular in places like present-day Malaysia and Indonesia, where a related word, kecap, is still used for soy sauce today. In the late 1600s, British sailors and merchants in South-East Asia tasted the sauce and liked it. They brought the idea, and the name, back to Britain. Since they couldn't easily get the original ingredients, English cooks made their own versions using mushrooms, walnuts, oysters or anchovies. These early ketchups were thin, dark and salty – nothing like the red sauce we know today. Tomatoes didn't join the story until the early 1800s, when American cooks began to make ketchup from them. At first, tomato ketchup spoiled easily. Later in the century, manufacturers added much more vinegar and sugar, which helped it last longer and gave it the sweet, tangy taste that conquered the world. For a long time, the word was spelt in many different ways, including "catchup" and "catsup". Eventually, "ketchup" won. So the next time you squeeze some onto your chips, remember that you're eating a sauce with a Chinese name and a history that has travelled all the way around the world.