日本語版

Research note 010 — 2026-08-31

Where 「苦い」 Becomes a Compliment

Bitterness is often explained as a warning sign of poison. But look at the table, and the story does not end there. People wait for bitter young greens as a herald of spring, speak of a black herbal drink's bitterness in grades, and, even while washing leaves again and again, leave the outline of bitterness in. Rather than only avoiding bitterness, people have built it intoseason, place, the timing of meals, and handwork.

However, a uniform 「苦味を大事にする六つの文化圏」 (in translation: "six cultures that value bitterness") does not exist. What the sources read this time show aresix different mechanisms that turn bitterness into value.

What this page establishes

• A tendency for bitter wild greens to be chosen more often in southern Italy has been observed in one ethnobotanical survey, but it is not a survey that directly measured preference itself.
• For Guangdong's liangcha, consumption involving bitterness has been recorded, as part of regional culture, in a study of 300 people across 12 sociolinguistic groups.
• For Korea's spring greens (ssumbagwi) and Okinawa's nigana, and for onugbu in Igbo food culture, a process of removing bitterness before eating is documented in the sources, but how much bitterness is left in has not yet been confirmed.
• In some regions, such as with the Lao word khom3, a word for bitterness has been recorded in a study as part of the basic-taste vocabulary.

1. Southern Italy — a taste for choosing wild greens

In an ethnobotanical survey of 549 people across 21 Italian regions, wild edible plants such as Asteraceae were named more frequently in the south. The author suggests that a higher appreciation of young Asteraceae's bitterness might be one factor. But this is not a result that directly measured preference — it is a hypothesis that also involves plant flora, how well gathering knowledge has persisted, and socioeconomic differences.

Amaro, meanwhile, positions bitterness before or after the meal. The digestivo referred to here is a cultural beverage category, not a word that proves a digestion-promoting effect.

2. Lingnan and Guangdong — sharing bitterness through shops and institutions

Liangcha is a beverage extracted in water from a range of plant parts, not limited to tea from the tea plant. A study of 300 people across 12 sociolinguistic groups recorded its consumption as part of Lingnan's regional culture and way of life. It is listed on the national intangible cultural heritage register as a preparation craft, and liangcha shops line the streets. Bitterness here carries not only a beverage, but an institution and a landscape.

A Guangzhou cultural article also includes a scene in which 「老広」 (in translation: "old-time Guangzhou locals") speak of liangcha's bitterness in roughly three grades. It's interesting, but it is not a standardized sensory scale. Read it as a record of how people speak about bitterness, not as a measurement of how strong it is.

3. Korea — eating the bitterness of spring

A Korean government cultural magazine introduces slightly bitter spring greens together with their aroma and sense of season, naming ssumbagwi (씀바귀) as an example. In the Academy of Korean Studies' encyclopedia, ssumbagwi is a representative spring namul whose root and young leaves are gathered in early spring. It is briefly boiled, then soaked in water to remove bitterness before being seasoned. Bitterness here is not a matter of 「ある／ない」 (in translation: "present or absent") — it is adjusted into a form that can be eaten as a spring green.

4. Igbo food culture — washing is also seasoning

A traditional food-system survey of southeastern Nigeria records onugbu (bitter leaf) as a leaf that is "bitter, usually washed before use". A separate source describes onugbu soup appearing in both everyday meals and special occasions. But what the sources confirm goes only as far as the washing process. 「どこまで苦味を残すか」 (in translation: "how much bitterness is left in") is still the next question.

5. Isan and Laos — bitterness as cuisine and vocabulary

A Thai public food-culture booklet presents bitterness as one of the important tastes found in authentic Isan cuisine, and lines up bitter soups, chili pastes, and salads. In a Lao taste-vocabulary study, khom3 was recorded, through stimulus presentation, as the basic term corresponding to 「苦い」 (in translation: "bitter"). The cuisine introduction and the vocabulary study are separate sources, but together they show bitterness taking root in both a dish's name and everyday language.

6. Japan and Okinawa — 「ほろ苦い」 (horonigai, gently bitter), and a maze of names

Okinawa's nigana is Crepidiastrum lanceolatum. Prefectural materials caution that it is「一般的にニガナと呼ばれる植物とは別」 (in translation: "a different plant from the one generally called nigana"), but do not give the scientific name of that contrasting plant. No source linking it to Korea's ssumbagwi / Ixeris dentata as the same species has been reached so far either. A similar name alone cannot settle that they are the same plant, so they are treated here as separate things. In njana-baa-suunee, leaves that have been soaked in water, or briefly boiled, are dressed with shima-dofu.

For Yamagata's edible chrysanthemum, the word used by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' local-cuisine resource is 「ほろ苦い」 (horonigai, gently bitter). Not just its intensity, but its crisp, crunchy texture, its autumn peak season, and the Chrysanthemum Festival (chōyō no sekku) all come together to turn its bitterness into a positive flavor.

Keeping the romance outside the sources

A Korean phrase, 「苦い味は薬」 (in translation: "a bitter taste is medicine"); a Lao phrase, 「甘いは風、苦いは薬」 (in translation: "sweet is wind, bitter is medicine"); the vocabulary Isan bile dishes use to calibrate bitterness; the endpoint bitter leaf is not washed all the way to — none of these were followed to their original speaker or original source in this round of exploration, however appealing they are.

So rather than erasing them, we placed them in the hypothesis collection box. We publish them, unsourced origin included, without turning hearsay into fact. The unverified is not a blank space — it is an entry point where someone can bring sources or memory next.

An honest note

• For traditional-medicine explanations that appear in cultural sources, we have separated the existence of that narrative from proof of an effect on the body. This note does not claim any effect.
• Cultural articles and recipe databases from public institutions are important records, but they do not carry the same evidentiary strength as ethnography or sensory experiments. That is why some cards here are marked 「文脈」 (in translation: "contextual").
• A regional name does not mean the region is internally homogeneous. Essentializing it as 「南イタリア人は苦味好き」 (in translation: "southern Italians like bitterness") also runs against the original paper's own stated limitations.
• This is not an article recommending the identification, preparation, or eating of wild greens, herbal beverages, or bile dishes.

Frequently asked

Are there cultures where bitter foods are favored?

Records treating bitterness as a value rather than avoiding it exist in multiple regions. In an ethnobotanical survey of southern Italy, bitter wild plants such as Asteraceae are named more often as gathered plants in the south, and the author hypothesizes that an appreciation of bitterness may be one factor. However, this is not a survey that directly measured preference, and the author's own account cautions that other factors, such as how easily the plants can be obtained and how well traditional knowledge has persisted, are also involved. It is therefore not evidence strong enough to generalize as 「その地域の人は苦味が好き」 (in translation: "people in that region like bitterness").

Are there cultures that remove bitterness before eating?

Yes. A Korean encyclopedia records a process for one kind of spring green in which it is briefly boiled, soaked in water to remove bitterness, and then stir-fried or seasoned. A Nigerian traditional food-system survey also records that a bitter leaf vegetable (onugbu) is washed before use. Okinawan sources likewise record a preparation in which Crepidiastrum lanceolatum (njana) is boiled, or soaked in water, before being dressed. However, no source within this scope has been found that measures how much these processes actually reduce bitterness, down to a specific residual amount.

What is not known

• The account that divides liangcha's bitterness into three grades is not an evaluation by a standardized scale, and has not been verified within the scope of this source.
• How much the preparation of spring greens, nigana, or bitter leaf reduces bitterness is not given as a number in any of the sources, and has not yet been measured.
• Lao and Korean expressions such as 「甘いは風、苦いは薬」 (in translation: "sweet is wind, bitter is medicine") have not been traced to an original speaker or original source, and no source was found.
• No confirmation that Okinawa's nigana and Korea's ssumbagwi are the same plant was found within the scope of this source.
• How uniformly the preference for bitterness in southern Italy spreads across the whole region has not yet been confirmed.

Related: hypothesis collection box /liangcha /bitter-leaf soup /nigana shiraae