I was reading about cumin and wondering how it became a staple of Middle Eastern/Indian cuisine and Mexican cuisine, considering those two places are separated by an ocean. Evidently it’s native to the East, but at some point obviously made it’s way over to the new world.
Similarly, chocolate seems so ingrained into my mind as a Swiss/German/French thing, but of course the cocoa bean is new world.
Anyone else have any insights or reflections or examples on how super foreign foods become integrated into a culture’s food?
Western Europe’s coffee traditions are wholly based on their war with the Turks. My own experience with my mum’s Hungarian cuisine has introduced me to a lot of food that, upon further research, was taken and modified based on recipes from their Turkish conquerors. Not sure if either counts as “Super exotic,” but exotic nevertheless.
Chili peppers, native to the Americas, quickly spread around the world following Columbus’ Caribbean “discoveries,” and are now deeply ingrained into the cuisines of virtually every culture in the world.
Potatoes are a New World thing. Made it to Europe in 1536 via the Spaniards, according to wiki. It’s hard to imagine that the humble potato was once exotic.
I really do not want to think about what Brits were steeping in water and drinking before they discovered Tea.
When I was a kid, the closest thing I ever saw to “ethnic” or “exotic” foods were canned Chow Mein (horrid), tacos and enchiladas (well, I was born in California). It wasn’t until I was grown up and moved into the Uptown area of Minneapolis when I really learned the beauty of foreign foods.
What we call “Chinese” in the US really isn’t Chinese. It’s American “Chinese”, so in that sense it is somewhat native.
Same with curry in the UK, and Chinese too. Out in the sticks anyway, but menus change over a long time to accommodate more experienced tastes. I could pretty much live on my local Chinese Hot and Sour soup if it was accompanied by my local Indian’s garlic naan bread. It covers all the food groups (probably, I don’t actually know, perhaps I’d have to drink milk or something?).
Charles XII of Sweden was a human dynamo who would have single-handedly altered history, if only his opponent hadn’t been Peter the Great, but only Peter the Adequate. Charles marched his army as far as the Ukraine, where he was defeated and had to make a dash for safety in Turkey. Living like a, well… king, Charles ran up huge debts there, so much so that the Sultan sent along his own men back with Charles when he returned to Sweden, to make sure the debt would be paid. That took years of dunning and shivering. Jonesing for some home-cooked stuffed grape leaves, the Turks had to make do with the closest local substitute, and thus was born the cabbage roll. Supposedly.
Similarly, black pepper is native to India, but is now widely used. And it’s one of the reasons that the Portuguese set sail. The apple comes from Turkey or maybe Kazakhstan. The peach from China. Many (perhaps most?) foods were exotic at one point.
Coffee is an African plant, Juan Valdez notwithstanding. And the Europeans thought tomatoes were poisonous at first, perhaps because the tomato plant is related to, I think, deadly nightshade. But it was not until the 1980s that the Reagan Administration discovered that ketchup is a vegetable.
Corn is American too, but I don’t think it has been as widely adopted over there as it is over here. Not a lot of corn or cornmeal based recipes in other countries that I know of. Their loss! Cornbread is the best bread there is.
And I am pretty sure the onion did not originate in Vidalia, Georgia, but it was perfected there.
I often like to ponder the distributions of the wild ancestors of the food I eat. Judging by a few quick searches, in one sandwich you can have wheat from the Middle East, chicken from Vietnam (or India), lettuce from Egypt, tomato from Peru, cucumber from India, black pepper also from India, olives from the eastern Mediterranean, green pepper from Mexico, mayonnaise from Spain, and cheddar cheese from England. Nowadays I can go to any Subway branch and order a sandwich like that and it isn’t at all a big deal. A few centuries ago such a sandwich would have been quite extravagant.
It’s because Europeans often used pewter plates and bowls when they first encountered tomatoes. The high acidity of the tomatoes leaches lead out of the pewter and renders the meal poisonous.
Polenta, made of cornmeal, is a staple of northern Italian cuisine. Corn is also very important in West Africa, where it is called mealies (among other names).