# What was food like in Eurasia in pre-Columbian days? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 25, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750 "2010-05-25T21:09:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/21 "2010-05-27T13:19:24Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > The infamous Scandinavian delicacy lutefisk is nothing more than a way of getting this dried fish back to an edible state For certain values of “edible”. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/22 "2010-05-27T14:34:04Z")
Pasta would have been served with butter or cream and cheese, no? The Wiki article on [alfredo sauce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettuccine_alfredo) says that serving style has a long history. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/23 "2010-05-27T15:19:02Z")
I have yet to cease being amazed at the specific things that get their own Wiki entry. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/24 "2010-05-27T18:50:43Z")
> [@bahimes](#): > > Pasta is just unleavened bread, no? > Perhaps someone forgot to add the fungus/mold and got impatient? Try baking pasta dough instead of boiling it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/25 "2010-05-27T18:53:30Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Pasta would have been served with butter or cream and cheese, no? The Wiki article on [alfredo sauce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettuccine_alfredo) says that serving style has a long history. Olive oil as well can go on pasta. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/26 "2010-05-28T04:25:02Z")
I, too, am here to explode the myth of Marco Polo and pasta. I can’t look up cites at the moment, have to leave, but I’ve read that references to pasta in Italian writings predate Marco by at least 100 years. I’ve also heard they’ve found something that looks amazingly like a pasta-making device in the ruins of Pompeii. As for Thailand, yes, chiles are a New World import. Peanuts, too. Although peanut sauce has come to be identified internationally with Thai food, it’s actually Malay. But no one over here would have had that. Possibly it was a lot like Nepali food? Which is crud. Just this lentil-based gruel that tastes awful. Hint to tourists: Always eat Indian in Nepal. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/27 "2010-05-28T06:33:26Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > They didn’t have: > > - rice (that came later, from Spain) If you’re speaking of Italy, only if you consider Sicily as not part of Italy (many Sicilians feel that way). The Arabs introduced the cultivation of rice, eggplant, lemons, oranges, apricots, saffron, sesame, and sugarcane into Sicily, along with improved methods of irrigation and the use of various spices. (And, as noted above, durum wheat \> pasta). Couscous, falafel, and hummus have been part of Sicilian cuisine since Arab times. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/28 "2010-06-01T18:59:32Z")
Just stumbled across this, which is germane to this discussion: > [@](#): > > Before tomatoes arrived in the Middle East, grenadine was widely used in many Iranian foods, and is still found in traditional recipes such as fesenjan, a thick sauce made from pomegranate juice and ground walnuts, usually spooned over duck or other poultry and rice, and in ash-e anar (pomegranate soup).[13] > **[Pomegranate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate)** > > The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing, deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between 5 and 10 m (16 and 33 ft) tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have originated from Iran before being introduced and exported to other parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, though also considered to be native to Indian Subcontinent (particularly Northern India) and Afghanistan. > It was introduced into Spanish A... ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/29 "2010-06-01T19:10:05Z")
I’ve read that in the areas that potatoes are now a staple, cabbage served that role before Raleigh started growing the South American tuber on his Irish estate. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/30 "2010-06-01T19:35:47Z")
No wonder they switched to potatoes! ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750/31 "2010-06-01T20:40:51Z")
Cabbage, turnips, parsnips, barley and rye were used before the potato. Instead of potatoes you’d have mashed turnips, or barley gruel, or rye bread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-food-like-in-eurasia-in-pre-columbian-days/540750.md?page=1)