[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, and what about those tiny little ears of corn used in Chinese cuisine?!?

:’) It’s hard to imagine Italian cooking without the tomato, without the pepper, and really I’m just hungry for pizza.

Corn (”maize”), the potato, the tomato, the pepper, and certain squash are some of the most important foods in the world, all from the Americas.

[colorado tanker]

European food must have been really boring before the voyages of discovery. The only widely available seasoning was salt. Pepper was only for the super rich. The onion family would add some flavor. Probably explains why the Europeans so enthusiastically embraced the foods from the New World.

Except the British. They would stubbornly cling to boring, mediocre food for centuries more. :-))

P.S. A really amusing passage from Macaulay just came to mind. As I recall he went on for a page or two about how a really civilized people ate bread, and only dull half savages like the Irish would eat potatoes. No need to ask what he might think of Americans eating mashed potatoes and gravy with our turkey dinners. And turkey? Truly civilized men eat roast beef . . .