Travel, Eat, Connect Back in 1492
In 1492 Christopher Columbus embarked on a culinary journey…..headed to the West Indies in hopes of bringing back some amazing spices. Well, his journey went a bit astray, leading to what might be considered the most important culinary events of the millennium! Rather than arriving to India, he found a gold mine! After all, the guy discovered America!
Columbus brought back from the “new world” to = the “old world” a plethora of foods – the avocado, pineapple, all kinds of beans, sugar cane, chocolate, vanilla, peanuts, rubber (including the gum!), tobacco, tapioca, turkey, paprika, and cilantro. And perhaps the most important discoveries:
tomatoes, all kinds of peppers (forming the basis for most of the chili spices found in Indian food), corn, and perhaps most important of all ( might be the sole thing worth discovering in America)- the potato.
Just think what a meager and bleak world it was only half a millennium ago! For without these discoveries, there would be:
Pasta without tomato sauce!
Hamburger without fries to go with it!
Bean soup with no beans! (so what exactly was there?)
Movies without popcorn!
Sporting events without eating peanuts!
No chocolate OR vanilla ice cream!
No satisfying cigarette after sex, as there was no tobacco…
Try to imagine our lives without this long grocery list..
Based upon a piece by Ali Mohar