SC - New World Foods-rant

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>Pardon the inexperienced question please but what foods are New WOrld foods
>
>The Newbie

The New World is generally considered to be North and South America. 
New World foods are those that are or were native to those regions 
and unknown in the Old World (Europe, Africa, Asia). None would have 
been known in the Old World until after 1492 :-) and many were not 
rapidly adopted. Most would be too expensive to eat often as imported 
foods (or wouldn't survive the long voyage), so they'd have to be 
grown in a hospitable climates in the Old World, often around the 
Mediterranean...

These include:

the solanaceous plants: tomatoes, potatoes, bell (and related) 
peppers, including all kinds of chilis (oh, yeah, and tobacco) 
(eggplant, another solanaceous plant, existed in the Old World)

corn aka maize, since "corn" in England generally refers to one's 
culture's staple grain (and as far as i know, there are still places 
in Europe where maize is considered an animal fodder, since they are 
mostly only acquainted with dried maize)

most beans, except the Mediterranean fava and the Asian soy (which 
use in Asia can be traced at least to the 3rd century BCE)

turkey, beaver, raccoon, possum, bison (American buffalo), and other 
animals i'm not sure of - and there must be a whole lot of indigenous 
fish...

nuts such as pecans, Brazil nuts, Macadamia nuts (cashews are Asian, 
peanuts aren't nuts), hmmm, filberts?

chocolate

allspice, vanilla, ... (ok, help me here, folks, what other herbs and spices?)

This is just a start, but i *think* i've covered some of the more 
common foodstuffs...

I'm sure others on the list can add more...

Anahita al-shazhiya