SC - European Food

[grizly@mindspring.com]

In a message dated 5/9/00 9:52:53 AM Pacific Daylight Time, DeeWolff at aol.com 
writes:

> While I truly enjoy these mundanely, I am always taken aback when I see 
them 
>  on the table at an event.

    The "Eurocentric prejudice" regarding food is an attitude I will never, 
ever understand.  The Chinese were eating tomatoes before the Europeans were. 
 So were the arabs.  Peanuts were being grown and eaten in Siam and India for 
thousands of years.  Bananas were being eaten in Southeast Asia for thousands 
of years as well.  Hot peppers have been an elemenf of Indian cooking (as 
well as Mongolian, Afghan, and Siamese) for centuries.  Sure sounds like they 
were period... oh, not European, of course, but period.

    But if we are talking about Europe, lets consider:  The tomato entered 
Italian cuisine in the 1500's... which is during period.  Potatoes were being 
grown as a food crop in Spain and France in the 1500's as well.  Period again.

    The problem seems to me that we (the generic "we") forget that period is 
more than the Renaissance and the Dark Ages, but the Age of Exploration as 
well.

    Sayyid Suleyman al-Rashid ibn Beyazid