SC - Unhistoric things we serve WAS:Shepherds Pie

[Par Leijonhufvud]

Sorry for quoting so much, but i want to avoid confusion or misattribution...

I too am interested in Asian foods, so i'd like to hear about any 
documentation or resources.

I recently found some references to tofu in period (although not in 
Europe). Unfortunately, they're all in Japanese, so i only have a 
brief synopsis to go on.

I'm especially curious about Indonesian and other Southeast Asian 
foods, but there's very little documentation there in "period". Most 
of what we have comes from the period of colonization, which didn't 
get into full swing until the middle of the 17th century.

It was told to me that the Chinese had a lively trade with Indonesia 
- - birds nests, in particular, were gathered from the cliffs of Java, 
but this is more anecdotal than anything i can adequately document 
(since i don't read Chinese).

I know the Indians had a lively trade with Indonesia going way back, 
which can be documented, in as much as there are first Buddhist 
monuments, then Hindu, then Muslim in Indonesia, for as the religion 
of India changed, thus did the religion of their trading partners in 
the Indonesian archipelago. Indians came for Indonesian spices and 
perhaps bananas and other plants were traded as well (my conjecture, 
not a statement). There's major Indian influence on Indonesian 
textiles that greatly predates the 19th century and can be traced to 
beginning around the 6th century and continuing for many centuries 
after. I'm afraid my documentation is on the art and not on the 
foodstuffs, but i rather doubt the Indians were sailing to Indonesia 
just to influence Indonesian religion, architecture, and arts. I'm 
sure they came all that way to get something...

Anyway, as the peanut features in a number of Indonesian dishes, i'd 
be interested to find out when it arrived in the archipelago.

>I am looking specifically for information about both tomatoes and peanuts...we
>are doing an oriental feast in the fall, and have a wonderful peanut 
>noodle dish
>that we would like very much to serve...if it's period.  Perhaps, in 
>order not to
>take up band width on this list, we could communicate privately about this?
>
>Kiri
>
>JVButlerJr at aol.com wrote:
>>  In a message dated 5/9/00 7:30:43 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
>  > phlip at morganco.net writes:
>  > > Please forgive me for asking, but may I have your documentation 
>please? I'd
>>  >  very much like to find usage of certain 
>>previously-known-as-American foods
>>  >  in Europe or Asia before, say, 1600.
>>
>>      As my lady wife has said, we are living out of boxes at the moment.
>>  Documentation will be provided once we are moved and unpacked.  However,
>>  which foods, specifically, are you looking for information on?  Tomatoes and
>>  potatoes?  Peanuts and banannas?  Its not all one lump of information.
>>
>  >     Suleyman