[Sca-cooks] Food assumptions..

[johnna holloway]

One of the books that I have on hot peppers recounts that they
interviewed various people in India regarding red chile peppers and all
were positive that they were native to India. I would guess that it's
quite common for people all over the world to believe that a common
traditional  dish has always been eaten when in fact it can be traced to
an event or the introduction of a specific ingredient.

Johnna Holloway

Erika Thomenius wrote:>
> I ran across a pretty funny story.  One of my mother's friends is an
> anthropologist/poli-scientist who did a lot of ethnographic work in remote
> areas of Malaysia in the late 70s/early 80s.  Apparently, when he was there,
> he could NOT convince the people he was studying that potatoes weren't
> indigenous.  After all, they'd always eaten them, their parents' had always
> eaten them, their grandparents had always eaten them...
>
> -Gytha "This spud's for you" Karlsdotter