¿Main product foods from LatinAmerica?

[edd]

In your opinion, which are the main products originally cultivated and developed in LatinAmerica that have had great impact in the Culinary world?




Other:

avocado, vanilla, chili pepper, tobacco, strawberry, pineapple, sweet potato, guava, yucca, and more...

[AndyG]

There's some question as to borders, and what was there before any part of America was Latin America, but I voted tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. Is this a loaded survey?

[KYHeirloomer]

You really need to define terms. For instance, I only voted for tomatoes and peppers. But that's because I don't think of Mexico as part of Latin America.

If you include Mexico in that region that corn would have to be included. It's probably had the most influence on world cuisines of any New World food, followed by potatoes---also a Mexican center of origin.

There is some question as to centers of origin for some of the other things on your list. Beans, for instance, are a New World crop, but there were several centers of origin, including North America. Turkey were endemic to the New World, and there are, indeed, five or six species. The largest of them, the Eastern Wild Turkey, is from North America.

Botanically there is no such thing as a pumpkin. There are six species of New World squashes, and "pumpkins" are found in four of them. Squash centers of origin varied throughout the New World.

[phatch]

I thought potatoes orginated in Peru? But that was under the inca.

[epicous]

Potato from Ecuador, then developed in other SouthAmerica and MesoAmerica regions thousands years ago.

[AndyG]

I would say that modern-day Americans (North, Central and South) are fortunate to have so much culinary history to work with. I can only guess what I would do without all of the above.

I certainly would miss all that. Los Indios did so much that benefitted us and if I didn't have tamales or potatoes or chiles, I would be lost.

[epicous]

Tamales rule, indeed.

[boar_d_laze]

How could Mexico not be in Latin America? I think you're confusing Latin America with Central, Meso, or South America. Latin America comprises a language group as much as a geographical grouping. For instance, the Spanish speaking Caribbean islands including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are Latin American countries.

How can anyone segregate any of the foods out. They're all very important, and all have a profound effect on world cuisines.

I wonder about pepper's inclusion, though. Pepper -- as in black pepper -- wasn't unique to the western hemisphere. And, although a great many chile peppers are indigenous to the new world, as a group, they were well known in the old world. Nevertheless, because salt would be lonely in a world without pepper, I dutifully ticked the circle.

BDL

[boar_d_laze]

OIC

[foodnfoto]

You forgot to include sugar cane.
In my view, along with tobacco, potatoes and cacao, had the most impact, the fastest, on European culture as any agricultural item indigenous to the Americas.
Sugar production and cacao production grew up together.

[KYHeirloomer]

"And, although a great many chile peppers are indigenous to the new world, as a group, they were well known in the old world. "

Not so, Boar_D_Laz.

Chile peppers (Capsicum sp.) are native only to the New World, with probable centers of origin in Mexico, Central America, and South America. They were exported by the Spaniards, and quickly spread throughout the known world.

There are five domesticated species, and 20-odd wild species as well.

What we call black pepper (Piper nigrum) isn't really a pepper at all, but the berry of a climbing shrub which originated in southern Inda. Black pepper has been a major part of the spice trade for time out of mind.

[boar_d_laze]

KY

You're right about capiscum and piper

BLD

[Gummy-Bear]

I voted cacao but I didn't realize I could choose more than one. There are so many influences on the culinary world from Latin America, it's hard to pick just one, especially having a limiting survey on it.