Articles about the origins of foods and culinary culture
Andean peoples had been cultivating potatoes for 8,000 years and even developed freeze-drying technology, yet Europe rejected them as a 'devil's plant' for centuries. It was hunger that broke down the prejudice — and the price of over-dependence was the catastrophic Irish Famine.
Was beer brewed before bread was baked? From 13,000-year-old mortars in Israel to Sumerian cuneiform tablets, Egyptian pyramid workers' rations, and the industrial revolution that transformed brewing, this is the story of how fermented grain shaped human civilization.
From the alchemists of the Islamic world to the Mongol armies that carried distillation east — the name soju persisted for 700 years while the drink itself changed many times over. Through Joseon's home-brewing culture, the rupture of Japanese colonialism, the 1965 grain ban, and its rise as the world's best-selling spirit, soju's history is a story about how technology travels through empires.
Born in a narrow strip of India's Malabar Coast, black pepper sparked the greed of the Roman Empire, the speculation frenzy of medieval Europe, and the trade wars of the Age of Exploration. Trace how the spice once more precious than gold became the everyday condiment in kitchens worldwide.
Columbus called it 'pepper' — a misidentification that sparked the fastest spread of any ingredient in history. Discover how a wild Andean berry's chemical defense against mammals became the world's most consumed spice, reshaping cuisines from India to Hungary.