The surprising origins of some of your favourite food
We all have a favourite food but where that food comes from isn’t usually given a second thought. Of course, we normally have a general idea, but what might surprise you is that food origins aren’t as obvious as they seem.
With that, we have taken a deep dive into some popular foods that are loved the world over to discover if they really are as authentic as we think they are.
Samoosa
Samoosas, golden-fried pastry stuffed with savoury fillings, are a well-known snack in Indian cuisine.
This street food can be found on almost every street corner in India. It’s popular in Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey, Libya and Egypt, and it makes a considerable appearance during Ramadaan.
Samoosas first appeared in Central Asia and were introduced in India in the 14th century. The snack became a staple there, leading people to believe it couldn’t be anything but Indian.
Chicken tikka masala
Chicken tikka masala, a popular dish in the UK, is very likely also not from India. The dish is believed to have been created in Glasgow, Scotland, by a Bengali immigrant, Ali Ahamd Aslam, who opened a restaurant, the Shish Mahal, there in the 1950s.
According to food historians, the idea for chicken tikka masala was born after a customer complained about the bland, dry chicken they were served.
The offending dish was sent back to the kitchen and Aslam added tomato soup, yoghurt and a blend of spices resulting in the birth of chicken tikka masala.
Unlike butter chicken, the subject of a recent legal battle in Delhi courts over who created the dish, chicken tikka masala has not triggered an ownership row.
French toast
French toast is created by soaking stale bread in a mixture of eggs and milk. Though it has “French” in its name, the recipe for French toast was found in the “Apicius”, a collection of recipes written in Latin in 4th-century Rome. It became popular in Medieval Europe.
In the 15th century, the dish was called pain perdu, French for “lost bread”, in the English court.
Ice cream
The Italians are known around the world for the quality of their ice cream, known as gelato, and you would be forgiven for thinking they were indeed the inventors of this delicious sweet treat.
However, that accolade belongs to Mongolia. It’s said that Mongolian horsemen would carry buffalo or yak milk among their provisions across the Gobi Desert, and as the temperature dropped, the milk would freeze as it was churned by the movement of the horses.
As the Mongol Empire expanded in the 1200s, so too did the popularity of this new iced milk treat, and it’s said Venetian merchant and explorer Marco Polo took the idea back to Italy at the end of the 13th century.
Coffee
Coffee is enjoyed around the world. The first people to cultivate these heavenly beans were the Ethiopians.
Before Brazil and Colombia came to dominate coffee, production, most coffee beans were grown in Ethiopia. However, the Yemenis were the first to create a hot drink using those beans.