The French brought the baguette to Vietnam in the 1800s, but the bánh mì sandwich, filled with pâté, pickled carrot and coriander, took shape on the streets of Saigon in the 1950s, partly thanks to bakers who had moved there from the north.
📍 China
Tofu comes from China. Legend credits Han-dynasty Prince Liu An with inventing it over 2,000 years ago, but the first clear written mention dates from around 965 AD. Japan's first record of it is from 1183.
📍 Southern Louisiana, USA
Gumbo is a melting pot in a bowl: a southern Louisiana stew mixing a French roux, the Choctaw thickener filé (ground sassafras leaves) and okra, whose African name, ngombo, gave the dish its own. It was first described in 1802.
📍 NE India, Bangladesh & Myanmar
Mangoes originated in the region between northeastern India, Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar. The English word came via Portuguese from Malayalam “manga”.
📍 Thailand (formerly Siam)
Siamese cats come from Thailand, once called Siam, where old manuscripts of 'Cat-Book Poems' describe them. In the late 1870s the American consul in Bangkok sent one, named Siam, to President Rutherford B. Hayes: the first documented Siamese in the US.
📍 Tokyo, Japan
Judo was created in Tokyo in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō, who reshaped older jujutsu styles around safe free sparring; strikes and weapons survive only in set forms. Its name means “gentle way”.
📍 China
Garden chrysanthemums were bred in China for many centuries before they reached Japan. There the flower became the emperor's emblem, which is why the Japanese monarchy is called the Chrysanthemum Throne.