Green cardamom, the spice of Swedish buns and Arabic coffee, grows wild in the rainforests of southern India. Yet since about 1980 the top grower has been Guatemala, where a German coffee planter brought it before World War I.
📍 London (the Savoy), England
French chef Auguste Escoffier created Peach Melba at London's Savoy Hotel in 1892 or 1893 to honour Australian soprano Nellie Melba, then starring at Covent Garden.
📍 Balsas River valley, Mexico
Corn was bred about 9,000 years ago from a wild grass called teosinte in Mexico's Balsas River valley. It was domesticated only once, then spread throughout the Americas.
📍 Puebla & Mexico City, Mexico
Tacos al pastor are shawarma's Mexican grandchildren. Lebanese immigrants brought spit-roasted meat to central Mexico; in Puebla and Mexico City it became pork marinated in chilli and pineapple, shaved from a spinning 'trompo' into corn tortillas.
📍 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.
📍 Anatolia & Istanbul (Ottoman Turkey)
Yogurt comes from Ottoman Turkish yoğurt, built on a root meaning 'to thicken'. English travellers were writing it 'yughurd' by the 1620s, and the spelling still wobbles between yogurt and yoghurt.
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📍 Malay Peninsula & Sumatra
Durian comes from Malay duri, 'thorn', after the fruit's spiky husk. Called the 'king of fruits' in some regions, it smells so strong that Singapore bans it on its metro trains.