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.
📍 Berlin, Germany
Currywurst was first sold in Berlin in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, who made a sauce for fried sausage from ketchup and curry powder she got from British soldiers. Germans now eat an estimated 800 million a year.
📍 Southeast Queensland & northern NSW, Australia
Macadamias are native to eastern Australia, the only widely grown food plant native to that continent. Seeds reached Hawaii in the 1880s, and Hawaii led world production for decades until Australia overtook it in 1997.
📍 Osaka, Japan
Takoyaki, batter balls with a bit of octopus inside, were first sold in 1935 by Osaka street vendor Tomekichi Endo, who borrowed the octopus from Akashi's egg dumplings. The sauce and mayo topping came after the war.
📍 Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean
Hawaii's favourite lei flower is a newcomer there: plumeria is native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and the German doctor William Hillebrand brought it to the islands in 1860. Its other name, frangipani, comes from an Italian marquis's perfume.
📍 Great Lakes (Haudenosaunee & neighbouring nations), Canada & USA
Snow snake is a winter game of the Haudenosaunee and other Great Lakes peoples: players hurl polished wooden "snakes" with weighted tips down a long icy trough of snow. Haudenosaunee tradition says it is more than 500 years old.
📍 California, USA
Despite its name, the Bengal cat was created in the United States: breeder Jean Mill crossed a wild Asian leopard cat with a house cat in 1963 and founded the breed in California in the 1980s. 'Bengal' comes from the leopard cat's scientific name.