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.
📍 Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
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.
📍 Piedras Negras, Mexico
In 1943, maître d' Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya created tortilla chips topped with cheese and jalapeños for American customers at the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Mexico, and named them after himself.
📍 Adria (Veneto), Italy
Ciabatta seems age-old, but a baker in Adria, near Venice, created it only in 1982, as an Italian answer to the French baguettes that were taking over sandwich bars. Its name means 'slipper'.
📍 Tokyo–Osaka, Japan
The world's first high-speed railway, Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen, opened on 1 October 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka, just before the Tokyo Olympics. Its round-nosed trains reached 210 km/h and cut the trip to four hours.
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📍 Ancient China (Yellow River plain)
Chopsticks come from ancient China, where they were first used mostly for cooking and for picking bits out of stews. Six bronze chopsticks about 3,200 years old were found in the Shang ruins near Anyang.
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📍 Southern Luzon, Philippines
This all-American slang for the middle of nowhere is Tagalog: US soldiers in the Philippines in the early 20th century picked up bundok, 'mountain', and brought it home as 'the boondocks'.