Food
Where does Tofu come from?
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.
More Food
Food
Ackee
📍 West Africa (Senegal to Cameroon)
Ackee is Jamaica's national fruit, but the tree is native to West Africa and was carried to the Caribbean by the late 1700s. Its scientific name, Blighia sapida, honours Captain William Bligh.
Food
Tea
📍 Yunnan, southwest China
Tea drinking may have begun in China's Yunnan region, where leaves of the native tea plant were first used as medicine. Chinese legend credits the mythical ruler Shennong with discovering it.
Food
Apple
📍 Tian Shan, Central Asia
The apple's wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, still grows in Central Asia's Tian Shan mountains, where apples were first domesticated before travelling along the Silk Road to Europe.
More from Asia
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Word
Cheetah (the word)
📍 Northern India
Today most wild cheetahs live in Africa, but their name is Hindi: chītā, from a Sanskrit word meaning 'variegated' or 'speckled'. Cheetahs were once abundant in India, and English borrowed the word by 1704.
Invention
Folding fan
📍 Kyoto–Nara, Japan
The folding fan was invented in Japan. In 988 a Japanese monk presented folding fans to the Chinese emperor, and the Chinese long called them 'Japanese fans'. Portuguese traders later brought them to Europe, where Spain made them famous.
Nature
Chicken
📍 Mainland Southeast Asia
Chickens descend mainly from the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia. The oldest known chicken bones, roughly 3,500 years old, come from Ban Non Wat in northeast Thailand, where wild birds were likely drawn to farmers' rice fields.