Other things that might make you look at your kitchen differently: - potatoes (and tomatoes) originated in the Andes. Irish people basically had to be forced t

Other things that might make you look at your kitchen differently: - potatoes (and tomatoes) originated in the Andes. Irish people basically had to be forced to grow them. It was the key technology that helped Europe stop it's vicious cycle of famine after famine. In the Andes they also have literally hundreds of varieties of potatoes that they know by name (some are used in soups, some are ornamental, some are medicinal, many have distinct flavor profiles) - bell peppers are also from the Americas. I'm eastern european and grew up hearing about my great grandparents recipes for making sundried red bell peppers - Native americans used a complex process called nixtamalization to make maize edible called. Colonists basically took maize and forced Africans to grow it for them but didn't carry over the knowledge of nixtamalization. Causing mass famines wherever they replaced native crops with maize in Africa - avocados (americas), pawpaws (americas), and mangoes (india) both relied on megafaunal species to spread. Likely giant sloths for avocados buffalo for pawpaws, and elepphants for mangoes. All of these have been completely or mostly displaced by humans and would probably now go extinct without us