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Things Chinese consume all the time that they typically don't know came from somewhere else: baozi (came with the Mongols from Ottoman cuisine), chicken (first

Things Chinese consume all the time that they typically don't know came from somewhere else: baozi (came with the Mongols from Ottoman cuisine), chicken (first domesticated in the Brahmaputra/Bengal/Myanmar region), chilli, corn, peanuts, tea (SEA border of Yunnan, very un-Chinese until recently), tomato. The source(s) of initial rice domestication are still unclear, but much of China (north and central China) did not eat rice as a daily staple for a significant part of Chinese history.

Markoff 4y ago
Reverse list would be also interesting, I'm sure most of the world including Chinese dunno kiwi fruit is from China.
- contingencies 4y ago
  The big one in that list is citrus, which IIRC hails from Guangdong. The Berbers brought citrus to Europe via trading from Persia. The Persians acquired it from China, probably via South Asian seafaring or the Silk Road.
- jimmydef 4y ago
  One theory is that churros came from the fried Chinese doughstick youtiao. The habit of eating raw fish in Japan probably developed indigenously but many of the words the Japanese use to describe sushi and raw fish came from China which to the surprise of many has a very strong food culture of eating raw fish and meat up till the Ming dynasty in the 14th century. Look at what confucius wrote in the book of rites 2500 years ago: 食不厌精，脍不厌细 (you'll not get sick of good food, and you'll not get sick of kuai(raw fish /meat) that is sliced thinly.) or 脍，春用葱，秋用芥 (kuai, eat it with spring onions in spring and jie in autumn. jie is a chinese mustard. ) The chinese probably adopted the habit of eating raw fish in the past from people from southeast asia. And while sashima is almost certainly developed indigenously in Japan, the predecessor of the modern Sushi in japan (fish preserved in rice) is most likely developed in China. Food history is so interesting but largley neglected.
jimmydef 4y ago
Baozi is unlikely to have come from the Ottomans via the Mongols. The Song dynasty chinese were already eating baozi and writing about it in their books and documents in the early 11th century, before the Ottomans were established or Genghis Khan was born. And Baozi is just another name for Mantou in ancient China which is a name for the food which is even older stretching back to the Han dynasty over two millenia ago.
- contingencies 4y ago
  OK, maybe you are right but {{citation-needed}}. It seems Wikipedia asserts Song but has no references. As they are sequential the big picture is still similar. Song was very multicultural/pluralistic, even if thry appeared in the Song this virtually supports an import hypothesis.

Markoff 4y ago

Reverse list would be also interesting, I'm sure most of the world including Chinese dunno kiwi fruit is from China.

contingencies 4y ago
The big one in that list is citrus, which IIRC hails from Guangdong. The Berbers brought citrus to Europe via trading from Persia. The Persians acquired it from China, probably via South Asian seafaring or the Silk Road.
jimmydef 4y ago
One theory is that churros came from the fried Chinese doughstick youtiao. The habit of eating raw fish in Japan probably developed indigenously but many of the words the Japanese use to describe sushi and raw fish came from China which to the surprise of many has a very strong food culture of eating raw fish and meat up till the Ming dynasty in the 14th century. Look at what confucius wrote in the book of rites 2500 years ago: 食不厌精，脍不厌细 (you'll not get sick of good food, and you'll not get sick of kuai(raw fish /meat) that is sliced thinly.) or 脍，春用葱，秋用芥 (kuai, eat it with spring onions in spring and jie in autumn. jie is a chinese mustard. ) The chinese probably adopted the habit of eating raw fish in the past from people from southeast asia. And while sashima is almost certainly developed indigenously in Japan, the predecessor of the modern Sushi in japan (fish preserved in rice) is most likely developed in China. Food history is so interesting but largley neglected.

jimmydef 4y ago

Baozi is unlikely to have come from the Ottomans via the Mongols. The Song dynasty chinese were already eating baozi and writing about it in their books and documents in the early 11th century, before the Ottomans were established or Genghis Khan was born. And Baozi is just another name for Mantou in ancient China which is a name for the food which is even older stretching back to the Han dynasty over two millenia ago.

contingencies 4y ago
OK, maybe you are right but {{citation-needed}}. It seems Wikipedia asserts Song but has no references. As they are sequential the big picture is still similar. Song was very multicultural/pluralistic, even if thry appeared in the Song this virtually supports an import hypothesis.