I tried that theory with quite a few things that didn't "exist" per se in Chinese, yet there were distinct Chinese words for them. Plus there are plenty of food

I tried that theory with quite a few things that didn't "exist" per se in Chinese, yet there were distinct Chinese words for them. Plus there are plenty of food items from other cultures where we tend to use a native equivalent in English (spring rolls, rice paper rolls, sweet and sour pork, Swedish meatballs etc). Though to be fair we tend just to borrow the word wholesale. Not sure to what degree other languages have consistently done the same.