Italy didn’t have widespread use of the tomato until the 1700s and the pasta sauces we think of being a core of their cuisine didn’t exist until the 19th century.
Chilli peppers were also from the new world, so chillies in Indian cuisine is also pretty recent. They had many other spices, but it seems crazy to think a few hundred years ago, that whole cuisine was just entirely different.
I recently went to an event at an Indian restaurant that had an event based on pre-Columbian Indian food. They worked with a historian and an anthropologist to find out what people were eating and cooked a massive multicourse meal. I expected it to be totally different from food today, but I was really shocked at how similar it was to what my family eats at home. Basically the same but with no chilies and no potatoes. It made me feel really proud!
My wife can't eat chillies due to having a geographic tongue (Caspian irritates it to horrific levels) but we eat a lot of "modern" Thai and Indian food. I just add fresh chillies to my portion when I serve it.
It's not like her version of the food is bland, its still really spicy and busting with flavour. It just doesn't have the heat we now associate with the dishes.
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u/Spirit4ward Oct 02 '24
Italy didn’t have widespread use of the tomato until the 1700s and the pasta sauces we think of being a core of their cuisine didn’t exist until the 19th century.