How Geography Determines Each Culture’s Cuisine
Every meal tells the story of the land it originated from
A subject of lingering fascination for me is the role that natural history has played in human history. I recently wrote an article about how geography has been a determining factor in human affairs since the inception of civilization, and I wanted to follow it up with this piece, about how the available plants and animals in a region go on to determine the traditional cuisine.
It’s fascinating as you try foods from different cultures to recognize how the history of that civilization can be told on the plate. Next time you go to a Mexican restaurant and are offered tamales, enchiladas, and tacos, you can recognize that wheat and rice are not indigenous to the Americas, and had to be introduced by the Europeans. Corn, or maize, was the main crop that allowed for the growth of the Aztec, Olmec, Inca, and Maya civilizations.
It is thought that the Mayan civilization — which spanned parts of modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador — eventually collapsed due to drought. The wheat plant can enter its reproductive stage with less water than corn and is therefore generally considered the more drought-resistant crop of the two. The complimentary chips and salsa we get when we visit restaurants belonging…
