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Comment by boxed

12 hours ago

All spices basically too afaik.

Chilis, tobacco and tomatoes are all in the same family (nightshades). And they are all "New World" plants. Which means Europe had to live without them until 1600 or so. If you can call that living.

  • And coffee didn't make the jump until around the same time, either. No wonder Europeans wanted to be anywhere on the planet except Europe.

  • I've often had the mental image of Galileo trying to order a pizza and being very disappointed at the garlic bread that turned up.

  • Imagine Indian food without chilies… it’d be as dull as Russian food.