Comments on: Was food exchanged in the Columbian Exchange? http://www.rachellaudan.com/2009/12/was-food-exchanged-in-the-columbian-exchange.html A Historian's Take on Food and Food Politics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:28:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ken Albala http://www.rachellaudan.com/2009/12/was-food-exchanged-in-the-columbian-exchange.html/comment-page-1#comment-27442 Ken Albala Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:33:38 +0000 http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=2297#comment-27442 Sure. The best example is corn. The material arrives but not the technique. And nothing is transformed gastronomically, polenta is just made with corn instead of another grain. So too peppers, which are used in Italian cuisine in ways completely different from the New World, and squashes like zucchini, not to mention tomatoes. Do these ingredients transform Italy gastronomically? Of course they do, just not in ways any Mexican would recognize. So? In other words, if the steel is imported and something new is made from it, not an automobile, but something else, it's still transformative. Isn't it? Sure. The best example is corn. The material arrives but not the technique. And nothing is transformed gastronomically, polenta is just made with corn instead of another grain. So too peppers, which are used in Italian cuisine in ways completely different from the New World, and squashes like zucchini, not to mention tomatoes. Do these ingredients transform Italy gastronomically? Of course they do, just not in ways any Mexican would recognize. So?

In other words, if the steel is imported and something new is made from it, not an automobile, but something else, it’s still transformative. Isn’t it?

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