Aozhouhuaren
Banned
Yes, laverbread has kind of died out along with the eating of cockles and limpets in the UK, though all are eaten in other parts of the world. And yeah, I agree, spices, tomatoes, potatoes, corn/maize, cacao, and chili peppers kind of changed the cuisine of much of Europe, Africa, and Asia. For instance, the potato has really changed traditional northern Europeans' diets of rye, oats, etc.
The winged bean or Manila/Goan bean has a lot of potential as a versatile crop that can be used in many ways. Yaupon tea could have become the tea of choice for Americans -- it was at some point the main drink of choice due to economics, I believe. I don't know how frequent toon/suren [Toona sinensis] is used in northern China anymore, but it could very well function as a staple flavouring ingredient like garlic and onions.
Anyway, I have been keeping track of food crops in the past few years because it's a general interest to me. Here are two lists that might lead to some interesting discoveries for you.
Here is an incomplete list of other kinds of alcoholic beverages that are now more obscure:
- Chicha – fermented; corn
- Pox – distilled; cane & corn
- Balché – fermented; balché bark & honey
- Xtabentún – distilled; christmas vine & honey & anise (Mayan)
- Various kinds of distilled drinks made from agave-species and not just tequila
- Pulque – fermented agave
- Pozol – fermented; corn & cocoa
- Batari – fermented; mesquite flour and sap (in the Chihuahua desert)
- Tesguino – fermented; corn (Mexico)
- Sotol – distilled; desert spoon (Mexico)
- Museles (a very distinct kind of wine from the Xinjiang oasis region)
- Old Persian Shiraz wine
- Palinka
- And I wonder if there are other kinds of grain that can make beer: millet, sorghum, etc. (I do know sorghum makes good kaoliang)
Starches, staples or things for making staple foods:
- acorn
- Bracken/Fern fiddlehead
- Maroi fern root
- Beechnut
- Horse Chestnut
- Eskimo Carrot [Hedysarum Alpinum]
- Eskimo Potato [Claytonia Tuberosa]
- Roseroot
- Tiger nut / Chufa
- Pilez [Naked Oat/Avena Nuda]
- Spelt, kammut, emmer (though I think they're kind of making a comeback...)
- Buckwheat
- Asian Sorghum
- Kudzu [Japanese Arrowroot]
- Coixseed/Job's Tears
- Kamut
- Ensete (Ethiopia)
- Nara [Acanthosicyos horridus] (South Africa)
- Batata/Kumara/Sweet Potato (Southeast Asia, Polynesia)
- Lotus seeds/nuts
- Makhana or fox nut [euryale ferox]
- Water chestnut
- Water caltrop [Lingjiao]
- European caltrop?
- Salep [Orchid tuber] (thickening flour in Byzantine times?)
- Foxtail millet
- Broomcorn millet
- Japanese barnyard millet
- Red rice
- Black rice, non glutinous
- Glutinous rice (mostly for desserts today though in Laos that is their staple, I think)
- Mung bean (still in common use, I guess)
- Canna starch from canna roodstock (Peru and Ecuador)
- Many varieties of bannanas (i.e. the pink banana)
- Japanese sago / cycad
- Breadfruit
- Blacknut [Moreton Bay Chestnut / black bean] (Australia)
- Camas/quamash (Pacific northwest and prairies - ground into flour to make bannock?)
- Hodoimo or Indian potato
- Biscuit roots (Pacific northwest)
- Sunroot [Jerusalem Artichoke]
- Okanagan sunflower tuber (Pacific northwest plateau region)
- Mariposa lily (North America)
- Mesquite bean (American Southwest)
- Nipa grass [Palmer's Grass] (Colorado river delta; this crop is super cool! It can grow in high salinity conditions)
- Pitseed goosefoot (North America)
- Pigweed/carlessweed/Palmer amaranth (North America)
- Huautli amaranth (Mexico)
- Quelite amaranth (Mexico)
- Xnoois [eelgrass; zostera marina] (a crop from the sea!? Seri people of western Mexico)
- Sand ricegrass / Indian ricegrass (American southwest)
- Maca root (Peru, Chile)
- Uqa/New Zealand Yam (Peru)
- Mashua (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador)
- Yacon (Peru)
- Ulluku (Andes)
- Kiwicha/Quilete amaranth (Peru, Chile)
- Qaniwa (Peru, Chile)
- Peach palm (Colombia and Costa Rica)
- Pearl millet (Africa and India)
- White goosefoot (Iran and India)
- Kodo millet (India and Africa)
- Guinea millet
- Red millet
- Fonio millet (Africa)
- Ethiopian Barley
- Mesopotamian Barley
- Ethiopian Oats
- Thaman/merkba bunchgrass (Sahel and Sudan)
- Triga/Kenrza perennial wheat (East of Greece, Anatolia to Caucuses)
- Turnips (Scandinavia, Northern Europe)
- Filé powder for thickening gumbo
This is a very impressive list! Thanks for sharing! I look forward to trying some of these foods out!