Trail5 steps

The world’s kitchen

How dishes travel, change hands and end up with the wrong nationality.

Every cuisine is a record of trade, travel and accident. Follow one technique and one sauce around the world.

Start the trail →

I
Portuguese sailors bring batter-frying to Japan.
No. 118DishCuisine & Food
Tempura was brought to Japan by the Portuguese One of Japan’s most iconic dishes arrived with Portuguese missionaries and traders in the 16th century, and its name may come from Latin.
II
Three centuries later, the British Navy brings curry, and Japan makes it its own.
No. 066DishCuisine & Food
Japan learned curry from the British Navy Japanese curry came from India by way of the British, was adopted by the Japanese navy to fight a deadly vitamin deficiency, and is still served on navy ships every Friday.
III
Meanwhile a Japanese cracker crosses the Pacific and becomes “Chinese”.
No. 041DishCuisine & Food
Fortune cookies are Japanese, by way of California You won’t find fortune cookies in China. They descend from a Kyoto cracker, reached America through Japanese immigrants, and were taken over by Chinese restaurants during World War II.
IV
And a Chinese fish sauce becomes the most American condiment of all.
No. 072DishCuisine & Food
Ketchup started out as a fish sauce Before it was red and sweet, ketchup was a salty, fermented fish brine from southern China, and later a British sauce made from mushrooms or walnuts.
V
Behind all of it: the great swap of crops after 1492.
No. 029ConceptCuisine & Food
Before 1492, Italy had no tomatoes and Thailand had no chillies Many “ancient” national dishes depend on ingredients that crossed the Atlantic after Columbus. Some of them are surprisingly recent.