So after eating at a local sub shop the other day and having their black bean soup, I decided I *must* make a version of that soup. It was smooth, chunky, sweet, hot, and all around wonderful.
They called it Sriracha Black Bean soup. And apparently, it's a hot soup right now.
So I went to researching the ingredients, which lead to another research on the origination of food products.
Sriracha is named so for the area in which it was developed. One source lists Sriracha as being made from red jalapeno's, another from any chili pepper (usually the yellow Madame Jeanette and red cayenne peppers).
That search lead me to the Grand Exchange (aka Colombian Exchange)...because when I research a topic, it snowballs. Literally.
Did you know that before the Colombian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no paprika in Hungary, no potatoes in Ireland, no coffee in Colombia, no pineapples in Hawaii, no chili peppers in Thailand, no rubber trees in Africa, no tomatoes in Italy and no chocolate in Switzerland?
Fascinating stuff...this exchange and trade system.
Today we call it economics.
I mean, I knew some things, like potatoes were not from Ireland; that they were from the America's....but the sheer magnitude of foods we continue to think of as an inherent part of a country (tomatoes and Italy? Come on!) has all been a lie! (j/k)
Go. Read about the exchange. Not because you must, but because knowledge is good.
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