Let's talk about food

Question

The next suggestion on our list of topics is food. It reminds me of a show I watched a few years ago about the life of typical Romans during the empire. Naturally, I assumed they ate a lot of pasta, but the host pointed out that pasta was brought by Marco Polo from China. But a quick Wikipedia search suggests that's not at all true. At any rate, this is a fascinating topic and I look forward to seeing what is asked in the coming week.

Answer 1

This was a particularly interesting topic and we got 7 fascinating questions:

• Where did Southern Fried Chicken come from?

• Why did meat and dairy drop out of the working people in Britain's diet during the industrial enclosures period?

• How did Americans adopt processed and off-site butchered meat for domestic consumption in their food supply?

• When was tofu invented? Was it specifically for vegetarian consumption from the beginning?

• How did Chinese sausages come about?

• Easter Islands: were the Islanders starving when found?

• How much salt did people in agricultural societies eat?

I really enjoyed Semaphore's tofu answer, but there is plenty of good history represented here. If I had one suggestion, it would be to make sure that answers are backed up with primary and secondary sources when possible.