The article focuses quite a bit on asfoetida, but makes no mention of peppercorns which are native to India. When Europeans sailed to India for spices, they weren't going an asfoetida or turmeric run. It was pepper they sought (and I guess cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves too - though some of those might be from Indonesia idk).
I always assumed pre-Columbian Indian food had fieriness and heat from pepper (bite into a whole peppercorn - it's plenty fiery), so there was a pre-existing cultural affinity for that flavor. This to me explained the rapid assimilation of chilli peppers into virtually every regional Indian cuisine.
Mace and cloves only grew in the southern moluccas and when the Dutch took over from the Portuguese they genocide the local Melanesian population with the help of some peoples of the western islands.
And the list goes on of the food products that only existed in the Americas - chocolate, coffee, hot peppers.
But of course it goes both ways. I just had traditional breakfast in an isolated Zapotec village in Mexico. But of course the cheese wasn’t part of it until the Spaniards arrived.
You’re off on coffee, a few months ago I too assumed it came from the Americas because it grows so well here, but was surprised to learn it’s actually an old world thing.
Whats interesting is why nightshades diversified and selectively bred into so many staple plants in the new world but the nightshades in the old world did not.
Black nightshade berries native to Europe are easily mistaken for the latter stages of potato plant development, for example.
I can think of two, or at least, one dish and one snack:
dish: makki ki roti (roti made from corn flour) with sarson kaa saag (mustard greens, cooked). this is a very common, even iconic, Punjabi dish. I've only tried it once myself. didn't like the corn roti much. the mustard greens were fine.
