by Mildred Boyd
When
the modern housewife plans a festive holiday meal her thoughts often turn
to roast turkey, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, baked
squash and lima beans. She might start with a tomato, avocado and bell
pepper salad and end up with pumpkin pie, chocolate souffle, pineapple
upside-down cake or plain vanilla ice cream. Pre-dinner margaritas might
be accompanied by snacks of salted peanuts or popcorn.
Her fifteenth century European counterpart
would have found it impossible to produce such a feast. Why?
It wasn’t that she lacked the culinary
skills or because her kitchen was primitive. Accounts of Medieval banquets
list an astonishing array of dishes produced on open hearths equipped
with only rudimentary grills, dog-driven spits and clay ovens. It was
simply because every one of these, to us, familiar foods were completely
unknown in her day! Along with many others, they were first encountered
by the astonished Conquistadors in the open-air markets of Tenochtitlan
and Cuzco.
At least our theoretical hostess would not
have had to worry about the smoking/no smoking controversy. Tobacco was
one of the many things awaiting discovery on the far side of the world.