Spices, sugar, coffee and noodles followed ships, caravans and empires. These are the foods that crossed oceans and changed what the world eats.
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The potato reached Spain around 1570, spent two centuries as a suspect curiosity, then became a staple from Ireland to Prussia. Most of the famous stories about its rise are myths.
The tomato reached Italy from the Americas by the 1540s, but it spent about two centuries as a garden curiosity before it became the red sauce we call Italian.
Grapes, walnuts and alfalfa did travel the Silk Road, but wheat and noodles were in China before the road, whatever the legend says. Here is what the evidence supports.
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