Page 53 - Exercise 2

Page 53 - Exercise 2

Food from around the world

We eat a lot of different kinds of food today.

Before the 16th century, people in Europe didn’t have a lot of the things that we eat and drink every day.

At the end of the 15th century, people from Europe started to travel to other parts of the world. They went to America, Africa and Asia. They brought back a lot of new kinds of food.

Chocolate came from Mexico. The Aztecs there drank chocolate with pepper! And today chicken with chocolate sauce is a popular meal in Mexico. The Spanish brought chocolate to Europe and they were the first to put sugar in it. Until the 1870s, chocolate was only a drink. The Swiss made the first bar of chocolate in 1876.

Tomatoes, peppers and avocados all came from Mexico, too. The Spanish took seeds back to Spain and started to grow the plants there. Soon they spread to other countries in Europe and then to other parts of the world.

The words tomato, chocolate and avocado all come from the old Aztec language.

Potatoes came from South America. Potatoes like cool, wet weather. They grew in the mountains of Peru.

Sweetcorn (or maize) came from North America.

Turkeys came from North America, too. They didn’t come from Turkey!

Coffee came from Africa. The Turks took it to Turkey and then to Europe.

Tea came from China in the 17th century. At first it was very expensive and only rich people drank it, but in the 19th century the British started to grow tea in India. They produced a lot, so it was cheap and everybody drank it.