​VOCABULARY: DISCOVERY

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​Discovery of food:

A lot of food started its history in very different countries. European explorers discovered potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and vanilla in America in the 16th century and rice began its journey in China. But what about other favorites?​

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​a. Cookies are a favorite with everyone, but where were they discovered? The Persians cooked the first cookies with sugar in the 7th century. The Arabs invaded Persia at that time and they loved them. Later, they took the cookies to the rest of their empire, including Spain. From Spain, traders took cookies to North Europe, and then English colonizers sailed to America and made them there.

​b. Pasta: People often say that the explorer Marco Polo discovered pasta in China, but this isn’t true. In fact, Greeks ate something similar to lasagna in the 1st century. But it was the Arabs who were responsible for modern pasta because they introduced wheat flour to Sicily, in the south of Italy. Pasta, as we know it, was created in Italy in the 13th or 14th century.

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​​c. Ice cream: Ice desserts were popular a long time ago. The Persians (400BC) and the Chinese (200BC) enjoyed snow and ice with fruit and honey. Marco Polo discovered a technique for making ice desserts in China and transported it to Italy. So the first modern sorbets were from Italy, but the first ice cream made with milk and cream appeared in 1718 in England!