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Food without borders
12 articles
Infographics
Tomatoes come from the Andes and coffee from Ethiopia. An overview of the production of some foodstuffs, from their origin to where they are mainly grown today.
Infographics
Wilbur Scoville, a pharmacologist, invented the Scoville scale in 1912 to measure the pungency of peppers and chillies, generally related to their capsaicin content. To establish a chilli pepper’s rating, Scoville would prepare it in a solution, which was then tested by five people. He increased its dilution until the sensation of heat disappeared. The score on the scale represents the level of dilution required for the sensation of heat to disappear completely.
Society
During the 1990s, Philippe Geslin further expanded anthropotechnology, a social science research discipline that endeavours to resolve problems raised by the transfer of technologies to an environment for which they were not originally intended.
World flavours
In Japan, families share traditional New Year food over three days. The dishes are presented in a magnificent lacquered box and are heavily symbolic, promising good health, wealth and academic success.
History
In our collective imagination, brightly coloured, spicy or even fiery chilli peppers evoke faraway lands and their exotic flavours. They have been incorporated so well into so many culinary traditions that it is far from easy to guess their origin. Thailand? Mexico? Cameroon? Or perhaps India?
World flavours
Over the course of almost a century of colonisation between 1862 and 1954, the French had a strong influence on Vietnamese cuisine.
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