Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Portuguese ships carried American peppers east, changing local cooking for good. The figure is taken from The Food Timeline, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a food fact?

Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Chillies reached India in the 1500s

Portuguese ships carried American peppers east, changing local cooking for good Chillies are native to the Americas and were unknown in Asia before Columbus. Portuguese traders carried them around the Cape of Good Hope and introduced them to Goa and Malabar in the sixteenth century, and they spread inland faster than most new crops. Indian cooking adopted them so thoroughly that many regional dishes now seem unimaginable without them. It sits in Mondo's food collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

The Food Timeline

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: chilli, india, columbian-exchange

Chillies reached India in the 1500s: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Portuguese ships carried American peppers east, changing local cooking for good. The figure is taken from The Food Timeline, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a food fact?: Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.