• Donkter@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Things we would call “Mexican” food are indigenous food. Mole, empanadas, certain types of salsa. We just call it something else. I mean, they had corn and tomatoes all the way up most of the U.S.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Surely it wasn’t all the same clear up into the US eastern seaboard though, right? Mexican (Aztec/Nahua) food is great and all, but I’m interested in what the natives in my specific part of the continent would’ve been eating, which here in Georgia would mean Creek and/or Cherokee cuisine.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        The Mississippians were growing corn in the Midwest. I am sure it was grown in the East as well. When you have a domesticated plant that grows pretty much everywhere and is able to fulfill a lot of your dietary needs, it spreads and spreads. See wheat or rice. Or in the Andes, potatoes. Or taro in Polynesia.

      • Donkter@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Sure, I’m just saying If you want a version of “authentic” native American food a lot of what we call Mexican food is alive and well in the modern day. I’m sure cornmeal was a staple of a lot of the US before modern borders and we categorized it as central American food.