It’s impossible to resist a plate of homemade mofongo, a cup of freshly made horchata, a bowl of steaming hot sancocho, or a pitcher of delicious agua de Jamaica.
The Latin American diaspora is filled with delectable dishes and drinks that would melt even the harshest of critics, but have you ever wondered where those dishes originated?
While most popular Latin American dishes were perfected in the respective countries and islands with which they are often associated, the roots of these dishes go back hundreds, even thousands of years in every part of the world from Southeast Asia to the North and West. Africa.
Some of this information was brought to light in a recent TikTok video by user @deffnotantt, an Afro-Latino content creator who focuses on historical and cultural things that shed light on the ways cultures have come together. over the centuries.
While some of the video’s points are up for debate, we want to expand on some salient facts.
horchata
In the original TikTok video, @deffnotantt claims that horchata originated in North Africa and was extremely popular throughout the region. In countries like Nigeria and Mali, what we now know as horchata was called Kunun Aya and consisted mainly of tiger nuts, coconut and dates, according to a recipe in Dobby’s Signature.
The video also claims that Kunun Aya was introduced to Mexico through Spanish and Portuguese traders and eventually developed into the horchata we know and love today.
All this is true! However, another version of horchata made with milk barley has its origins in Ancient Rome. This drink was called “hordeata,” which translates to “drink made from barley,” according to the National Library of Medicine. Both drinks made their rounds throughout Europe before Spanish and Portuguese traders introduced the drink to Mexico.
The most interesting part of the horchata we drink now is that its invention was kind of an accident. The tiger nuts used to make Kunun Aya were also known as chufas, according to Research Gate. When traders ventured across the Atlantic, they forgot to bring chugas with them and instead used rice, resulting in the signature ingredient of the horchata recipe.
Although never confirmed, rumor has it that the closest known comparison to horchata, linguistically, came from a 13th-century king named James of Aragon, who tasted the drink and exclaimed, “Açò no es llet, açò és or, xata! ” According to the Seattle Times, this roughly translates to, “That’s not milk, that’s gold, girl!”
So when you think about it, not too hard, horchata basically means “Golden Girl”. The real question is, did Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia know about it?
Tamarind
Tamardino, also known as agua de tamarindo, is an extremely popular drink throughout Latin America, but mainly in Mexico, which is also known as its country of origin. And while this is true to some extent, the tamarind plant has a rich history of origin for not one but two different continents.
Although the TikTok video is correct in saying that the tamarind originated in tropical Africa, a claim that is corroborated by an official paper on the plant from Purdue University’s horticulture department, some have theorized that the tamarind plant actually originated in India , or at least was introduced so early that the country has a legitimate claim to the indigeneity of the plant in more than one part of the world.
Regardless, the presence of tamarind in India and Sudan made it a worldwide phenomenon adopted by African, Indian, Arab and Latin American communities. The plant is also known as “Hindu tamar” in Arab countries, which translates to “Indian date”. Mexico alone is home to 10,000 hectares of tamarind plants in states like Jalisco, Oaxaca and Veracruz.
Plantains (and also Mofongo)
This is where it gets really interesting. Plantains are, without a doubt, a staple of Latin America. From platanos to tostones to mofongo to pasteles, plantains are a huge part of diaspora cuisine and are one of the most popular ingredients in a variety of dishes, largely due to their starchy quality.
It is widely known that the plantain was introduced to Latin America through West Africa, but the origin of this particular fruit goes back even further than that, to Southeast Asia. Because they are still widely used in much of West Africa and throughout Latin America, it makes sense that these are the regions with which plantains are most identified.
But the plantain, which comes from the genus Musa, has its roots in the tropical regions of Southeast Asia and Oceania, where it was then introduced into West Africa before making its way to Latin America, says a textbook called “Genomics of Tropical Crop “. Plants.”
In terms of their use today, dishes like mofongo have their origins in African fufu, a doughy food native to West Africa. The idea of mofongo (a plantain bowl) spread throughout West and Central Africa, before making its way to Puerto Rico with the Central African ethnic groups that would come to populate the island.
The word mofongo is actually derived from Kikongo, a Bantu language native to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The word mfwenge-mfwenge means “a large quantity of anything at all”, most likely in reference to the large number of grated plantains used to make it.
There you have! Latin American dishes originate from all over the world, and the idea of a global, cultural melting pot really comes to life when we trace the origins of something as integral as the cuisine of a specific culture.
Notice any corrections needed? Please email us at [email protected]
