The beautiful thing about food is that it is simultaneously both nourishment to human bodies and an anthropological study of human history. Food offers a tangible and tactile look into a culture.
What would Italian food be without tomatoes — pizza with roasted, sweet tomato sauce or tangy Bolognese? Or Chinese food without chili peppers — kashgar beef with hot chilly soy paste, or hot kung pao chicken? And yet, tomatoes are not native to Italy, nor chili peppers to China; both were brought over from the Americas in the 16th century.
There are a million examples of food evolving as people moved around the globe. We can learn history from every plate of food.
When you think of a certain cuisine, there are layers of migration, climate and technological impacts in every dish. So no one country has a monolithic cuisine. While you may not be able to travel to some of the countries listed below, you can taste the dynamic flavors and learn a little about the history of these fantastic dishes, right here in the Scenic City. This list of international cuisines found here in Chattanooga is by no means exhaustive; it’s a small sample of all the goodness our city has to offer.