In one of the
more amazing journeys of world history, the Portuguese
left South America and sailed across the Pacific, carrying
food, flora and fauna with them. They landed in the Philippines
and from there, proceeded to other ports in East Asia.
The peanut quickly took
root in the Philippines, Indonesia, up the Malay peninsula
and into China. The Chinese immediately appreciated its
value as a protein and oil source, as well as the nitrogen-enriching
properties of the plant’s roots, says Bruce
Cost, author and restaurateur.
The Chinese developed ways
to cultivate the peanut in volume, and those methods eventually
traveled to India.
The peanut thrived in Southeast
Asia, which offered the same tropical and subtropical habitat
of its origins. In Southeast Asia, the soybean, the peanut’s
vegetable-protein competition, did not grow well.
Meanwhile, the peanut had
landed, again with the Portuguese, in Africa and then India.
Somewhere in India or perhaps Western China, the peanut
met up with itself again. According to Julie
Sahni, author and historian, peanuts arrived in India
in the late 1800s. The larger, so-called Brazilian variety
came through Africa, and the smaller Peruvian-type arrived
from China.
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