The First Barbecue

My assumption  that most good things come from the Tain or, sometimes, from the Taino Indians, gained support recently. I was reading about the two white guys who visited Central America in the 1830s and found the remains of the Maya civilization. On this trip they came across a group of Mayas gathered around a fire and cooking meat on an open fire, food that the Mayas called "barbecue."  The travelers sampled this food, which they had never heard of before, and found it excellent.

I decided to look up "barbecue." It is usually listed as an American Spanish term, but in fact it came from Indians around the Caribbean, perhaps the Taino. Barbecue carries with it a sense of crudely primitive wilderness. Some European Americans became aware of it in the 17th century. A modern barbecue requires an open fire, lots of smoke, a sauce and beef, pork or chicken. Genuine barbecue is hard to find, but there is a place in Calistoga at the west end of Lincoln. 

Add barbecue to a list that includes corn, potatoes, tomatoes, vanilla, chocolate and tequila, developed in what we now call Latin America.