Food and Drink Atlas

How The World Eats

Food and Drink Atlas

Disputed Statements

Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.

72 statements marked Debated.

Tacos al Pastor, Origin Period, To (Year)1960

Tacos al Pastor, Dishes

Standing

Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)

Currently States 1960

Marks the 1960s, the decade sources agree the modern pineapple-and-pork tacos al pastor became a popular taqueria dish, though no more precise date is documented.

Source Al Pastor (Wikipedia)

Tapas Culture, Origin RegionSpain

Tapas Culture, Food Traditions

Standing

Concerns Origin Region

Currently States Spain

Real Academia de Gastronomia states the practice's origin is lost in legend (Alfonso X of Castile and the Andalusian tapar/covering-drinks story are the two commonly repeated but undocumented accounts). Following this atlas's own precedent on Salt: an unfixable date is refused, not invented, so origin-start-year and origin-end-year are left unset for this entity.

Source Tapa (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Tapas Culture, Origin Period, From (Year)1250

Tapas Culture, Food Traditions

Standing

Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)

Currently States 1250

The earliest date offered is a royal legend, not a documented practice: that King Alfonso X of Castile (1221-1284) began the custom of covering a wine glass with a small dish of food while recovering from illness. The custom as a widespread, named social practice is only well documented from the 18th and 19th centuries, so the two dates bracket a folk origin legend and a much later attested spread rather than one settled beginning.

Source Tapas (Wikipedia)

Tapas Culture, Origin Period, To (Year)1900

Tapas Culture, Food Traditions

Standing

Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)

Currently States 1900

Marks the point by which tapas had become a widely attested, named Spanish social custom rather than the isolated royal anecdotes of its legendary origin; see the origin-start-year note on this entity for the full range.

Source Tapas (Wikipedia)

Teff, Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)-4000

Teff, Ingredients

Standing

Concerns Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)

Currently States -4000

The source gives a range rather than a single point: cultivation is confirmed by at least 1000 BCE and possibly as far back as 4000 BCE.

Source Teff (Wikipedia)

Teff, Earliest Documented Use, To (Year)-1000

Teff, Ingredients

Standing

Concerns Earliest Documented Use, To (Year)

Currently States -1000

Closing, better-confirmed bound of the same range; see the start-year note.

Source Teff (Wikipedia)

Tom Yum, Origin Period, To (Year)1980

Tom Yum, Dishes

Standing

Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)

Currently States 1980

Marks the 1980s emergence of tom yam nam khon, the creamy variation now common internationally; the plain clear-broth tom yam kung is older and already established by the Rattanakosin era.

Source Tom Yum (Wikipedia)

Vodka, Origin RegionPoland and Russia (Eastern Europe)

Vodka, Drinks

Standing

Concerns Origin Region

Currently States Poland and Russia (Eastern Europe)

Poland and Russia both claim to have invented vodka first; the dispute has been active enough to affect European Union geographic labeling rules.

Source Vodka (Wikipedia)

Wine, Origin Period, From (Year)-6000

Wine, Drinks

Standing

Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)

Currently States -6000

Competing archaeological claims from sites in present-day Georgia, Armenia and Iran each propose an earliest date for winemaking; the field has not settled on one, so a range spanning the credible claims is given rather than a single year.

Source The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson

Wine, Origin Period, To (Year)-4000

Wine, Drinks

Standing

Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)

Currently States -4000

Competing archaeological claims from sites in present-day Georgia, Armenia and Iran each propose an earliest date for winemaking; the field has not settled on one, so a range spanning the credible claims is given rather than a single year.

Source The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson

Wine, Origin RegionSouth Caucasus (Georgia); the Zagros Mountains of Iran are a rival early site specialists still weigh

Wine, Drinks

Standing

Concerns Origin Region

Currently States South Caucasus (Georgia); the Zagros Mountains of Iran are a rival early site specialists still weigh

Source Early Neolithic Wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus (PNAS)

Winemaking, Origin RegionThe South Caucasus (present-day Georgia), on current chemical evidence; the Zagros Mountains of Iran are a rival early candidate site specialists still weigh, the same tension already recorded on the Wine entity itself.

Winemaking, Food Traditions

Standing

Concerns Origin Region

Currently States The South Caucasus (present-day Georgia), on current chemical evidence; the Zagros Mountains of Iran are a rival early candidate site specialists still weigh, the same tension already recorded on the Wine entity itself.

Source Archaeologists Find Earliest Evidence of Winemaking (ScienceDaily)