Atlas Trail
Wine, Cheese and Spice: New Threads in Food and Drink
A path through this wave's own research: from the world's oldest confirmed winemaking in Neolithic Georgia, through the cheese-filled breads it shares a table with, to Indonesia's chili-driven cuisine and the Torah roots of Jewish dietary law.
Stop 1 of 9.
Food Traditions
Neolithic Georgian pottery carries the earliest chemically confirmed evidence of grape winemaking, around 6000 BC.
Stop 2 of 9.
Drinks
Wine itself, still debated between Georgia and Iran as the earliest site.
Stop 3 of 9.
Cuisines
Georgia's own cuisine, still built around the qvevri wine tradition.
Stop 4 of 9.
Dishes
Khachapuri, Georgia's cheese-filled bread, paired at the table with qvevri wine.
Stop 5 of 9.
Food Traditions
The spice networks that, centuries later, carried the New World chili pepper to Indonesia.
Stop 6 of 9.
Cuisines
Indonesian cuisine, reshaped by that chili pepper into today's sambal-driven table.
Stop 7 of 9.
Dishes
Rendang, the Minangkabau dish CNN's 2011 readers' poll ranked the world's most delicious food.
Stop 8 of 9.
Food Traditions
A turn to dietary law: kashrut, rooted in Leviticus and Deuteronomy in ancient Israel.
Stop 9 of 9.
Food Traditions
And nixtamalization, the Mesoamerican maize process this wave also deepened, closing the trail with one more ancient food technology.
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