On the subject of food history... Taiwanese food is so recent as to be a study in nothing at all. Chinese did not invent steamed buns (they came from the Ottomans) and are the only civilization known to have lost the recipe for baklava. Ramen is Chinese and super modern and derives from US dumping wheat on postwar Japan as a staple. Pasta was exceptionally rare and reserved for the aristocrats in pre-modern Italy. Which begs the question: what did they eat? Probably meat, fish, bread, fruit and rice. Finally, rice noodles were popularised in Thailand by political machinations as a means to stave off hunger by preserving rice stocks.
