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A comment on Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores. Parent comment

Re:Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores by bobthepanda on Saturday June 04, 2022 @04:47AM (#31618293)
Corn starch in American sauces was probably introduced by Chinese immigrants, where starched based sauces are extremely common instead of flour-based ones, since wheat is historically less common in southern China (where most early Chinese immigrants came from)

Starch also has the nice property of tenderizing meat and locking in juices when used in a marinade, in a process called “velveting.” https://www.bonappetit.com/story/velveting-meat/amp

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Re:Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores by bbarnett on Saturday June 04, 2022 @06:29AM (#31618801)
Corn is a new world thing, although I admit that early Chinese immigrants could have discovered it as a replacement for some Chinese starchy thing...
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Re:Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores by bobthepanda on Saturday June 04, 2022 @11:17AM (#31621298)
Corn shows up in China during the 1500s via the Phillipines. https://amp.goldthread2.com/food/how-corn-ended-china-americ...

The traditional starch is water chestnut, and you can still buy it, but corn is a lot easier to turn into a starch.

In general, a lot of things went via the Pacific as well during the Columbian Exchange. East, Southeast, and South Asian looks very different without chilis, tomatoes, or sweet potatoes to name a few.

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Re:Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores by bbarnett on Saturday June 04, 2022 @05:35PM (#31625319)
Earlier than I thought, I figured a couple of centries later.
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