American foods refer to ingredients native to America and dishes made from those ingredients which have been adopted into various cuisines worldwide after being introduced during European exploration and colonization periods.
Think of American foods as a popular band that was discovered in America. Once they started touring around the world (during colonization), their music (the food) became popular globally, influencing other bands (cuisines) and creating new genres (fusion dishes).
Columbian Exchange: The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Maize: Also known as corn, it's a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago.
Potato: A starchy plant tuber which is one of the most important food crops, cooked and eaten as a vegetable. It was first domesticated in the region of modern-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia.
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