This paper chronicles the spread of western foods to China with conquest
and trade during Imperial times, especially during the time of the Mongol
Empire. Over centuries, most of the important west Eurasian crop plants,
domestic animals, and medicinal herbs became known at least marginally
in China, and most were incorporated in Chinese foods and medicine.
A particularly thoughtful (but anonymous) reader of this paper has
suggested a theme: the enthusiastic adoption of foreign plants and animals,
but the much less clear or enthusiastic adoption of the medical and
nutritional beliefs that came with them from the west. This was less true in
the Mongol period (and, probably, in the Tang period)1 than at other times,
but even in Mongol times, Chinese medicine maintained its intellectual
dominance – though we are probably missing some influences due to ideas
being recast in Chinese medical language.