Food Combinations, What Was their Source

While sipping my cup of black coffee, I happened to recall Postum which people tried as a coffee substitute during WWII.   I'm thankful my coffee is not Postum.  Many other foods we tend to take for granted, then I became to wonder, "Where did they all come from?  What was the original source?"  I'll bet most people have read "Dissertation on Roast Pig."  Funny but it could have happened that way.  Did some master chef go to the local grocer and dream up these delicious dishes?  I just can't see it that way.

We have forgotten how to make use of it in day to day living but our Creator did a phenomenal job of providing food for us.  My father taught me that, although it might not be delicious, anything a horse would eat was not poisonous for me.

One dish I like is not common to everyone; scrambled eggs with onion and garlic and prickly pear cactus.  Weird huh.  You can buy it at your grocer; just look for a jar of Nopalitos in the pickle or Latino Foods section.  That is the cactus processed into tender spineless strips.  I doubt any connoisseur will be offering this on his menu.  I tried to think of a situation where this might happen.

I envisioned a Mexican vaquero out on the range, far from any point of renewing his supplies but running out of food.  Hunting had been fruitless.  If he butchered a calf, he would be in serious trouble.  He was down to using roasted dandelion root as a coffee substitute.  For days he had tossed paddles of prickly pear into a fire to provide food for cattle.  Sometimes, he found bird nests at the base of the cactus; some with newly lain eggs.  When he licked his fingers after handling the hot cactus, it didn't taste bad.  He was very hungry, occasionally chewing on wild onion or garlic, just for the taste and a little fiber in his empty stomach.

The evening fire would be of little comfort without some salt pork or beans to eat.  At least he could brew some dandelion root coffee.  As he gathered fuel for the fire, he spotted some quail tending a nest at the base of a cactus.  Desperate for food, he raided the nest for a few eggs, burned the needles from two or three cactus leaves and cut them into narrow strips, pulled up some wild onion and garlic plants, then put the vegetables in his skillet to cook a few minutes with some water.  As the water boiled away, he broke the eggs (huevos) into the vegetables (betabeles) with the cactus (nopales).  He found that his invention of necessity was delicious and a new dish was born; huevos con nopalitos (scrambled eggs with cactus strips).  

I guess that is the way food has evolved since man was being sustained by fruits, vegetables, and nuts.