Christopher Columbus never ate fries. How come? Because there was not fries at that time. And there was not any in Europe. You could not buy them. There were only potatoes in the Andes in imperial Inca. He never went to the Andes. Other exploreres went to the mountains later and saw a great civilization. The treasure that was most important was not gold or silver but was the humble potato.
             The Incas had many varieties of potatoes. The first potatoes were very small. The Indians cultivated the potato for 750 years. Now technology has instant potatoes.
             The Incas have an interesting system. They put them out side the house over night to freeze them. In the morning with the heat of the sun, they would defrost. Then the Incas with their fingers extract the water (sometimes with feet like making wine). After they would grind them into flour. In this way, they have food all year.
             The potato is also called the "patata". "Papa " is that name in "quechua" that is the language of the Incas. When Christopher Columbus arrived in America, he described the islands of the Caribbean and the sweet potato the Spanish called "batata". And it became popular. When the potato arrived in Europe, with years of talk and confusion with the "patata" in America we still use the name "papa" given by the Incas.
             Sir Walter Raleigh brought the potato to Ireland to fight hunger. One of the many legends of the potato tell us that when he brought some potatoes to queen Elizabeth of England ate the leaves not the potato. And said it was horrible. Nobody knew that the queen ate the leaves not the potato.
             The potato did not become popular. In Scotland, it was evil because they were not mentioned in the bible. People in France consider it poisonous.
             In 1750 Federico, the great ordered the cultivating of the potato in the kingdom. He had to go to the balcony of his palace and eat potatoes to convince pe...