Did Italian Food Come From China? (Facts + Photos)

You may have heard that pasta and ravioli comes originally from China being noodles and dumplings, but what's the truth? No, no, no, no, no. You guys are using sesame oil. We're using olive oil. It's all coincidental. Yeah, guys, this is for anybody who's ever thought that italian food and chinese food shared similarities I did a whole bunch of research and i'm trying to put this to rest today Okay, where does italian food come from because it's so delicious You went to italy one time you think you know the answer I did recently typical chinese. Yeah, I did recently come back from florence and I just became a geek about this Uh, so yeah, obviously a lot of people over the years have asked Oh does italian pasta come from china? Is it because of marco polo in the 12th century? He went to china right and then he brought the noodles. This is a pretty common question on the internet, right? I mean even we have joked about it. I've joked about it, but i'm here to find the truth today But here I will start before I go through the timeline of history of when dumplings and noodles and pasta came about I'm going to show you 24 pictures that will convince you that italian food and chinese food have similar roots So make sure you like subscribe turn on your notifications Check out smile at sauce at smile at sauce dot com right now on amazon guys I'm telling you this goes amazing on italian food. It goes amazing on chinese food and everything in between What is this first photo andrew is this two photos of egg drop soup from a chinese american restaurant? What is this guys on the left side? We have the chinese dish and on the right side We'll have the italian dish by the way This is an actual real chinese dish right because a lot of people associate this with americanized restaurants, but it's not guys Both italy and china have an egg drop soup already mind-blowing on the right side It's the roman egg drop soup on the left side. It's the general chinese Would you say that a lot of people would not know that italians had an egg drop soup? I didn't know I this is a recent thing a recent discovery to me guys. You had it when you are in florence you had it Uh moving on and what is this a jingle robing? Yes, this is a meat pie from the north of china and then on the bottom We have a beef calzone. So I think just visually the form factors are very similar. Yes. It's different dough Yes, they're cooked a little bit differently, but you can just say from this picture. They look very similar I like them both Let me just tell you this right now that jingdong robing Marks that calzone in terms of flavor that jingdong robing calzones are not even the closest most popular italian dish We all know this by the way guys. I love italian food. Just no. No, there's definitely some noodle dishes I mean, i'm sorry pasta dishes. I would take over a noodle dish guys the next photo I have shrimp fried rice on the left side and then I have shrimp risotto On the right side, which risotto is pretty much the italian rice So they just look similar. You are just finding the photos. They look the same Am I cherry picking guys? This is really this gets really interesting stay tuned. Uh here on the left side. We have the ginger scallion Uh lobster noodles, you know with Yes with imin, uh, that's just the chinese side and then on the right side. We have lobster pasta Wow, they look similar Okay on the left side here. We have the shanghai xiaomai Okay, which is the you know the dim sum dish right more from the region that less people are familiar with most people are familiar With the cantonese siu mai, right? And on the right side. We have this sauced up version of a stuffed Pasta dumpling called fagiolini and this is something I actually had in Florence when I was there, but this particular version I will say looks a lot more like a kinkali Which is known to have roots from the mongolian empire, right? Right, right so some people are saying it's possible that either through the silk road a lot of chinese food went to Arab countries arab countries to italy if you know about italy specifically southern italy was conquered by arabs for like a century or two Back in a day by the moors, uh, or it could have came through Genghis khan Through the more slavic route through eastern europe, right or They just happen to develop independently of each other and just ended up looking very concurrent thinking parallel evolution, right? Uh, maybe due to resources and whatnot, but we're gonna get into more of those reasons guys It's purely coincidental left side. We have cured bacon essentially pork belly and on the right side We have italian cured bacon. Okay, you got the lap yoke and then the cured bacon Yeah, all right on the left side of this picture We have the money bag dumpling a very well-known dumpling that we use for celebrations in chinese culture and on the right side a different Version of the fasciottini which looks like a miniature money bag dumpling I have got to say andrew that visually You are doing good, even though I don't like to admit david Uh this next photo on the left side we have what is considered a more northern style zhajiangmian Okay, right fried sauce noodle potentially from shandong just due to the deepness and the darkness on the right side We have spaghetti bolognese the most this is just noodles with meat sauce on top. They look exactly the same, but they taste different They do taste different guys. I'm not saying italian food and chinese food tastes similar They look similar, right? Right, right and that's because italian food uses tomato whereas chinese food would use like soy or something like that or The herbs would be different tomatoes are relatively recent to china past few hundred years Anyways, here we have your jiaozi, you know your your boiled dumplings and then you have your ravioli They look similar in color tone and even the way they fold obviously raviolis are made of two different sheets laid on top of each Other but of course, you know a lot of jiaozi You can just wrap it and I think this highlights also one of the key ingredient differences cheese Chinese food simply does not use cheese that no dairy zero percent Uh coming up we have chili oils guys, obviously inspired Uh what inspired small ah on the right side shout out to the calabrian italian chili oil and then on the left side We have a standard kind of like, you know, general chinese chili oil, of course There's all different types You know what I think it's interesting about italy too is that they're very provincial and they tend to know more what's in their own Province than nationally around italy So even though chili oil may be used a lot in collaborate and it doesn't mean that it's popular in other italian provinces Yes, uh, but if you go to italy at the markets, you can usually find some Chili oils, but you're right not on every table or at every restaurant. Do they have chili oil? All right, guys, let's just talk about some greens. This is an easy one garlic string beans I didn't I mean italians have a garlic string bean dish. I think that's interesting I think they have they also have grilled eggplant. Obviously chinese grilled eggplant is popular You have italian grilled eggplant. These are simple ones. Let's get on to the roast pork david Xiu yu we have xiu yu okay or fo yu right we have call it different names in cantonese and then on the right side You have italian porchetta Guys these are roast pork with crispy skins I've actually cracked a tooth one time on some super hyper crispy porchetta one time in la It was a little bit crazy and these although the seasoning is different If you took out all the seasoning they would taste very similar because it's all roast pork, right? right, right, all right here we got sesame bread on the left side you have the Uh, sumata bing, which is essentially a big sesame bread bing, right bread pancake and on the right side You have some italian sesame bread now You also see another similarity a lot of pizza spots on their bottom of their sicilian slice are putting sesame seeds So sesame seeds look very similar, right? Right specifically the grandma sliced sicilian slice has more of that same texture All right here we have dumplings again that just look exactly the same on the left side. You have a different Uh way to fold a jowl. Okay, which is just a steamed or boiled dumpling essentially and then on the right You have fold of the exact same way aglenati. Yeah aglenati is also another dumpling guys and i'm not gonna lie i'll give it to the italians they have Hundreds of types of pasta and dumplings actually, but yeah, it's crazy. I would say in america We're not familiar with the depth of italian. Exactly Gioli's right whether it's ravioli's or fagioli's or maglenati's here Maybe i'm cherry picking on this one This is egg fried rice with an egg cracked on top and then on the right side You have risotto with an egg cracked on top. They just visually look the same here You have this manto like bread steamed bread with the scallion and then it looks like garlic knots but here's another interesting one, I think that's more interesting is the Egg and chive pancake from china the jiu chai hezi and it's folded the exact same way as a calzone Come on look similar the way they braid the edges. I like them both both calorically quite dense right here you have Uh steamed codfish and then on the right side you have italian salt Codfish, I believe I believe it is salted also both chinese and italians use salted fish That's not super uncommon though. Also portuguese eat a lot of uh, even more codfish bacalao. Exactly. Exactly david here we have Dried sausages the cantonese dried sausage the lap churn and then you have the italian dried sausage Here on the right side looking exactly the same. I got to give it to you man. The evidence is Clear play is it convincing or not? I got more to go bro. I found more looks here. We have steamed dumplings in the shape of a leaf and on the right side we have Italian dumplings in the shape of a leaf bro. These are called curler Sorry if I butchered the italian It's not a very well-known dumpling in america But yes, this is an italian dumpling and they are folded exactly the same my god. Gosh, man We're dead. I remember eating this specific style on the hangzhou jowls in beijing Hangzhou jowls is like a fake brand by the fond memories for yourself. Oh my goodness. Anyways continuing we have Xi'an Lamb noodles, right and these are hand-pulled noodles. They're very thick and that is similar to parpadelle Ragu, right? This is a ragu beef ragu sauce with parpadelle which have similar look to the hand-torn noodles, right? Specifically a lot of xi'an noodles look very pasta-like, right? Yes. Yes. Yes And then of course last but not least This style of wrapped wonton is wrapped exactly the same as the ravioli in uh, or this is sorry This might be a tortellini. I forgot. Um, but essentially this is an italian dumpling guys. So what I I have those photos not to say that italian food did come from china, but There are some similarities here man. The countries are along the same latitude like relatively But how do david how do I want to ask this question to any anthropologists out there or whatever food Scientists, how do two countries that are so far apart from each other? 7,500 kilometers from each other Have such similar food when none of these other countries in between Seem to develop the similar food now. It might be because of resources. Italy is a very resource rich area It's a peninsula tons of water tons of uh irrigation great lands to grow stuff Obviously great wine china also within such a big country has a lot of that too throughout the country But how did it happen? How did it you did the research andrew you tell me because i'll tell you this i'm saying china invented it Well, i'll tell you this guys. Uh Contrary to popular belief. It was not marco polo. It just doesn't line up date wise timeline wise It wasn't marco polo plus if marco polo really brought pasta to italy You don't think that we'd be calling it marco polo pasta or something. He'd definitely take credit There was a commercial about this a long time ago That went really viral right where marco polo like shows to the to the queen exactly now And I think that this is a generally like accepted joke But you know to not piss off all the italians out there. I actually don't think it's true So if you look at the timeline and we're going to come to our conclusion at the end of this video Hopefully it was uh interesting for all of you. Uh 3000 bc the first this is when the noodle artifacts were found in shandong So noodles have been a part of china for a very very long time 3000 bc's so these noodle artifacts are 4000 plus years old even when we are cavemen. We know we like men. Yeah, so definitely China had noodles first. That's a fact 400 bc some evidence to show a form of pasta was being made in a cave in italy. All right, so that's that's pretty That's still pretty old too 200 bc to ad there's records showing that noodles and dumplings were starting to be eaten during the han dynasty So so chinese during the han dynasty, they are both eating noodles and dumplings. So we got noodles and dumplings at this point 500 ad there is records showing the first boiled pasta in italy Okay, which a lot of people now accept that the pasta was actually brought over by arabs Arab nations do some arab nations do eat pasta in the middle east But it's but it's not as popular as it is in italy I've never had middle eastern pasta, right? Uh, but so 1200 ad genghis khan empire's rule. Obviously, there's a lot of influences There are some dumpling and chinese influences from because genghis khan picks it up from china or that that current dynasty And then brings it across right the the golden horde. Yes rushes towards europe now This is where it gets interesting during the same time marco polo Makes his way to china, but the details of his trip are debated So it's not it's not really clear what he brought back from china. Mark, uh, right Uh, and then 1300 ad pretty much the same time marco polo leaves Uh pasta is a huge staple in florence and rome But this means that pasta was already a thing in italy well before marco polo left on his journey Okay, so when did uh italians start becoming tough guys? Where is that on this timeline? Well, you know, I wanted to wear my tank top and uh gold chain, uh for the italian food video but anyways guys, so My conclusions are this david as someone who's looked into this and you know As much as my chinese pride would tell me to claim the noodles claim the pasta. It is ours We gave it to the middle east and the middle east give it to the italian About it We are in the far east then it goes to the middle east the middle easterns They take over italy for some period of time. It's quite logical. All right So that's a possible theory No, honestly, and i'm not trying to say that italian food comes from china because obviously the food tastes really really different guys Pasta as similar as it looks it's almost like shocking how yeah, it almost could not taste any more different Compared to how similar it looks zhajiang man a noodle dish and pasta tastes extremely different because there's the acidity from the tomato And everything like that, but the form factor is the same. So, uh china had dumplings and noodles long before italy did let's be honest Okay, so it didn't come directly from china, but it may have came through the middle east over time but Uh, I will have to say that regardless whether it did or did not it is quite odd that italian cuisine developed And chinese cuisine developed to look so similar to being in a pizza so similar man, you know What I always thought I always thought and uh, you know history's history now it's over, but I always thought that poor chinese immigrants that came over to america 100 to um, Let's just say 130 years ago 1890s is when the the first recorded incidents were They could have learned to cook italian food for really cheap. That could have been a way to stabilize their economic income in supplement to Cooking chinese food, but that doesn't mean people would have eaten at a chinese-owned italian restaurant that much either Also, how would they have learned so much italian food? they would have had it was not that I guess what i'm saying is that the cheese and the olive oils and the basils and The tomato the roma tomatoes would have been different. I'm just saying they could have they could have no they could have done the We wouldn't have liked it. We would have roughed them up if you're saying that instead of only serving chinese food at chinese express spots, they Started to learn how to serve fast food italian chinese italia expressos Yeah, italian express food. Uh, that would be interesting. But yeah, I don't think the italians would like it Anyway, actually the italian food in asia, especially in china is super cheap yeah, because like when you get it at a hotel because they're just like Yeah, it's like a noodle and guys before you say oh china didn't create it And you guys try to say china created everything. I know china got influences from other places China is also influenced by the middle east Oh for sure We all know those lamb skewers and that whole kind of like shao kao like barbecue vibe And those spices making anything in a tandoori oven. Yeah, I didn't come from that's not a It's not a han invention, you know side or even tomatoes. They come from portuguese traders back in the 16th century So fairly recently past four or five hundred years, right? So and also most recently. I don't think it's hard to Believe that maybe hong kong or macau chefs who often went to hong kong Are influenced by other western countries? We all know the borscht soup that we eat in hong kong cafes comes from the british But came come through the slavic through the russians from the slavs and the russians to the british to hong kong. So there's Mo in the modern times. I think chinese chefs can be influenced by italian food. I think it's possible but In ancient times guys definitely It's very weird and there's no conclusive evidence to where pasta and noodles come from but I will just say this. I think it's very odd And special in a different way. I think it's very special that italy and china are so far apart from each other But those are the two cuisines that look so Similar for sure for sure. Listen guys. Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Do you guys see the connection? What are some other uh Photographic visual examples that andrew even left out i'm sure there's 20 30 50 more even, you know We can only make this video so long and do so much research Let us know what you think in the comment section below Does it even matter and do you think there's more room and more opportunity for fusions? I think so That's why we created smiley sauce get it on amazon or smileysauce.com right now Let us know what you think. These are fun things guys Don't be offended until next time we're the hot pot boys. We out peace