In 1280, Marco Polo, the great traveller of Medieval Europe, left the city of Gie-Za in China and entered Fu-gie. During his travel to Fu-Gie, Marco Polo passed valleys and hills, towns and villages, saw fields of vast expanse, and animals like tigers of great strength and size.
Marco Polo met merchants who sold him ginger and galangal at a bargain. However, he discovered yet another root consumed amongst men and women in the land. It was very expensive and took him in awe. He described the ‘vegetable’ as having ‘all the properties of the true saffron, as well as the smell and colour, and yet it is not really saffron.”
What Marco Polo saw in In Fu-Gie for the first time was Turmeric. Mongolians widely used it in their cuisine and considered it to be of great value. He wrote about it in his records, which opened the eyes of the West to the Eastern customs and luxuries and sparked an interest in trade.
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