American food in Europe
Turkeys, which were imported live into Europe for breeding, quickly overtook many native European game birds in popularity. Corn and beans were easily grown in southern Europe and soon became staple items. Pineapples became a highly popular luxury item and were often grown in greenhouses. Although some people, particularly in Spain and Italy, began raising tomatoes in the mid-1500's, most people considered them poisonous. Instead, the tomato plant was raised as an ornamental plant. Tomatoes did not become widely accepted as food in Europe until well into the 1800's.
Cacao beans, which can grow only in the tropics, had to be imported from the Americas. They were difficult to obtain in the 1500's because for many years, Spain was the only country with access to them. By the mid-1600's, however, cacao beans had become more plentiful in Europe and chocolate as a drink had become popular throughout most of the continent.
Unlike many commodities from Asia, food items from the Americas did not spur economic growth or start a transatlantic trading frenzy. In the 1600's, two items grown in the New World did become commercial successes--tobacco, a plant native to North America, and sugar cane, an Asian plant that Europeans brought to the West Indies.