Ketchup

The savory, sweet, and tangy ketchup is one of the world's most famous condiments. It is believed that the word ketchup is derived from the Hokkien Chinese kê-tsiap, referring to a sauce made from fermented fish that was probably brought from Vietnam to China by traders in the past.

It's also likely that the British came into contact with ketchup in Southeast Asia, and when they got back home, they tried to replicate it by using ingredients such as oysters, anchovies, walnuts, and mushrooms. The first written and published recipe for ketchup with tomatoes dates back to 1812, when James Mease wrote that it contains tomato pulp, brandy, and spices.

In the US, Henry J. Heinz started producing ketchup in 1879, and his first recipe called for ripe tomatoes, vinegar, allspice, mace, cloves, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon, while the second one included ginger, celery salt, brown sugar, horseradish, pepper, and mustard seed.

Nowadays, Heinz is the best-selling ketchup brand in the US, with more than 650 million bottles of ketchup (that we know today) sold annually. The condiment is typically used with fried and greasy foods such as hot dogs, burgers, french fries, and various sandwiches.