<P> In the Altiplano, potatoes provided the principal energy source for the Inca Empire, its predecessors, and its Spanish successor . Andean Indians prepared their potatoes in a variety of ways, such as mashed, baked boiled, and stewed in ways similar to modern day Europeans . The Andean Indians also prepared a dish called papas secas, which was a process that involved boiling, peeling, and chopping . These potatoes were then fermented in order to create toqosh: and ground to a pulp, soaked, and filtered into a starch referred to as almidón de papa . However, the cash crop of the Andean people was chuño: created by letting potatoes freeze overnight, then allowing them to thaw in the morning . Doing this repeatedly allowed for a softening of the potatoes . Farmers then extract the water from the potato, leaving it much lighter and smaller . This new creation was then prepared into a stew, and usually was an addition to a stew . The benefits of chuño are plentiful . Its primary benefit is that it can be stored for years without refrigeration, which came into use especially during years of famine or bad harvests . Secondly, this long shelf life allowed it to be the staple food for the Inca Armies, due to how well it traveled and maintained its flavor and longevity . The Spanish fed chuño to the silver miners who produced vast wealth in the 16th century for the Spanish government . </P> <P> Potato was the staple food of most Pre ‐ Columbian Mapuches, "specially in the southern and coastal (Mapuche) territories where maize did not reach maturity". </P> <P> Sailors returning from the Andes to Spain with silver presumably brought maize and potatoes for their own food on the trip . Historians speculate that leftover tubers (and maize) were carried ashore and planted: "We think that the potato arrived some years before the end of the 16th century, by two different ports of entry: the first, logically, in Spain around 1570, and the second via the British Isles between 1588 and 1593...we find traces of the transport of potatoes travelling from the Canaries to Antwerp in 1567...we can say that the potato was introduced there (the Canary islands) from South America around 1562...the first written mention of the potato (is)... a receipt for delivery dated 28 November 1567 between Las Palmas in the Grand Canaries and Antwerp ." </P> <P> Europeans in South America were aware of the potato by the mid-16th century, but refused to eat the plant . In 1553, in the book Crónica del Peru, Pedro Cieza de León mentions he saw it in Quito, Popayán and Pasto in 1538 . Basque fishermen from Spain used potatoes as ships' stores for their voyages across the Atlantic in the 16th century, and introduced the tuber to western Ireland, where they landed to dry their cod . The English privateer Sir Francis Drake, returning from his circumnavigation, or Sir Walter Raleigh's employee Thomas Harriot are commonly credited with introducing potatoes into England . In 1588, botanist Carolus Clusius made a painting of what he called "Papas Peruanorum" from a specimen in the Low Countries; in 1601 he reported that potatoes were in common use in northern Italy for animal fodder and for human consumption . </P>

Did the potato reach london or paris first
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