@CGCampbell The reason I bought up the Meiji Restoration is that Japan imported a ton of cultural and philosophical concepts from the west during it.

Closer to the potato example though, I can think of chiili pepper. The Portugese introduced it to Japan in the 16th century and it really caught on in Japanese cooking: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichimi

That's ok, I know WHAT I want to ask, I'm just going to work on writing it up in a more coherent fashion

That is actually exactly what I was looking for (chili pepper)

Ahh, i see. I think I was misled by the culture tag.

@Semaphore OK, I've tried again.