Potatoes

[Lalwendë]

If the taters came up when cooked like bread then they were probably King Edwards. The UK's finest floury spud for making big chunky chips, mash, and you can also knock up tater cakes from them - using cold mash and a bit of flour, just mix into a 'dough', roll out and cut into rounds and dry fry them til browned and serve with a big knob of butter. Drrrrrrooooooool.

Aren't chapatis also made from tater flour?

Plus spuds will grow in all kinds of climates. Some of the best are harvested up in Scotland, and of course it's the staple Irish food and the climate there certainly isn't balmy.

Anyway, all this wondering about why they had taters when America hadn't been discovered is a bit of a red herring because it was Arda. It didn't have an America in it, nor a Europe; it was a fantasy world so there's no problem with them having taters, tobacco, tomatoes and coffee in Middle-earth.

I'm not surprised Elves didn't know about taters though. They probably existed on that vile no-carbs Atkins diet, looking at how skinny they were (I wonder if they also had the bad breath?).