The idea of a standard Japanese meal of white rice with several side dishes is largely a modern construction. The word washoku was an everyday Meiji-period term from 1868 to 1912, meaning food from Japan, set against a new flood of European foods. It was popularised from the 1960s and was enshrined as a UNESCO intangible heritage item in 2013. Before the 1950s, most people rarely ate pure white rice, which only became common in daily life through wartime rationing. Ramen, often seen as a purely Japanese dish, was developed in the early 1900s by Chinese immigrants.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.