Poutine was created in the Centre-du-Québec region in the late 1950s, and several restaurants there claim to have invented it, so no consensus exists. The Quebec gastronomy researcher Sylvain Charlebois argues that Warwick is its birthplace, while Drummondville's Jean-Paul Roy is the true inventor because Le Roy Jucep was the first to sell it with three combined ingredients in 1964. The Oxford Companion to Cheese takes a different view, saying the real inventors were customers who asked for cheese curds on their fries. The dish combines hot fries, fresh cheese curds and gravy, and the squeak of curds is part of its appeal.

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.