Waffles began as thin wafers cooked between hot iron plates. The Greeks cooked flat cakes called obelios this way, and in the early Middle Ages the same idea produced communion wafer irons and oublie irons decorated with Bible scenes. The earliest known waffle recipe is in Le Ménagier de Paris, a late-14th-century household manual, but it has no leavening, so it is closer to a wafer. The modern waffle emerged in the 15th and 16th centuries with deeper, gridded irons, and yeast-raised dough arrived in Flemish recipes. Sugar became cheaper once Caribbean plantations expanded, and by the 18th century Germany and France were publishing many recipes, including the Gauffres à la Flamande, first recorded in 1740.

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.