Food is perfectly positioned to link students' lives to the deep and broad historical forces around them. Like everybody else, students procure and consume food on a daily basis, use it to mark special occasions, share it with friends, enjoy or dispute it with families, all perhaps without ever considering its potential for historical analysis. The pedagogical example described in this article uses a lesson on food history to help students understand the significance of early modern contact. The "Columbian Exchange" refers to the transfer of plants, animals, and microbes across the Atlantic--and, later, around the globe--in the wake of Christopher Columbus' voyages at the end of the fifteenth century. In the years since Alfred Crosby first coined the term in 1972, historians and ecologists have produced a large body of research showing how the Columbian Exchange was transformative to ecologies and cultures. The authors use this as a central topic in their "Worlds Colliding" course, which explores early modern contact both historically and ecologically. The authors have found that a particularly effective introduction to the early years of the Columbian Exchange can be found on the students' plates.