Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a savory rice dish of mixed origins that developed in the U.S. state of Louisiana apparently with African, Spanish, and French influences, consisting mainly of meat or seafood (or both), and vegetables mixed with rice and spices. West Africans and Spanish people each had versions of jambalaya in their respective countries. Historian Ibraham Seck states Senegalese people were making jambalaya. The French introduced tomato to West Africans and they incorporated the crop into their one-pot rice dishes that created jambalaya and enhanced jollof rice. Spanish people made paella which is also a one-pot rice dish cooked with meats and vegetables. These styles of cuisines blended in Louisiana and resulted in cultural and regional variations of the dish. The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that jambalaya comes from the Provençal word jambalaia, meaning a mish mash, or mixup, and also meaning a pilaf (pilau) of rice. This is supported by the fact that the first printed appearance of the word is in a Provençal poem published in 1837. A folk etymology of the word suggests that it is the fusion of two Spanish words: jamón ("ham") + paella (a rice dish). However, the evidence for this idea is thin. Ham is not a featured element of the dish, and Spanish speakers would call a ham paella paella con jamón, not jamón paella.[improper synthesis?]

Source: Wikipedia