What is the availability of Maztica Imported Food in the Realms?

Question

To celebrate 20 years of campaign, my wife's party is holding a party ingame (its a feast to celebrate the founding of the adventuring party) and a party in real life (because why not).

So they are supposed to bring in foods that should exist in the realms. And the DM is keeping tally of any exceptional ingredients used.

Wife wants to use potatoes and tomatoes (and maybe something else that comes up in the vending booth). Unfortunately they are imports from Maztica and should be damn rare. That is fine, her character is on a quest to obtain rare materials for her cooking.

And to probably sneak in some castings of Alamir's Fundamental Breakdown on some odd cooking from another continent.

What is the availability of Maztica Imports in the Realms? In what regions is it easier to obtain?

Bonus points if there is a price table buried in some book. No matter what edition.

Answer 1

The region that benefits most, and where most Maztican goods are available, is surely Amn. The 3e FR Campaign Setting states:

Every year more gold, gemstones and valuable crops such as vanilla and coffee are brought back to Faerun in Amnian carracks, ...

In addition to the Amnian markets, the 2e Maztica campaign boxed set, A Journey to the True World (aJttTW), also names Waterdeep and Calimshan as targets for Amnian goods.

Regarding the price, one piece of relevant information, the price of coffee beans, comes from the System of Exchange section of aJttTW (page 66):

The basic coin of the land is the cocoa bean. Its value varies depending upon rarity and need, but for purposes of the game it can be considered the rough equivalent of the copper piece.

This value is consistent for both sides of the Trackless Sea - the introduction of the bitter Maztican chocolate to the Sword Coast has been an unqualified success from an economic and culinary point of view. However, cocoa beans on the Sword Coast will generally have to be sold to a spice dealer for their equivalent in coinage - they are not accepted in use by most merchants and vendors.

It is worth noting that aJttTW mentions (page 54) that the "Maztican food tends to be surprisingly spicy to the inhabitants of the Sword Coast".

Finally, 1e/2e Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue gives prices for various Maztican food stuffs. In general, even the cheapest things (like potatoes, dried tomatoes) are about 10-20gp per pound/pint, and the prices go up for dried/jerked buffalo meat, spices, cocoa, etc. and can reach as high as 100gp/lb.