Was there ever an occurrence of diplomatic communication using food?

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Tom Reiss, in his biography of Kurban Said, pp 58-59, provided an example of this. Central Asian nomads would leave caches of bread in the desert; how much was eaten would communicate to other passing nomads information about who had traveled through, etc.

Some points to consider:

It only says that Nussimbaum (Said's real name) speculated that the bread was used to communicate.

Diplomacy is official communication between two countries, I'm not sure if that applies here. We're told nothing about the content of the message or its intended recipient.

Nussimbaum was a fantasist. It is factual that he made this journey across the desert, but he made up a lot of the details. Whether this part is made up I don't know. If you want to dig deeper you'll have to read whatever book Reiss cited this from.

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There are lots of examples of Native American communities offering food such as roasted roots to Spanish colonists, who would often give glass beads and packets of seeds to the natives.

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This is not a case of using food to cross a language barrier, but rather of using food as a symbol for insisting on a diplomatic message: during the Whisky war, Schnapps and Whisky have repeatedly been offered by Canada and Denmark for making a territorial claim: "Hans island is part of my country."

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During a siege, a food is throw over the wall by the defenders, obviously accompanied by some swearing. When the attackers see it, they think "these guys are not starving if they are throwing away food like that. Lets abandon our siege!"

I have heard stories like about a couple of places, and it is certainly the local legend of Monção, Portugal, where it is said that a woman baker called Deuladeu become the city hero in the middle ages by throwing the last bread, made from the last flour supply, over the wall, thus ending a Spanish siege. She is represented in the city coat of arms

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:MNC.png

Here is her legend in portuguese: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deu-la-deu

this is an approximate translation of her supposed speech: To thee, who were unable to conquer us by arms, and who have tried to force our surrender by hunger, being ourselves more humane, and - why, thanks to god, being ourselves well supplied - and as we see that you are not well nourished, we send thee this succor, and we will send more, if you ask.

PS: There is also a green wine (Vinho Verde Alvarinho, the local delicacy) called Deuladeu, and she appears in the bottle. and her name appears to mean "God has given her to us"

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