Charred food remains are providing us with direct evidence of food, says a maya aranzo tegu an archio botanist at the paris museum of natural history. Baking bread leaves tell bubbles behind, for example, whereas boiling grain before charring it gelatinizes the starch. There is evidence that people in the region have been eating bulga for at least four thousand years by boiling barley or wheat and then drying it for storage and quick rehydration.