Fermentation (and the utilization of it to get shit faced) is as old as humanity itself. Frying foods (and I mean deep frying, not cooking something in a pan and calling it frying) goes back to the romans and the greeks but even cave men were figuring out how to get drunk. The earliest known records of deep frying go back to ancient greece. The earliest records and evidence of purposeful fermentation to create alcohol goes back to 13,000 BC. Even our ape ancestors were getting drunk off fermented fruit (although that doesnt really count since it wasnt purposeful agricultural production like we imagine)