1.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
2.
African cuisine
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Traditionally, the various cuisines of Africa use a combination of locally available fruits, cereal grains and vegetables, as well as milk and meat products, and do not usually get food imported. In some parts of the continent, the traditional diet features a lot of milk, curd and these foodstuffs have had a large influence on the local cuisine, if perhaps less on the preparation methods. Central African cooking has remained mostly traditional, nevertheless, as in other parts of Africa, Central African cuisine presents a variety of dishes. The basic ingredients are plantains and cassava, fufu-like starchy foods are served with grilled meat and sauces. A variety of ingredients are used while preparing other dishes like spinach stew cooked with tomato, peppers, chillis, onions. Cassava plants are consumed as cooked greens. Groundnut stew is prepared, containing chicken, okra, ginger. Another favorite is bambara, a porridge of rice, peanut butter, beef and chicken are favorite meat dishes, but game meat preparations containing crocodile, monkey, antelope and warthog are also served occasionally. In the inland savannah, the cuisine of cattle-keeping peoples is distinctive in that meat products are generally absent. Cattle, sheep, pigs and goats were regarded as a form of currency and a store of wealth, in some areas, traditional peoples consume the milk and blood of cattle, but rarely the meat. Elsewhere, other peoples are farmers who grow a variety of grains, maize is the basis of ugali, the local version of West Africas fufu. Ugali is a dish eaten with meats or stews. In Uganda, steamed green bananas called matoke provide the starch filler of many meals, around 1000 years ago, Omani and Yemeni merchants settled on the Swahili Coast. Some common ingredients used in this region include oranges, lemons, limes, chillis, capscium peppers, maize, the main traditional dishes in Ethiopian cuisine and Eritrean cuisine are tsebhis served with injera and hilbet. Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine are similar, given the shared history of the two countries. Eritrean and Ethiopian food habits vary regionally, in the highlands, injera is the staple diet and is eaten daily among the Tigrinya. Injera is made out of teff, wheat, barley, sorghum or corn, when eating, diners generally share food from a large tray placed in the centre of a low dining table. Numerous injera are layered on this tray and topped with various spicy stews, diners then break into the section of injera in front of them, tearing off pieces and dipping them into the stews
3.
Louisiana Creole cuisine
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Creole cuisine revolves around influences found in Louisiana from populations present in Louisiana before the sale of Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Louisiana sits at a cross-roads for a variety of immigrant influences. Its widely known that Louisiana was founded by the French, thus in Louisiana Creole is placed in a French aesthetic, with an emphasis on complex sauces and slow-cooking. The Portuguese, Spaniards and the Italians used tomatoes extensively, which had not been a frequent ingredient in the earlier French era, pasta and tomato sauces arrived during the period when New Orleans was a popular destination for Italian, and Greek immigrants. Many Italians and Greeks became grocers, bakers, cheese makers and orchard farmers, many people confuse Creole cuisine with Cajun cuisine, however they are actually quite distinct. They were created by different French colonial and immigrant populations, despite using many of the same ingredients, rural Cajun food uses more sausage, crawfish, game, and corn, while New Orleans Creole prefers shrimp and domestic meat. New Orleans Creole cuisine create sauces that are richer, less spicy, with the rise of Southern American Cooking in the 1980s, a New Creole strain began to emerge. While the Cajun food craze eventually passed, Modern Creole has remained as a predominant force in most major New Orleans restaurants, baking - direct and indirect dry heat in a furnace or oven, faster than smoking but slower than grilling. Grilling - direct heat on a surface, fastest of all variants, sub-variants include. Gridironing - direct dry heat on a solid or hollow surface with narrow raised ridges, griddling - direct dry or moist heat along with the use of oils and butter on a flat surface. Boiling - as in boiling of crabs, crawfish, or shrimp, deep frying Smothering - cooking a vegetable or meat with low heat and small amounts of water or stock, similar to braising. Étouffée is a popular variant done with crawfish or shrimp, injecting - using a large syringe-type setup to place seasoning deep inside large cuts of meat. This technique is much newer than the others on this list, deep-frying of turkeys or oven-roasted turduckens entered southern Louisiana cuisine more recently. The following is a partial list of ingredients used in Creole cuisine, corn Rice — long, medium, or short grain white, also popcorn rice Rice proved to be a valuable commodity in Creole cuisine. With an abundance of water and a hot, humid climate, rice could be grown anywhere in the region. Rice became the predominant starch in the diet, as it was easy to grow, the oldest rice mill in operation in the United States, the Conrad Rice Mill, is located in New Iberia. Wheat Creole folkways include many techniques for preserving meat, some of which are waning due to the availability of refrigeration, smoking of meats remains a fairly common practice, but once-common preparations such as turkey or duck confit are now seen even by Acadians as quaint rarities. Game is still popular in Creole cooking
4.
Cajun cuisine
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Cajun cuisine is a style of cooking named for the French-speaking Acadian people deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine, locally available ingredients predominate, shrimp and pork sausage are staple meats used in a variety of dishes. The aromatic vegetables green bell pepper, onion, and celery are called the holy trinity by Cajun chefs in Cajun and Louisiana Creole cuisines. Roughly diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of the mirepoix in traditional French cuisine which blends roughly diced onion, celery and carrot. Characteristic aromatics for the Creole version may also include parsley, bay leaf, green onions, dried cayenne pepper, and dried black pepper. Around 1755, Acadians were forced out of their settlements by the British, due to the extreme change in climate, Acadians were unable to cook their original dishes. Soon, their former culinary traditions were lost, and so, up through the 20th century, the meals were not elaborate but instead, rather basic. The publics false perception of Cajun cuisine was based on Prudhommes style of Cajun cooking, which was spicy, flavorful, today, most restaurants serve dishes that consist of Cajun styles, which Paul Prudhomme dubbed Louisiana cooking. In home-cooking, these styles are still kept separate. However, there are fewer and fewer people cooking the classic Cajun dishes that would have been eaten by the original settlers, barbecuing - similar to slow and low Southern barbecue traditions, but with Creole / Cajun seasoning. Baking - direct and indirect dry heat in a furnace or oven, faster than smoking, grilling - direct heat on a shallow surface, fastest of all variants, sub-variants include, Charbroiling - direct dry heat on a solid surface with wide raised ridges. Gridironing - direct dry heat on a solid or hollow surface with narrow raised ridges, griddling - direct dry or moist heat along with the use of oils and butter on a flat surface. Boiling - as in boiling of crabs, crawfish, or shrimp, deep frying Smothering - cooking a vegetable or meat with low heat and small amounts of water or stock, similar to braising. Étouffée is a popular variant done with crawfish or shrimp, injecting - using a large syringe-type setup to place seasoning deep inside large cuts of meat. This technique is much newer than the others on this list, deep-frying of turkeys or oven-roasted turduckens entered southern Louisiana cuisine more recently. Also, blackening of fish or chicken and barbecuing of shrimp in the shell are excluded because they were not prepared in traditional Cajun cuisine, the following is a partial list of ingredients used in Cajun cuisine and some of the staple ingredients of the Acadian food culture. Corn Rice — long, medium, or short grain white, with an abundance of water and a hot, humid climate, rice could be grown practically anywhere in the region and grew wild in some areas. Rice became the predominant starch in the diet, easy to grow, the oldest rice mill in operation in the United States, the Conrad Rice Mill, is located in New Iberia
5.
Native American cuisine
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Native American cuisine includes all food practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Modern-day native peoples retain a rich culture of traditional foods, some of which have become iconic of present-day Native American social gatherings. Foods like cornbread, turkey, cranberry, blueberry, hominy, in other cases, documents from the early periods of contact with European, African, and Asian peoples allow the recovery of food practices which passed out of popularity. Modern-day Native American cuisine is varied, the use of indigenous domesticated and wild food ingredients can represent Native American food and cuisine. North American native cuisine can differ somewhat from Southwestern and Mexican cuisine in its simplicity, the use of ramps, wild ginger, miners lettuce, and juniper berry can impart subtle flavours to various dishes. Different ingredients can change the meaning of Native American cuisine. A chef preparing a Native American dish can adopt, create, the essential staple foods of the Eastern Woodlands Aboriginal Americans were maize, beans, and squash. Southeastern Native American culture has formed the cornerstone of Southern cuisine from its origins till the present day, corn was used to make all kinds of dishes from the familiar cornbread and grits to liquors such as whiskey, which were important trade items. Though a lesser staple, potatoes were also adopted from Native American cuisine and were used in ways similar to corn. Native Americans introduced the first non-Native American Southerners to many other vegetables still familiar on southern tables, squash, pumpkin, many types of beans, tomatoes, many types of peppers, and sassafras all came to the settlers via the native tribes. Many fruits are available in this region, muscadines, blackberries, raspberries, and many other wild berries were part of Southern Native Americans diet. Southeastern Native Americans also supplemented their diets with meats derived from the hunting of native game, venison was an important meat staple, due to the abundance of white-tailed deer in the area. They also hunted rabbits, squirrels, opossums, and raccoons, livestock, adopted from Europeans, in the form of hogs and cattle, were kept. Aside from the meat, it was not uncommon for them to eat organ meats such as liver, brains, the fat of the animals, particularly of hogs, was rendered and used for cooking and frying. Many of the settlers were taught Southeastern Native American cooking methods. In the Northwest of what is now the United States, Native Americans used salmon and other fish, seafood, mushrooms, berries, and meats such as deer, duck, in contrast to the Easterners, the Northwestern aboriginal peoples were principally hunter-gatherers. The generally mild climate meant they did not need to develop an economy based upon agriculture and this region comprises the cultures of the Arawaks, the Caribs, and the Ciboney. The Taíno of the Greater Antilles were the first New World people to encounter Columbus, prior to European contact, these groups foraged, hunted, and fished
6.
European cuisine
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The term is used by East Asians to contrast with Asian styles of cooking. When used by Westerners, the term may refer more specifically to cuisine in Europe, in this context. The cuisines of Western countries are diverse by themselves, although there are characteristics that distinguish Western cooking from cuisines of Asian countries. Compared with traditional cooking of Asian countries, for example, meat is more prominent, steak and cutlet in particular are common dishes across the West. Western cuisines also put emphasis on grape wine and on sauces as condiments, seasonings. Many dairy products are utilised in the process, except in nouvelle cuisine. Cheeses are produced in hundreds of different varieties, and fermented products are also available in a wide selection. Maize is much less common in most European diets than it is in the Americas, however corn meal, is a part of the cuisine of Italy. Although flatbreads, and rice are eaten in Europe, they do not constitute an ever-present staple, salads are an integral part of European cuisine. Formal European dinners are served in distinct courses, European presentation evolved from service à la française, or bringing multiple dishes to the table at once, into service à la russe, where dishes are presented sequentially. Usually, cold, hot and savoury, and sweet dishes are served separately in this order, as hors doeuvre or soup, as entrée and main course. Dishes that are sweet and savoury were common earlier in ancient Roman cuisine, but are today uncommon. A service where the guests are free to take food by themselves is termed a buffet, nevertheless, guests are expected to follow the same pattern. Historically, European cuisine has developed in the European royal. European nobility was usually arms-bearing and lived in separate manors in the countryside, the knife was the primary eating implement, and eating steaks and other foods that require cutting followed. In contrast in the Sinosphere, the class were the court officials. The knife was supplanted by the spoon for soups, while the fork was introduced later in the modern period. Today, eating dinner by hand is no longer considered acceptable, all of these countries have their specialities
7.
Latin American cuisine
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Latin American cuisine refers to typical foods, beverages, and cooking styles common to many of the countries and cultures in Latin America. Latin America is a diverse area of land that holds various cuisines that vary from nation to nation. Some items typical of Latin American cuisine include maize-based dishes and various salsas, thus, this leads for a variety across the land. Sofrito, a term that originally referred to a specific combination of sauteed or braised aromatics. It refers to a sauce of tomatoes, roasted peppers, garlic, onions. Latin American beverages are just as distinct as their foods, some of the beverages can even date back to the times of the Native Americans. Some popular beverages include mate, hibiscus tea, horchata, chicha, atole, cacao, desserts in Latin America are generally very sweet in taste. They include dulce de leche, alfajor, rice pudding, tres leches cake, teja, information about Native American cuisine comes from a great variety of sources. Modern day Native peoples retain a body of traditional foods. Foods like cornbread are known to have been adopted into the cuisine of the United States from Native American groups. In other cases, documents from the periods of contact with European, African. The main crops Native Americans used in Mexico & Central America were corn and beans such as Pupusas, Tamales, Pozole, Chuchitos, Corn tortilla and these influence is less seen in the southern cone of South America however. Africans brought and preserved many of their traditions and cooking techniques and they were often given less desired cuts of meat, including shoulder and intestines. Menudo, for example, was derived from the habit of the Spaniards of giving the slaves cows intestines, slaves developed a way to clean the offal and season it to taste. Slaves in the southern United States also did the thing to the pigs intestines given to them. Europeans brought their traditions, but quickly adapted several of the fruits. Europe itself has been influenced by other cultures, such as with the Moors in Spain, the European influence for many Latin American cuisine mainly comes from Spain. A wave of immigrants from Asia, such as China and Japan, the Chinese brought with them their own spices and food-styles, something that the people of Latin America accepted into their tables
8.
Indian cuisine
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Indian cuisine encompasses a wide variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to India. Indian food is heavily influenced by religious and cultural choices. Also, Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences have occurred on North Indian cuisine from the years of Mughal rule, Indian cuisine is still evolving, as a result of the nations cultural interactions with other societies. Historical incidents such as invasions, trade relations, and colonialism have played a role in introducing certain foods to the country. For instance, the potato, a staple of the diet in some regions of India, was brought to India by the Portuguese, Indian cuisine has shaped the history of international relations, the spice trade between India and Europe was the primary catalyst for Europes Age of Discovery. Spices were bought from India and traded around Europe and Asia, Indian cuisine has influenced other cuisines across the world, especially those from the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, the British Isles, Fiji, and the Caribbean. Indian cuisine reflects an 8, 000-year history of groups and cultures interacting with the subcontinent, leading to diversity of flavours. Later, trade with British and Portuguese influence added to the already diverse Indian cuisine, early diet in India mainly consisted of legumes, vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy products, honey, and sometimes fish, eggs, and meat. Staple foods eaten today include a variety of lentils, whole-wheat flour, rice, and pearl millet, over time, segments of the population embraced vegetarianism during Śramaṇa movement while an equitable climate permitted a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains to be grown throughout the year. A food classification system that categorised any item as saatvic, raajsic, the Bhagavad Gita proscribes certain dietary practices. Consumption of beef is taboo, due to cows being considered sacred in Hinduism, beef is generally not eaten by Hindus in India except for Kerala and the north east. During the Middle Ages, several Indian dynasties were predominant, including the Gupta dynasty, travellers to India during this time introduced new cooking methods and products to the region, including tea. India was later invaded by tribes from Central Asian cultures, which led to the emergence of Mughlai cuisine, hallmarks include seasonings such as saffron. Staple foods of Indian cuisine include pearl millet, rice, whole-wheat flour, and a variety of lentils, such as masoor, toor, urad, lentils may be used whole, dehusked—for example, dhuli moong or dhuli urad—or split. Split lentils, or dal, are used extensively, some pulses, such as channa or cholae, rajma, and lobiya are very common, especially in the northern regions. Channa and moong are also processed into flour, many Indian dishes are cooked in vegetable oil, but peanut oil is popular in northern and western India, mustard oil in eastern India, and coconut oil along the western coast, especially in Kerala. Gingelly oil is common in the south since it imparts a fragrant, in recent decades, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, and soybean oils have become popular across India. Hydrogenated vegetable oil, known as Vanaspati ghee, is another popular cooking medium, butter-based ghee, or deshi ghee, is used frequently, though less than in the past
9.
Chinese cuisine
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Chinese cuisine is an important part of Chinese culture, which includes cuisines originating from the diverse regions of China, as well as from Chinese people in other parts of the world. The preference for seasoning and cooking techniques of Chinese provinces depend on differences in historical background, imperial, royal and noble preference also plays a role in the change of Chinese cuisines. Because of imperial expansion and trading, ingredients and cooking techniques from other cultures are integrated into Chinese cuisines over time, the most praised Four Major Cuisines are Chuan, Lu, Yue and Huaiyang, represents West, North, South and East China cuisine correspondingly. Modern Eight Cuisines of China are Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, the color, smell and taste are the three traditional aspects to describe Chinese food, also the meaning, shape and nutrition. While, cooking should be appraised from ingredients, cuttings, cooking time and it is considered inappropriate to use knives on dining table. Chopsticks are the eating utensils for Chinese food, which can be used to cut. Chinese society greatly valued gastronomy and developed a study of the subject based on its traditional medical beliefs. Chinese culture initially centered around the North China Plain, the first domesticated crops seem to have been the foxtail and broomcorn varieties of millet, while rice was cultivated in the south. By 2000 BC, wheat had arrived from western Asia and these grains were typically served as warm noodle soups, however, instead of baked into bread as in Europe. Nobles hunted various wild game and consumed mutton, pork, dog, grain was stored against famine and flood and meat was preserved with salt, vinegar, curing, and fermenting. The flavor of the meat was enhanced by cooking it in animal fats though this practice was restricted to the wealthy. By the time of Confucius in the late Zhou, gastronomy has become a high art and he was recorded discussing about the principles of dining, The rice would never be too white, the meat would never be too finely cut. When it was not cooked right, man would not eat, when it was cooked bad, man would not eat. When the meat was not cut properly, man would not eat, when the food was not prepared with the right sauce, man would not eat. Although there are plenty of meat, they should not be cooked more than staple food, there is no limit for alcohol, before a man get drunk. During Shi Huangdis Qin dynasty, the empire expanded into the south, by the time of the Han Dynasty, the different regions and cuisines of Chinas peoples were linked by major canals and leading to greater complexity in the different regional cuisines. Not only is seen as giving qi, energy, but food is also about maintaining yin. Salt was used as a preservative from early times, but in cooking was added in the form of soy sauce, and not at the table
10.
Rice
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Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
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