1.
Xinjiang cuisine
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Xinjiang cuisine reflects the cooking styles of many ethnic groups of the Xinjiang region, and refers particularly to Uyghur cuisine. Signature ingredients include roasted mutton, kebabs, roasted fish, because of the Muslim population, the food is predominantly halal. Xinjiang cuisine is found much of China, as migrants from the region often open Xinjiang restaurants or food stands in other regions. The Herembagh franchise serves Uyghur cuisine, ethnic groups in Xinjiang generally have different cooking and eating methods. Han people in Xinjiang use chopsticks, while Kazakhs eat with their hands, ceremonial foods for certain groups include horse milk for the Kyrgyz and sheep entrails for the Xibe. The dishes of the Dongxiangs are prominent in Xinjiang-style restaurants, signature Dongxiang dishes include noodles boiled in a thick mutton soup and steamed twisted rolls. Uyghur food is characterized by mutton, beef, camel, chicken, goose, carrots, tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant, celery, various dairy foods, an Uyghur-style breakfast is tea with home-baked bread, smetana, olives, honey, raisins, and almonds. Uyghurs like to guests with tea, naan, and fruit before the main dishes are ready. Most Uyghur foods are eaten with chopsticks, a custom that was adopted from Han Chinese culture in the 19th century, sangza are crispy fried wheat flour dough twists, a holiday specialty. Samsa are lamb pies baked using a brick oven. Pamirdin are baked pies with lamb, carrots, and onions stuffed inside, other dishes include Toghach and Tunurkawab. A common Uyghur dish is lengmen, a noodle dish likely to have originated from the Chinese lamian and it is a special type of handmade noodle, made from flour, water, and salt. The dough is divided into balls and then stretched by hand. The noodles are boiled until soft and then served topped with stir-fried meat. It was noted that words that begin with L are not native to Turkicso that läghmän is possibly a loanword from Chinese, another typical Uyghur dish is polu, a dish found throughout Central Asia. In a common version of the Uyghur polu, carrots and mutton are first fried in oil with onion, then rice and water are added, raisins and dried apricots may also be added. Other dishes include soups made from lamb or chicken, and kawaplar made from lamb or beef, bread is the Central Asian-style baked flatbread known as nan, using sesame seeds, butter, milk, vegetable oil, salt, and sugar. Another popular Xinjiang dish is dapanji, which is translated as big plate chicken
2.
Indian subcontinent
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Geologically, the Indian subcontinent is related to the land mass that rifted from Gondwana and merged with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago. Geographically, it is the region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west. Politically, the Indian subcontinent usually includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, sometimes, the term South Asia is used interchangeably with Indian subcontinent. There is no consensus about which countries should be included in each and it is first attested in 1845 to refer to the North and South Americas, before they were regarded as separate continents. Its use to refer to the Indian subcontinent is seen from the twentieth century. It was especially convenient for referring to the region comprising both the British India and the states under British Paramountcy. The term Indian subcontinent also has a geological significance and it was, like the various continents, a part of the supercontinent of Gondwana. A series of tectonic splits caused formation of basins, each drifting in various directions. The geological region called the Greater India once included the Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, as a geological term, Indian subcontinent has meant that region formed from the collision of the Indian basin with Eurasia nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Paleocene. The Indian subcontinent has been a particularly common in the British Empire. The region, state Mittal and Thursby, has also labelled as India, Greater India. The BBC and some sources refer to the region as the Asian Subcontinent. Some academics refer to it as South Asian Subcontinent, the terms Indian subcontinent and South Asia are sometimes used interchangeably. There is no accepted definition on which countries are a part of South Asia or Indian subcontinent. In dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies a large, distinguishable subdivision of a continent, the region experienced high volcanic activity and plate subdivisions, creating Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, Austrolasia and the Indian subcontinent basin. The Indian subcontinent drifted northeastwards, colliding with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago and this geological region largely includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The zone where the Eurasian and Indian subcontinent plates meet remains one of the active areas. The English term mainly continues to refer to the Indian subcontinent, physiographically, it is a peninsular region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakanese in the east
3.
Central Asia
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Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also referred to as the -stans as the five countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix -stan. Central Asias five former Soviet republics are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road. It has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, the Silk Road connected Muslim lands with the people of Europe, India, and China. This crossroads position has intensified the conflict between tribalism and traditionalism and modernization, in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was predominantly Iranian, peopled by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Parthians. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan, the idea of Central Asia as a distinct region of the world was introduced in 1843 by the geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The borders of Central Asia are subject to multiple definitions, historically built political geography and geoculture are two significant parameters widely used in the scholarly literature about the definitions of the Central Asia. The most limited definition was the one of the Soviet Union. This definition was also used outside the USSR during this period. However, the Russian culture has two terms, Средняя Азия and Центральная Азия. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Central Asia, the UNESCO general history of Central Asia, written just before the collapse of the USSR, defines the region based on climate and uses far larger borders. An alternative method is to define the region based on ethnicity and these areas include Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Turkic regions of southern Siberia, the five republics, and Afghan Turkestan. Afghanistan as a whole, the northern and western areas of Pakistan, the Tibetans and Ladakhi are also included. Insofar, most of the peoples are considered the indigenous peoples of the vast region. Central Asia is a large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains, vast deserts. The vast steppe areas of Central Asia are considered together with the steppes of Eastern Europe as a geographical zone known as the Eurasian Steppe. Much of the land of Central Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming, the Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan Mountains, 116°–118° E. Central Asia has the following geographic extremes, The worlds northernmost desert, at Buurug Deliin Els, Mongolia, the Northern Hemispheres southernmost permafrost, at Erdenetsogt sum, Mongolia, 46°17′ N
4.
Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania
5.
Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous
6.
East Africa
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East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. The first five are included in the African Great Lakes region. Burundi and Rwanda are sometimes considered to be part of Central Africa. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia – collectively known as the Horn of Africa, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles – small island nations in the Indian Ocean. Réunion and Mayotte – French overseas territories also in the Indian Ocean, Mozambique and Madagascar – often considered part of Southern Africa, on the eastern side of the sub-continent. Madagascar has close ties to Southeast Asia and the islands of the Indian Ocean. Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe – often also included in Southern Africa, Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan – collectively part of the Nile Valley. Situated in the portion of the continent, and Egypt. Also members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa free trade area, the geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic. Shaped by global plate tectonic forces that have created the East African Rift, East Africa is the site of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya and it also includes the worlds second largest freshwater lake Lake Victoria, and the worlds second deepest lake Lake Tanganyika. The climate of East Africa is rather atypical of equatorial regions, in fact, on the coast of Somaliland and Puntland, many years can go by without any rain whatsoever. Unusually, most of the falls in two distinct wet seasons, one centred on April and the other in October or November. Annual rainfall here ranges from over 1,600 millimetres on the slopes to around 1,250 millimetres at Addis Ababa and 550 millimetres at Asmara. In the high rainfall can be over 2,500 millimetres. Temperatures in East Africa, except on the hot and generally humid coastal belt, are moderate, with maxima of around 25 °C, at altitudes of above 2,500 metres, frosts are common during the dry season and maxima typically about 21 °C or less. The unique geography and apparent suitability for farming made East Africa a target for European exploration, exploitation and colonialization in the nineteenth century, today, tourism is an important part of the economies of Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, and Uganda. The easternmost point of the continent, that is Ras Hafun in Somalia, is of archaeological, historical and economical importance, there are differing theories on whether there was a single exodus or several, a multiple dispersal model involves the Southern Dispersal theory. A growing number of researchers suspect that North Africa was instead the home of the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent
7.
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
8.
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
9.
Spice
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A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring, coloring or preserving food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, sometimes, spices may be ground into a powder for convenience. Spices are sometimes used in medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics or perfume production, the spice trade developed throughout South Asia and Middle East by at least 2000 BCE with cinnamon and black pepper, and in East Asia with herbs and pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for mummification and their demand for exotic spices and herbs helped stimulate world trade. The word spice comes from the Old French word espice, which became epice, and which came from the Latin root spec, by 1000 BCE, medical systems based upon herbs could be found in China, Korea, and India. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition, archaeological excavations have uncovered clove burnt onto the floor of a kitchen, dated to 1700 BCE, at the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in modern-day Syria. The ancient Indian epic Ramayana mentions cloves, the Romans had cloves in the 1st century CE, as Pliny the Elder wrote about them. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants, in the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. The earliest written records of spices come from ancient Egyptian, Chinese, the Ebers Papyrus from Early Egyptians that dates from 1550 B. C. E. Describes some eight hundred different medicinal remedies and numerous medicinal procedures, historians believe that nutmeg, which originates from the Banda Islands in Southeast Asia, was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BCE. Indonesian merchants traveled around China, India, the Middle East, Arab merchants facilitated the routes through the Middle East and India. This resulted in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria being the trading center for spices. The most important discovery prior to the European spice trade were the monsoon winds, sailing from Eastern spice cultivators to Western European consumers gradually replaced the land-locked spice routes once facilitated by the Middle East Arab caravans. Spices were among the most demanded and expensive available in Europe in the Middle Ages. Given medieval medicines main theory of humorism, spices and herbs were indispensable to balance humors in food, in addition to being desired by those using medieval medicine, the European elite also craved spices in the Middle Ages. An example of the European aristocracys demand for spice comes from the King of Aragon and he was specifically looking for spices to put in wine, and was not alone among European monarchs at the time to have such a desire for spice. Spices were all imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them expensive, from the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, and along with it the neighboring Italian city-states. The trade made the region rich and it has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages
10.
Meat
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Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and killed animals for meat since prehistoric times, the advent of civilization allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, pigs and cattle. This eventually led to their use in production on an industrial scale with the aid of slaughterhouses. Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat and it is edible raw, but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with and decomposition by bacteria, most often, meat refers to skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as offal. The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, which referred to food in general, the term is related to mad in Danish, mat in Swedish and Norwegian, and matur in Icelandic and Faroese, which also mean food. The word mete also exists in Old Frisian to denote important food, differentiating it from swiets, paleontological evidence suggests that meat constituted a substantial proportion of the diet of even the earliest humans. Early hunter-gatherers depended on the hunting of large animals such as bison. Several breeds of sheep were established in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt by 3500–3000 BC, today, more than 200 sheep-breeds exist. Cattle were domesticated in Mesopotamia after settled agriculture was established about 5000 BC, modern domesticated cattle fall into the groups Bos taurus and Bos indicus, both descended from the now-extinct aurochs. The breeding of cattle, cattle optimized for meat production as opposed to animals best suited for draught or dairy purposes. Domestic pigs, which are descended from boars, are known to have existed about 2500 BC in modern-day Hungary and in Troy, earlier pottery from Jericho. Pork sausages and hams were of commercial importance in Greco-Roman times. Pigs continue to be bred intensively as they are being optimized to produce meat best suited for meat products. Other animals are or have raised or hunted for their flesh. The type of meat consumed varies much between different cultures, changes over time, depending on such as tradition and the availability of the animals. The amount and kind of meat consumed also varies by income, horses are commonly eaten in France, Italy, Germany and Japan, among other countries. Horses and other mammals such as reindeer were hunted during the late Paleolithic in western Europe
11.
Fish (food)
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Fish are consumed as food by many species, including humans. It has been an important source of protein and other nutrients for humans throughout recorded history, in culinary and fishery contexts, the term fish can also include shellfish, such as molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms. English does not distinguish between fish as an animal and the food prepared from it, as it does with pig vs. pork or cow vs. beef, some other languages do, as in the Spanish peces versus pescado. The modern English word for fish comes from the Old English word fisc which was pronounced as it is today, English also has the term seafood, which covers fish found in the seas and oceans as well as other marine life used as food. Over 32,000 species of fish have been described, making them the most diverse group of vertebrates, in addition, there are many species of shellfish. However, only a number of species are commonly eaten by humans. Fish can be prepared in a variety of ways and it can be cured by marinating, pickling, or smoking. Or it can be cooked by baking, frying, grilling, poaching, many of the preservation techniques used in different cultures have since become unnecessary but are still performed for their resulting taste and texture when consumed. Intermediate Technology Publications wrote in 1992 that Fish provides a source of high quality protein and contains many vitamins. It may be classed as either whitefish, oily fish, or shellfish, whitefish, such as haddock and seer, contain very little fat whereas oily fish, such as sardines, contain between 10-25%. The latter, as a result of its fat content, contain a range of fat-soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids. This has highlighted the role for fish in the functionality of the human body, Fish is the most common food to obstruct the airway and cause choking. Choking on fish was responsible for about 4,500 reported accidents in the UK in 1998, a seafood allergy is a hypersensitivity to an allergen which can be present in fish, and particularly in shellfish. This can result in an overreaction of the system and lead to severe physical symptoms. Most people who have a food allergy also have a seafood allergy, allergic reactions can result from ingesting seafood, or by breathing in vapours from preparing or cooking seafood. The most severe seafood allergy reaction is anaphylaxis, an emergency requiring immediate attention, some species of fish, notably the puffer fugu used for sushi, and some kinds of shellfish, can result in serious poisoning if not prepared properly. These fish always contain these poisons as a defense against predators, particularly, fugu has a lethal dose of tetrodotoxin in its internal organs and must be prepared by a licensed fugu chef who has passed the national examination in Japan. Ciguatera poisoning can occur from eating fish from warm tropical waters, such as sea bass, grouper
12.
Vegetable
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In everyday usage, a vegetable is any part of a plant that is consumed by humans as food as part of a meal. The term vegetable is somewhat arbitrary, and largely defined through culinary and it normally excludes other food derived from plants such as fruits, nuts, and cereal grains, but includes seeds such as pulses. The original meaning of the vegetable, still used in biology, was to describe all types of plant, as in the terms vegetable kingdom. At first, plants which grew locally would have been cultivated, nowadays, most vegetables are grown all over the world as climate permits, and crops may be cultivated in protected environments in less suitable locations. China is the largest producer of vegetables and global trade in agricultural products allows consumers to purchase vegetables grown in faraway countries, the scale of production varies from subsistence farmers supplying the needs of their family for food, to agribusinesses with vast acreages of single-product crops. Depending on the type of vegetable concerned, harvesting the crop is followed by grading, storing, processing, and marketing. Vegetables can be either raw or cooked and play an important role in human nutrition, being mostly low in fat and carbohydrates. Many nutritionists encourage people to consume plenty of fruit and vegetables, the word vegetable was first recorded in English in the early 15th century. It comes from Old French, and was applied to all plants. It derives from Medieval Latin vegetabilis growing, flourishing, a change from a Late Latin meaning to be enlivening, quickening. The meaning of vegetable as a plant grown for food was not established until the 18th century, in 1767, the word was specifically used to mean a plant cultivated for food, an edible herb or root. The year 1955 saw the first use of the shortened, slang term veggie, the broadest definition is the words use adjectivally to mean matter of plant origin to distinguish it from animal, meaning matter of animal origin. More specifically, a vegetable may be defined as any plant, part of which is used for food, a secondary meaning then being the edible part of such a plant. A more precise definition is any plant part consumed for food that is not a fruit or seed, falling outside these definitions are edible fungi and edible seaweed which, although not parts of plants, are often treated as vegetables. In everyday language, the fruit and vegetable are mutually exclusive. Fruit has a precise meaning, being a part that developed from the ovary of a flowering plant. This is considerably different from the words culinary meaning, while peaches, plums, and oranges are fruit in both senses, many items commonly called vegetables, such as eggplants, bell peppers, and tomatoes, are botanically fruits. The question of whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable found its way into the United States Supreme Court in 1893
13.
Food browning
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Browning is the process of food turning brown due to the chemical reactions that take place within. The process of food browning is one of the most important reactions that take place in chemistry and represents an interesting research topic regarding health, nutrition. Though there are different ways food chemically changes over time, browning in particular falls into main 2 categories. The browning process of foods may yield desirable or undesirable results, browning has many important implications on the food industry relating to nutrition, technology, and economic cost. Researchers are especially interested in studying the control of browning and the different methods that can be employed to maximize this inhibition, enzymatic browning is one of the most important reactions that takes place in most fruits and vegetables as well as in seafood. These processes affect the taste, color, and value of such foods, generally, it is a chemical reaction involving polyphenol oxidase, catechol oxidase, and other enzymes that create melanins and benzoquinone from natural phenols. Enzymatic browning requires exposure to oxygen and it begins with the oxidation of Phenols by Polyphenol oxidase into Quinones, whose strong electrophilic state causes high susceptibility to a nucleophilic attack from other proteins. These Quinones are then polymerized in a series of reactions, eventually resulting in the formation of brown pigments on the surface of the food, the rate of enzymatic browning is reflected by the amount of active polyphenol oxidases present in the food. Hence most research investigating methods to inhibit enzymatic browning has focused on hindering polyphenol oxidase activity, however, not all browning of food produces negative effects. Examples of beneficial enzymatic browning, Developing color and flavor in Coffee, Cocoa beans, Developing color and flavor in dried fruit such as figs and raisins. Examples of non-beneficial enzymatic browning, Fresh fruit and vegetables, including apples, potatoes, bananas, polyphenols oxidases is the major reaction in the formation of Melanosis in crustaceans such as shrimp. A variety of methods are used to prevent or slow down enzymatic browning of foods, the control of enzymatic browning has always been a challenge for the food industry. In addition, the use of chemicals to inhibit browning, such as sulfite have been reconsidered due to the hazards it causes along with its activity. Much research has been conducted regarding the types of control mechanisms that take place when confronted with these enzymatic process. The different types of enzymatic browning control can be classified different groups, low temperatures can also prevent enzymatic browning by reducing rate of reaction. Use of ascorbic acid in certain pHs to control browning of apples under certain conditions by changing their phenolase activity, different pH values affect phenolase activity of apples differently. The two main forms of non-enzymatic browning are caramelization and the Maillard reaction, caramelization is a process involving the pyrolysis of sugar. It is used extensively in cooking for the desired nutty flavor, as the process occurs, volatile chemicals are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor
14.
Fish
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A fish is any member of a group of animals that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. They form a group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous, tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. However, traditionally fish are rendered obsolete or paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods, because in this manner the term fish is defined negatively as a paraphyletic group, it is not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology. The traditional term pisces is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification, the earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts, fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators, the first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Fish are abundant in most bodies of water and they can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans. With 33,100 described species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any group of vertebrates. Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food, commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean. They are also caught by fishers, kept as pets, raised by fishkeepers. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, fish do not represent a monophyletic group, and therefore the evolution of fish is not studied as a single event. Early fish from the record are represented by a group of small, jawless. Jawless fish lineages are mostly extinct, an extant clade, the lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. The first jaws are found in Placodermi fossils, the diversity of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of a jawed mouth. It is unclear if the advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved respiration, fish may have evolved from a creature similar to a coral-like sea squirt, whose larvae resemble primitive fish in important ways. The first ancestors of fish may have kept the form into adulthood. Fish are a group, that is, any clade containing all fish also contains the tetrapods
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Dried fruit
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Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is prized because of its sweet taste, nutritive value. It is also part of a mixture of distilled spirits and spices, today, dried fruit consumption is widespread. Nearly half of the dried fruits sold are raisins, followed by dates, prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, apples and these are referred to as conventional or traditional dried fruits, fruits that have been dried in the sun or in heated wind tunnel dryers. Many fruits such as cranberries, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, some products sold as dried fruit, like papaya, kiwi fruit and pineapple are most often candied fruit. Dried fruits retain most of the value of fresh fruits. The specific nutrient content of the different dried fruits reflects their fresh counterpart, traditional dried fruit such as raisins, figs, dates, apricots and apples have been a staple of Mediterranean diets for millennia. Drying or dehydration also happened to be the earliest form of preservation, grapes, dates. Early hunter-gatherers observed that these fallen fruit took on an edible form, the latest recorded mention of dried fruits can be found in Mesopotamian tablets dating to about 1700 BC, which contain what are probably the oldest known written recipes. These early civilizations used dates, date juice evaporated into syrup and they included dried fruits in their breads for which they had more than 300 recipes, from simple barley bread for the workers to very elaborate, spiced cakes with honey for the palaces and temples. Because cuneiform was very complex and only scribes who had studied for years could read it, it is unlikely that the tablets were meant for everyday cooks or chefs, instead they were written to document the culinary art of the times. Many recipes are quite elaborate and have rare ingredients so we may assume that they represent Mediterranean haute cuisine, the date palm was one of the first cultivated trees. It was domesticated in Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago and it grew abundantly in the Fertile Crescent and it was so productive that dates were the cheapest of staple foods. Because they were so valuable they were recorded in Assyrian and Babylonian monuments. The villagers in Mesopotamia dried them and ate them as sweets, whether fresh, soft-dried or hard-dried, they helped to give character to meat dishes and grain pies. They were valued by travelers for their energy and were recommended as stimulants against fatigue, Figs were also prized in early Mesopotamia, Israel and Egypt where their daily use was probably greater than or equal to that of dates. As well as appearing in paintings, many specimens have been found in Egyptian tombs as funerary offerings. In Greece and Crete, figs grew very readily and they were the staple of poor and rich alike, grape cultivation first began in Armenia and the eastern regions of the Mediterranean in the 4th century BC
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History of Iran
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Iran is home to one of the worlds oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7000 BC. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel names the Persians as the first Historical People, the Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. It was the largest empire yet seen and the first world empire and they were succeeded by the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Empires, who successively governed Iran for almost 1000 years and made Iran once again as a leading power in the world. Persias arch-rival was the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, the Persian Empire proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples. Iranian people gave rise to the Medes, the Achaemenid, Parthian, once a major empire of superpower proportions, having conquered far and wide, Iran has endured invasions too, by the Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and the Mongols. Iran has continually reasserted its national identity throughout the centuries and has developed as a political and cultural entity. The Muslim conquest of Persia ended the Sasanian Empire and was a point in Iranian history. Islamization of Iran took place during the eighth to tenth centuries, however, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity and civilization. Iran, with its history of early cultures and empires, had suffered particularly hard during the late Middle Ages. Many invasions of nomadic tribes, whose leaders became rulers in this country, the earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran were found in the Kashafrud and Ganj Par sites that are thought to date back to 100,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. Mousterian stone tools made by Neandertals have also been found, in 1949, a Neanderthal radius was discovered by Carleton S. Coon in Bisitun Cave. Early agricultural communities such as Chogha Golan in 10,000 BC along with such as Chogha Bonut in 8000 BC, began to flourish in. Around about the time, the earliest-known clay vessels and modeled human and animal terracotta figurines were produced at Ganj Dareh. There are also 10, 000-year-old human and animal figurines from Tepe Sarab in Kermanshah Province among many ancient artifacts. The two main Neolithic Iranian settlements were the Zayandeh River Culture and Ganj Dareh, parts of what is modern-day northwestern Iran was part of the Kura–Araxes culture, that stretched up into the neighboring regions of the Caucasus and Anatolia. Susa is one of the settlements of Iran and the world. Based on C14 dating, the time of foundation of the city is as early as 4395 BC, the general perception among archeologists is that Susa was an extension of the Sumerian city state of Uruk. In its later history, Susa became the capital of Elam and it is one of the most artifact-rich archaeological sites in the Middle East
17.
Middle Eastern cuisine
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Middle Eastern cuisine is the cuisine of the various countries and peoples of the Middle East. The cuisine of the region is diverse while having a degree of homogeneity, some popular dishes include Kebabs, Dolma, and Doner Kebab. The Middle East includes the formerly known as the Fertile Crescent. Fermentation was also discovered here to leaven bread and make beer in Mesopotamia, as a crossroads between Europe, Asia, the Caucasus and North Africa, this area has long been a hub of food and recipe exchange. During the Persian Empire, the foundation was laid for modern Middle-Eastern food when rice, poultry, figs, dates and nuts were brought by merchants to conquered lands, and spices were brought back from the Orient. Religion has also influenced the cuisine, neither Jews nor Muslims eat pork, chateau Ksara is also very popular for its arak, an alcoholic drink produced in the Levant and Iraq. Al-Maza is Lebanons primary brewery, which was also, at one time, Lebanon has always been well known in the region for its wines and arak, making it an exception when it comes to lack of alcohol in the region. Under the Ottoman Empire, sweet pastries of paper thin phyllo dough, cereals constitute the basis of the Middle Eastern diet, both historically and today. Wheat and rice are the major and preferred sources of staple foods, barley is also widely used in the region and maize has become common in some areas as well. Bread is a universal staple – eaten in one form or another by all classes, aside from bread, wheat is also used in the forms of bulghur and couscous. Burghul is cracked wheat, made by cooking the wheat grains in water, drying it in an oven or in the sun, then breaking it into pieces. Typically, it is cooked in water, with flavorings, much like rice, burghul is also used in making meat pies and as an ingredient in salads, notably in tabbouleh, with chopped parsley, tomato, lemon, and oil. Freekeh is another common grain, made from green wheat. There are many types of produced and consumed in the region. Plain rice is served under grilled meats or with meat/vegetable stews, in more complex rice dishes, there are layers of meat, vegetables, sauces, nuts, or dried fruits. Butter and clarified butter are, traditionally, the medium of cooking. Olive oil is prevalent in the Mediterranean coastal areas, christians use it during Lent, when meat and dairy products are excluded, and Jews use it in place of animal fats such as butter to avoid mixing meat and dairy products. Most regions in the Middle East use spices, typically, a stew will include a small amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cumin, and coriander
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Eastern European cuisine
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The cuisine of the region is strongly influenced by its climate and still varies, depending on a country. For example, Belarusian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian cuisine show many similarities and these are substantial cuisines, meaty, rooty, smoky – part comfort food, part extravagance. The nutritional index of traditional dishes is generally high cholesterol, high sodium, english edition, Elena Molokhovets, Classic Russian Cooking, A Gift to Young Housewives. ISBN 978-0253212108 Institute of Nutrition of the Academy of Medical Scientists of the USSR, Москва, Пищевая промышленность, 1939-1999, in Russian. English edition, The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food, Iconic Cookbook of the Soviet Union, skyPeak Publishing LLC,2012, ISBN 978-0615691350 Кулинария. Москва, Пищевая промышленность,1980, ISBN 978-5952427839, in Russian, Russian Delight, A Cookbook of the Soviet People, London, Pan Books,1978 В. Похлёбкин, Кулинарный словарь от А до Я, Москва, Центрполиграф,2000, ISBN 5-227-00460-9 J. Gronow, S. Zhuravlev, The Establishment of Soviet Haute Cuisine. In Educated Tastes, Food, Drink, and Connoisseur Culture, university of California Press,2013, ISBN 978-0520275911 Anya Von Bremzen, John Welchman. Please to the Table, The Russian Cookbook, ISBN9780894807534 Metzger, Christine, Culinaria Germany. Irina Petrosian, David Underwood, Armenian Food, Fact, Fiction & Folklore, from the Caucasus to the Roof of the World, a culinary adventure. In Sami Zubaida & Richard Tapper, a Taste of Thyme, Culinary Cultures of the Middle East. London & New York, Tauris Parke Paperbacks, cS1 maint, Uses editors parameter Robert Strybel, Maria Strybel, Polish Heritage Cookery. ISBN9780781811248 Massimo Montanari, Il mondo in cucina, Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom, Excursions into Eating, Power, and the Past. Beacon Press,1997, ISBN0807046299 Mintalová - Zubercová, Zora, vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej,2009, ISBN 978-80-89208-94-4 Л. Київ, Вища школа,1992, ISBN 5-11-002319-0 Українські страви, Київ, Державне видавництво технiчної лiтератури УРСР,1960 Л. The cuisine of the region is influenced by its climate and still varies. For example, Belarusian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian cuisine show many similarities and these are substantial cuisines, meaty, rooty, smoky – part comfort food, part extravagance. The nutritional index of traditional dishes is generally high cholesterol, high sodium, english edition, Elena Molokhovets, Classic Russian Cooking, A Gift to Young Housewives
19.
Caucasian cuisine
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Armenias variant, with yogurt, barley and cilantro is called spas, and is served hot or cold. Khash Kharcho - Georgian soup containing beef, rice, cherry plum purée, the flatbreads may be filled with meat, cheese, eggs, potatoes, pumpkin etc. A Taste of Thyme, Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, london & New York, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. Armenian Food, Fact, Fiction & Folklore
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South Asian cuisine
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South Asian cuisine is the cuisine of South Asia, comprising the traditional cuisines from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Chapati, a type of bread from the former regions, is a common part of meals to be had in many parts of Indian subcontinent. Other staples from many of the cuisines include rice, roti made from atta flour, foods in this area of the world are flavoured with various types of chilli, black pepper, cloves, and other strong herbs and spices along with the flavoured butter ghee. Ginger is an ingredient that can be used in savory and sweet recipes in South Asian cuisine. Chopped ginger is fried with meat and pickled ginger is often an accompaniment to boiled rice, ginger juice and ginger boiled in syrup are used to make desserts. Turmeric and cumin are used to make curries. Common meats include lamb, goat, fish and chicken, beef is less common than in Western cuisines because cattle have a special place in Hinduism. Prohibitions against beef extend to the meat of buffalo and yaks to some extent, pork is considered as a taboo food item by all Muslims and is avoided by most Hindus, though it is commonly eaten in Goa, which has a notable Roman Catholic population from Portuguese rule. A variety of very sweet desserts which use dairy products is also found in South Asian cuisines, the main ingredients to South Asian desserts are reduced milk, ground almonds, lentil flour, ghee and sugar. Kheer is a dairy based rice pudding, a popular and common dessert, many of Indias foods go back as far as five thousand years. The Indus Valley peoples, who settled in what is now northern Pakistan, hunted turtles and they also collected wild grains, herbs and plants. Many foods and ingredients from the Indus period are common today. Some consist of wheat, barley, rice, tamarind, eggplant, the Indus Valley peoples cooked with oils, ginger, salt, green peppers, and turmeric root, which would be dried and ground into an orange powder. Indians have used leafy vegetables, lentils, and milk products such as yogurt and they also used spices such as cumin and coriander. Black pepper which is native to India was often used by 400 A. D, the Greeks brought saffron and the Chinese introduced tea. They also used water, cashews, raisins and almonds
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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
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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
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Caribbean cuisine
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Caribbean cuisine is a fusion of African, Creole, Cajun, Amerindian, European, Portuguese, Spanish/Latin American, East Indian/South Asian, Arab, Chinese, Jewish, and Javanese/Indonesian cuisine. These traditions were brought from different countries when they came to the Caribbean. In addition, the population has created styles that are unique to the region, a characteristic seasoning for the region is a green herb and oil based marinade which imparts a flavor profile which is quintessentially Caribbean in character. Ingredients may include garlic, onions, scotch bonnet peppers, celery, green onions and this green seasoning is used for a variety of dishes like curries, stews and roasted meats. Another popular dish in the Anglophone Caribbean is called Cook-up, or Pelau, ackee and saltfish is another popular dish that is unique to Jamaica. Callaloo is a dish containing leafy vegetables and sometimes okra amongst others, widely distributed in the Caribbean, with a distinctively mixed African, the variety of dessert dishes in the area also reflects the mixed origins of the recipes. In some areas, Black Cake, a derivative of English Christmas pudding may be served, over time, food from the Caribbean has evolved into a narrative technique through which their culture has been accentuated and promoted. However, by studying Caribbean culture through a literary lens there then runs the risk of generalizing exoticist ideas about food practices from the tropical. Therefore, it can be argued that the connection between the idea of the Caribbean being the ultimate paradise and Caribbean food being exotic is based on inaccurate information, floribbean cuisine Ground provisions List of cuisines Street food MIC Food Jerk Chicken & Plantain Recipe
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Afghan cuisine
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Afghan cuisine is largely based upon the nations chief crops, such as wheat, maize, barley and rice. Accompanying these staples are native fruits and vegetables as well as dairy products such as milk, yogurt, Kabuli Palaw is the national dish of Afghanistan. The nations culinary specialties reflect its ethnic and geographic diversity, Afghanistan is known for its high quality pomegranates, grapes and sweet football-shaped melons. Rice dishes are culturally the most important parts of a meal, wealthier families will eat one rice dish per day, and royalty spent much time on rice preparation and invention, as evidenced in the number of rice dishes in their cookbooks. Weddings and family gatherings usually feature several rice dishes, and reputations can be made in the realm of rice preparation, the rice is first parboiled, then drained and finally baked in an oven with oil, butter and salt added. This method creates a fluffy rice with each grain separated, chalaow is served mainly with qormas. Cooked the same as challow, but meat and stock, qorma, herbs and this creates elaborate colors, flavors, and aromas from which some rices are named. Caramelized sugar is sometimes used to give the rice a rich brown color. Examples include, Kabuli Pulao - a national dish, meat and stock is added, and topped with fried raisins, slivered carrots, and pistachios. Yakhni Palaw - meat and stock added, zamarod Palaw - spinach qorma mixed in before the baking process, hence zamarod or emerald. Bore Palaw - qormeh Lawand added, Bonjan-e-Roomi Palaw - qormeh Bonjan-e-Roomi added during baking process. Serkah Palaw - similar to pulao, but with vinegar. Shebet Palaw - fresh dill, raisins added during baking process, narenj Palaw - a sweet and elaborate rice dish made with saffron, orange peel, pistachios, almonds and chicken. Maash Palaw - a sweet and sour pulao baked with mung beans, apricots, alou Balou Palaw- sweet rice dish with cherries and chicken. This rice dish is cooked with water and acquires a sticky consistency and it is usually eaten with a qorma, such as Sabzi or Shalgham. With the addition of stock, meat, herbs, and grains, notable dishes include Mastawa, Kecheri Qoroot, and Shola. A sweet rice dish called Shir Birenj is often served as dessert, qormah/Korma is a stew or casserole, usually served with chalau rice. Most are onion-based, onions are fried, then added, including a variety of fruits, spices
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Armenian cuisine
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Armenian cuisine includes the foods and cooking techniques of the Armenian people, the Armenian Diaspora and traditional Armenian foods and dishes. The cuisine reflects the history and geography where Armenians have lived as well as incorporating outside influences, the cuisine also reflects the traditional crops and animals grown and raised in areas populated by Armenians. The preparation of meat, fish, and vegetable dishes in an Armenian kitchen requires stuffing, frothing, lamb, eggplant, and bread are basic features of Armenian cuisine. Armenians use cracked wheat in preference to the maize and rice popular among their Caucasian neighbors, Armenian cuisine belongs to the family of Caucasian cuisines, and has strong ties with Turkish cuisine, Georgian cuisine, Persian cuisine, and Levantine cuisine in general. In addition, the Armenian Genocide of 1915, with the ensuing large-scale transplantation of the survivors to the West, has muddied the evidence. Fresh herbs are used extensively, both in the food and as accompaniments, dried herbs are used in the winter, when fresh herbs are not available. Wheat is the grain and is found in a variety of forms, such as, whole wheat, shelled wheat, bulgur, semolina, farina. Historically, rice was used mostly in the cities and in certain rice-growing areas, legumes are used liberally, especially chick peas, lentils, white beans, and kidney beans. Nuts are used both for texture and to add nutrition to Lenten dishes, of primary usage are walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, but also hazelnuts, pistachios, and nuts from regional trees. Fresh and dried fruit are used both as ingredients and as sour agents. As main ingredients, the fruit are used, apricots, quince, melons. As sour agents, the fruits are used, sumac berries, sour grapes, plums, pomegranate, apricots, cherries. In addition to leaves, cabbage leaves, chard, beet leaves, radish leaves, strawberry leaves. There are two de facto national dishes in Armenian cuisine, harissa is a porridge made of wheat and meat cooked together for a long time, originally in the tonir but nowadays over a stove. Harissa is related to the Turkish keshkeg, the Indo-Pakistani haleem, traditionally, harissa was prepared on feast days in communal pots and served to all comers. The wheat used in harissa is typically shelled wheat, though in Adana, harissa is made with կորկոտ, either lamb, beef, or chicken is used as the harissa meat. Khash, which started off as a meal, consists of beef or lamb feet that have been slow-cooked overnight in water. It is eaten at breakfast over crumbled dried lavash bread, with crushed garlic, Khash is typically eaten in winter
26.
Azerbaijani cuisine
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Azerbaijani cuisine refers to the cooking styles and dishes of the Azeri in Azerbaijan republic and Iranian Azerbaijan. Its cuisine has a lot in common with Iranian and Turkish cuisine, many foods that are indigenous to the country can now be seen in the cuisines of other neighboring cultures. For the Azerbaijanis, food is an important part of their culture and is rooted in the history, traditions. Out of 11 climate zones known in the world, the Azerbaijani climate has nine and this contributes to the fertility of the land, which in its turn results in the richness of the cuisine. It is famous for vegetables and greens used seasonally in the dishes, fresh herbs, including mint, coriander, dill, basil, parsley, tarragon, leek, chive, thyme, marjoram, green onion, and watercress are very popular and often accompany main dishes. The Caspian Sea is home to many species of fish, including the sturgeon, Caspian salmon, kutum, sardines, grey mullet. Black caviar from the Caspian Sea is one of Azerbaijan’s best known delicacies well sought after in other parts of the world, including former Soviet countries. One of the most reputed dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine is plov from saffron-covered rice, served with herbs and greens. Azerbaijani cuisine includes more than 40 different plov recipes, other second courses include a wide variety of kebabs and shashlik, including lamb, beef, chicken, duck and fish kebabs. Sturgeon, a fish, is normally skewered and grilled as a shashlik. Dried fruits and walnuts are used in many dishes, the traditional condiments are salt, black pepper, sumac, and especially saffron, which is grown domestically on the Absheron Peninsula. Black tea is the beverage, and is drunk after food is eaten. It is also offered to guests as a gesture of welcome, cold snacks are generally served separately from the drinks. Main dishes may include a selection of the following, Plov is one of the most widespread dishes in Azerbaijan, rice is not mixed with the other components even when eating plov. Typical Azerbaijani desserts are sticky, syrup-saturated pastries such as pakhlava, the former, a layer of chopped nuts sandwiched between mats of thread-like fried dough, is a speciality of Shaki in North-West Azerbaijan. Other traditional pastries include shakarbura, peshmak, and girmapadam, sweets are generally bought from a pastry shop and eaten at home or on special occasions such as weddings and wakes. The usual conclusion to a restaurant meal is a plate of fruit that is in season, such as plums, cherries, apricots. In March 2009, Azerbaijani bakers achieved an entry in the CIS book of records for baking the biggest and heaviest pakhlava in the CIS, weighing about 3 tons
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Bangladeshi cuisine
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Bangladeshi cuisine is the national cuisine of Bangladesh. It is dominated by Bengali cuisine and has shaped by the diverse history. The country has a monsoon climate. Rice is the staple food of Bangladesh and is served with a wide range of curries. Sublime Bangladeshi dishes exhibit strong aromatic flavours, and often include eggs, a variety of spices and herbs, along with mustard oil and ghee, is used in Bangladeshi cooking. The main breads are naan, paratha, roti, bakarkhani, dal is the second most important staple food which is served with rice/porota/luchi. Fish is a staple in Bangladeshi cuisine, especially freshwater fish, major fish dishes include, pabda, rui, pangash, chitol, magur, bhetki and tilapia. Meat consumption includes beef, lamb, venison, chicken, duck, squab, vegetable dishes, either mashed, boiled, or leaf-based, are widely served. Seafood such as Lobsters and shrimps are also often prevalent, gourmet pulao is served during feasts and festivals. Different types of Bengali biryani and pulao include Kachi, Tehari, Ilish, different types of kababs include shikh, reshmi, shashlik, tikka and shami. The country is home to a spread of Bengali desserts and confectioneries, ranging from pan-fried or steamed rice cakes to halwa and sweets made from fruits. Tea is widely consumed as the beverage and offered to guests as a gesture of welcome. Popular snacks include samosas, pakoras, jhalmuri, pitha, rolls etc, the phuchka and chotpoti are major street foods. The Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh features bamboo shoot cuisine, Bangladesh is also the worlds fifth-largest producer of tropical fruits. Ancient Bengali diets included rice, fish, honey, dairy, the region was an administrative and commercial bastion in South Asia during early Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, and later Muslim sultanates. Mughlai cuisine developed in Bengal after the establishment of the province of Mughal Bengal in 1576, the city of Dhaka played an important role in influencing Bengali food with Mughal elements. The British Empire ruled the region for two hundred years between the 18th and 20th centuries, during which the Bengal Renaissance shaped the emergence of modern Bengali cuisine. During the British Raj, Calcutta influenced many Bengali dishes, in the southeast, Arakan cuisine from Burma influenced dishes in Chittagong, particularly dried fish
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Bukharan Jews
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Bukharan Jews, also Bukharian Jews or Bukhari Jews are Jews from Central Asia who historically spoke Bukhori, a dialect of the Tajik-Persian language. Their name comes from the former Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great majority have immigrated to Israel or to the United States, while others have immigrated to Europe or Australia. The term Bukharan was coined by European travelers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century, since most of the Jewish community at the time lived under the Emirate of Bukhara, they came to be known as Bukharan Jews. The name by which the community called itself is Isroil, the appellative Bukharian was adopted by Bukharan Jews who moved to English-speaking countries, in an anglicisation of the Hebrew Bukhari. However, Bukharan was the term used historically by English writers, Bukharan Jews used the Persian language to communicate among themselves and later developed Bukhori, a distinct dialect of the Tajiki-Persian language with certain linguistic traces of Hebrew. This language provided easier communication with their communities and was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until the area was Russified by the Russians, the elderly Bukharan generation use Bukhori as their primary language but speak Russian with a slight Bukharan accent. The younger generation use Russian as their language, but do understand or speak Bukhori. The Bukharan Jews are Mizrahi Jews and have introduced to. The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates to the beginning of the 4th century CE, the presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on ossuaries from the 5th and 6th centuries, uncovered between 1954 and 1956. According to some ancient texts, there were Israelites that began traveling to Central Asia to work as traders during the reign of King David of Jerusalem as far back as the 10th century B. C. E. When Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon, he encouraged the Jews he liberated to settle in his empire, in the Middle Ages, the largest Jewish settlement in Central Asia was in the Emirate of Bukhara. Among Bukharan Jews, there are two ancient theories of how Jewish people settled in Central Asia, modern sources have described the Bukhara Jews as, for example, an ethnic and linguistic group in Central Asia, claiming descent from 5th-century exiles from Persia. The Bukharan Jews are considered one of the oldest ethno-religious groups of Central Asia, throughout the years, Jews from other Eastern countries such as Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Morocco migrated into Central Asia. In the beginning of the 16th century, the area was invaded and occupied by nomadic Uzbek tribes who established strict observance of Islamic religion, around 1620, the first synagogue had been constructed at Bukhara city. This was done in contravention of the law of Caliph Omar who forbade the construction of new synagogues as well as forbade the destruction of those that existed in the pre-Islamic period. There was a case when Caliph Umar had ordered the destruction of a mosque, before the construction of the first synagogue, Jews had shared a place in a mosque with Muslims. This mosque was called the Magoki Attoron, some say that Jews and Muslims worshipped alongside each other in the same place at the same time
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Cretan cuisine
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Cretan cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Mediterranean island of Crete. The core of the Cretan cuisine consists of food derived from natural sources, in general, people consumed seasonal products, available in the wider local area, which underwent minimal processing or none at all. The traditional cuisine was widespread in the island until the 1960s when, with improving living standards, alimentary patterns changed towards more meat, dairy products were consumed on a daily basis in low to moderate quantities. Poultry and fish were consumed on a basis in moderate quantities. The main supply of fat was effectuated by olive oil, which was used not only in salads but also in cooking, another essential feature of the Cretan cuisine was the moderate use of alcohol, mainly red wine which accompanied meals. Finally, the most common dessert was yogurt and fresh fruits, while traditional pastry based on honey had been consumed a few times a week
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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
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Iranian cuisine
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Iranian cuisine, also widely referred to as Persian cuisine, includes the foods, cooking methods, and food traditions of Iranians. Through the Persianized Central Asian Mughal dynasty, aspects of Iranian cuisine were adopted into North Indian cuisine, typical Iranian main dishes are combinations of rice with meat, vegetables, and nuts. Fresh green herbs are used, along with fruits such as plums, pomegranate, quince, prunes, apricots. Characteristic Iranian flavorings such as saffron, dried lime, cinnamon, Iranian cuisine is gaining popularity in multicultural cities such as London, Los Angeles, Washington, D. C. Vancouver, and Toronto, which have significant Iranian populations, the usage of rice, at first a specialty of Safavid court cuisine, evolved by the end of the 16th century CE into a major branch of Iranian cookery. Traditionally, rice was most prevalent as a staple item in northern Iran. Varieties of rice in Iran include gerde, domsia, champa, doodi, Lenjan, Tarom, anbarbu, the following table includes three primary methods of cooking rice in Iran. Second only to rice is the production and use of wheat, the following table lists several forms of flatbread and pastry-bread commonly used in Iranian cuisine. Agriculture of Iran produces many fruits and vegetables, thus, a bowl of fresh fruit is common on Iranian tables, and vegetables are standard sides to most meals. These are not only enjoyed fresh and ripe as desserts, but are combined with meat. When fresh fruits are not available, a variety of dried fruits such as dates, fig, apricots. Southern Iran is one of the worlds major producers, where some special cultivars such as the Bam date are grown. Vegetables such as pumpkins, spinach, green beans, fava beans, courgette, varieties of squash, onion, garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers and scallion often accompany a meal. While the eggplant is the potato of Iran, Iranians are fond of fresh green salads dressed with oil, lemon juice, salt, chili. Fruit dolma is probably a specialty of Iranian cuisine, the fruit is first cooked, then stuffed with meat, seasonings, and sometimes tomato sauce. The dolma is then simmered in broth or a sweet-and-sour sauce. Verjuice, an acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes or other sour fruit, is used in various Iranian dishes. It is mainly used within soup and stew dishes, but also to simmer a type of squash dolma, unripe grapes are also used whole in some dishes such as khoresh e qure
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Kazakh cuisine
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Kazakh cuisine is the cuisine of Kazakhstan, and traditionally is focused on mutton and horse meat, as well as various milk products. For hundreds of years, Kazakhs were herders who raised fat-tailed sheep, Bactrian camels, and horses, relying on these animals for transportation, clothing, the cooking techniques and major ingredients have been strongly influenced by the nations nomadic way of life. For example, most cooking techniques are aimed at preservation of food. There is a practice of salting and drying meat so that it will last. Meat in various forms has always been the primary ingredient of Kazakh cuisine, horse and mutton are the most popular forms of meat and are most often served in large uncut pieces, which have been boiled. Kazakhs cared especially for horses which they intended to slaughter—keeping them separate from other animals, the base of Kazakh cuisine is Kazakh, төрт түлiк мал - four kinds of cattle, horses, camels, cows, and sheep. Horse meat is the main festive meat, while meat is used as common meat. Camel meat is also a kind of meat, but not the main. Cows meat is also a kind of common meat, besbarmak, a dish consisting of boiled horse or mutton meat, is the most popular Kazakh dish. It is also called five fingers because of the way it is eaten, the chunks of boiled meat are cut and served by the host in order of the guests’ importance. Besbarmak is usually eaten with a boiled pasta sheet, and a meat broth called sorpa, quwyrdaq is another Kazakhs national dish. Other popular meat dishes are kazy, shuzhuk, kuyrdak, and various delicacies, such as zhal. Another popular dish is pilaf, which is made from meat fried with carrots, onions or garlic, also known as crackler, is melted fat in a large bowl with sugar, eaten by dipping it with bread and is often served with tea. Kylmai is a sausage made during fall and winter slaughtering and is made by stuffing intestines with pieces of meat, fat, blood, garlic, salt. Zhauburek, also known as kebab, is popular among hunters and travelers and is a dish in which pieces of meat are roasted over a fire. Ulpershek is a made from the heart, aorta, and fat of a horse, prepared in a kettle. Kazy is a sausage eaten in the spring when a cow has a new calf, akshelek is a large camel bone distributed to children after slaughtering and cooking meat from a camel. Kylmai is another kind of sausage eaten later in the year after it has aged—if smoked it will last a long time, zhal is the layer of fat under a horse’s mane and is served only to special and honored guests, as it is such a rare commodity
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Russian cuisine
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Russian cuisine is a collection of the different cooking traditions of the Russian people. The cuisine is diverse, with Central European, Middle Eastern, Russian cuisine derives its varied character from the vast and multi-cultural expanse of Russia. Moreover, it is necessary to divide Russian traditional cuisine and Soviet cuisine and its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of plentiful fish, pork, poultry, caviar, mushrooms, berries, and honey. Crops of rye, wheat, barley and millet provided the ingredients for a plethora of breads, pancakes, pies, cereals, beer, soups and stews are centered on seasonal or storable produce, fish and meats. Such food remained the staple for the vast majority of Russians well into the 20th century and it was during this period that smoked meats and fish, pastry cooking, salads and green vegetables, chocolate, ice cream, wines, and juice were imported from abroad. At least for the aristocracy and provincial gentry, this opened the doors for the creative integration of these new foodstuffs with traditional Russian dishes. Soups have always played an important role in the Russian meal, Russian soups can be divided into at least seven large groups, Chilled soups based on kvass, such as tyurya, okroshka, and botvinya. Light soups and stews based on water and vegetables, such as swekolnik, noodle soups with meat, mushrooms, or milk. Soups based on cabbage, most prominently shchi, thick soups based on meat broth, with a salty-sour base like rassolnik and solyanka. Okroshka is a soup based on kvass or sour milk. The main ingredients are two types of vegetables that can be mixed with boiled meat or fish in a 1,1 proportion. Thus vegetable, meat, poultry, and fish varieties of okroshka are made, there are typically two types of vegetables in okroshka. The first must have a taste, such as boiled potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, carrots. The second must be spicy, consisting of green onion as well as other herbs—greens of dill, parsley, chervil, celery. Different meat and poultry can be used in the same soup, the most common ingredient is beef alone or with poultry. If it is made with fish, the best choice would be tench, European perch, pike-perch, cod, the kvass most commonly used in cooking is white okroshka kvass, which is much more sour than drinking kvass. Spices used include mustard, black pepper and pickled cucumber, solely or in combination, for the final touch, boiled eggs and smetana are added. For sour milk based okroshka, well shaken up natural sour milk is used with the addition of pure water, sometimes manufactured kefir is used instead of natural sour milk for time saving reasons, though some say it detracts from the original taste of okroshka
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Kurdish cuisine
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Kurdish cuisine consists of a wide variety of foods prepared by the Kurdish people. The Kurdish diet includes a variety of fruits and vegetables. Lamb and chicken are the primary meats, breakfast is typically flat bread, cheese, honey, sheep or cow yogurt, and a glass of black tea. For lunch, lamb and vegetables are simmered in a sauce to make a stew usually served with rice. Kurdistan has a climate and soil suited to grapes, pomegranates, figs, Kurdish honey has a clear light taste and is often sold with the honeycomb. Kurdistan also produces dairy products from sheep and cow milk, Kurds make many types of kofta and kubba, dumplings filled with meat. Kurdish cuisine makes abundant use of fresh herbs, sweetened black tea is a very common drink, along with bitter strong coffee. Another favourite Kurdish drink is mastow or Ava Mast, which is yogurt, sawarr, a traditional dish among Kurdish farmers, is made of wheat grain that is boiled, sun dried and pounded in a mortar to get rid of the husk. The wheat is then crushed in a mill, the resulting grain food can be boiled and served. Tapsi is a dish of aubergines, green peppers, courgettes and potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce. Tashreeb consists of layers of naan in a sauce of green pepper, tomato, onions, a typical Kurdish breakfast consists of cheese, butter, olives, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, reçel and honey usually consumed on top of kaymak. Sausage, baked goods and even soups can be taken as a meal in Kurdistan. Perhaps more so than traditional breads such as pide, a crusty white loaf is widely consumed, a common Kurdish speciality for breakfast is called menemen, which is prepared with roasted tomatoes, peppers, olive oil and eggs. Invariably, black tea is served at breakfast, during the festival of Nawroz, Kurds enjoy picnics in the countryside, often taking a large pot of Dolma, Dolma is a dish of freshly picked vine leaves stuffed with rice, meat, herbs and garlic. Kurdish people also enjoy Eid food such as Chicken and Dolma, Kurdistan portal Food portal Kubbah hamousta, prepared by Kurdish Jews
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Kyrgyz cuisine
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Kyrgyz cuisine refers to the cuisine of the Kyrgyz, who comprise a majority of the population of Kyrgyzstan. The cuisine is similar in many aspects to that of their neighbors, traditional Kyrgyz food revolves around mutton, beef and horse meat, as well as various dairy products. The preparation techniques and major ingredients have been influenced by the nations historically nomadic way of life. Thus, many cooking techniques are conducive to the preservation of food. Mutton and beef are the meats, although in modern times many Kyrgyz are unable to afford them regularly. Kyrgyzstan is home to different nationalities and their various cuisines. In larger cities, such as Bishkek, Osh, Jalal-Abad, non-Kyrgyz cuisines that are particularly common and popular in Kyrgyzstan include Uyghur, Dungan, Uzbek, and Russian cuisines, representing the largest minorities in the country. Meat in various forms has always been a part of Kyrgyz cuisine. Among the most popular dishes are horse-meat sausages, roasted sheeps liver, beshbarmak. Beshbarmak is the Kyrgyz national dish, although it is common in Kazakhstan. It consists of meat boiled in its own broth for several hours and served over homemade noodles sprinkled with parsley. Beshbarmak means Five Fingers in the Kyrgyz language, and is so called probably because the dish is eaten with the hands. Beshbarmak is most often made during a feast to celebrate the birth of a new child, kuurdak is one of the main meat dishes. Shashlik, skewered chunks of mutton grilled over smoking coals that come with raw sliced onions, is served in restaurants, the meat is usually marinated for hours before cooking. Shashlik can also be made from beef, chicken, and fish, each shashlik typically has a fat-to-meat ratio of one-to-one. Paloo is the Kyrgyz version of what is referred to as plov in Central Asian cuisine. It consists of pieces of meat fried in a large qazan and mixed with fried shredded carrots, jiucai, the dish is garnished with whole fried garlic cloves and hot red peppers. Uzgen paloo is made with locally grown rice from the southern Uzgen District of Kyrgyzstan, shirin paloo, a close relative of shirin plov in Azerbaijani cuisine, is a vegetarian dish in which meat is replaced with dried fruits, such as prunes, apricots, and raisins
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Nepalese cuisine
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Nepalese cuisine refers to the food eaten in Nepal. Nepals cultural and geographic diversity has resulted in a variety of cuisines based upon ethnicity and on soil, dal is a soup made of lentils and spices. This is served over boiled grain, bhat—usually rice but sometimes another vegetable curry, condiments are usually small amounts of extremely spicy [achaar or pickle which can be fresh or fermented. The variety of these is staggering, said to number in the thousands, other accompaniments may be sliced lemon or lime with fresh green chili. Dhindo is a food of Nepal. Much of the cuisine is variation on Asian themes, other foods have hybrid Tibetan, Indian and Thai origins. Momo—Tibetan style dumplings with Nepalese spices—are one of the most popular foods in Nepal and they were originally filled with buffalo meat but now also with goat or chicken, as well as vegetarian preparations. Special foods such as sel roti and patre are eaten during festivals such as Tihar and it is a Chinese-style stir fried noodles but Nepalis have given it their own twist. Dal-bhat-tarkari is the meal eaten twice daily. However, with land suitable for irrigated rice paddies in short supply, maize, buckwheat, barley, or millet become porridge-like. Tarkari can be spinach and fresh greens, fermented and dried greens, white radish, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, pumpkin, fruit traditionally grown in the hills include mandarin orange, kaffir lime, lemon, Asian pear, and bayberry. Mangoes grow up to about 800 meters elevation, yogurt and curried meat or fish are served as side dishes when available. Chicken and fish are usually acceptable to all but the Khas Brahmin caste and they also eschew buffalo and yak meat as being too cow-like. Domestic pork was traditionally eaten by aadibasi, however wild boar was traditionally hunted. A strain derived from wild boar is now raised in captivity, Himalayan cuisine is influenced culturally by Tibetan and closely related ethnic groups in the Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya. Buckwheat, barley and millet are important cold-tolerant grains often processed into noodles or tsampa which is ground from toasted grain. Butter tea is made by mixing butter or ghee and salt into strong tea and this tea preparation is commonly mixed with tsampa flour to make a kind of fast food especially eaten while traveling. Grain is also made into alcoholic beverages, potatoes are another important staple crop and food
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Pakistani cuisine
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Pakistani cuisine is a refined blend of various regional cooking traditions of South Asia. Pakistani cuisine is part of the greater South Asian and Central Asian Cuisines due to its geographic location, as a result of Mughal legacy, Pakistan also mutually inherited many recipes and dishes from that era alongside India. Within Pakistan, cuisine varies greatly from region to region, reflecting the countrys ethnic, Food from the eastern provinces of Punjab and Sindh can be highly seasoned and spicy, which is characteristic of the flavors of the South Asian region. International cuisine and fast food are popular in the cities, blending local and foreign recipes, such as Pakistani Chinese cuisine, is common in large urban centres. Furthermore, as a result of changes, ready made masala mixes are becoming increasingly popular. However, given the diversity of the people of Pakistan, cuisines generally differ from home to home, Muslims follow the Islamic law that lists foods and drinks that are Halal and permissible to consume. Halal foods are food items that Muslims are allowed to eat, the criteria specify both what foods are allowed, and how the food must be prepared. The foods addressed are mostly types of meat, which are allowed in Islam, Pakistani national cuisine is the inheritor of Indo-Aryan culture and Muslim culinary traditions. The earliest formal civilizations were the Mohenjo-daro and Harappan civilizations in Pakistan, at around 3000 BCE, sesame, eggplant, and humped cattle were domesticated in the Indus Valley, and spices like turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard were harvested in the region concurrently. For at least a thousand years, wheat and rice formed the basic foodstuff in the Indus Valley, the arrival of Islam within South Asia, via Pakistan, influenced the local cuisine to a great degree. Since Muslims are forbidden to eat pork or consume alcohol, halal dietary guidelines are strictly observed, Pakistanis focus on other types of meat, such as beef, chicken and fish, with vegetables, as well as traditional fruit and dairy. The influence of Central Asian, South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine in Pakistani food is ubiquitous, Pakistani dishes are known for having aromatic and sometimes spicy flavors, and some dishes often contain liberal amounts of oil, which contributes to a richer, fuller mouthfeel and flavour. Brown cardamom, green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cumin seeds, chili powder, turmeric and bay leaves are also very popular. In the Punjab province, it is diluted with coriander powder. Garam masala is a popular blend of spices used in many Pakistani dishes. Rice dishes and kebabs feature prominently in Pashtun cuisine, lamb is eaten more often in Pashtun cuisine than any other Pakistani cuisines. Rice haleem, chapli kabab, tika, and mutton karahi are the most famous dishes, the Pashtun and Balochi cuisines are traditionally non-spicy. Since Punjabi identity is considered geographical and cultural, almost all inhabitants of Punjab follow some variations within the cuisine and this cuisine then falls into the broad category of Punjabi cuisine
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Culture of Kenya
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The culture of Kenya consists of multiple trends. Kenya has no single prominent culture that identifies it and it instead consists of various cultures practised by the countrys different communities. There is no singular dish that represents all of Kenya, different communities have their own native foods. Staples are maize and other cereals depending on the region, including millet and sorghum eaten with various meats, the foods that are universally eaten in Kenya are ugali, sukuma wiki, and nyama choma. Its Swahili name comes from the fact that it is eaten to get through the week or stretch the week. Nyama choma is grilled meat – usually goat or sheep and it is grilled over an open fire. It is usually eaten with ugali and kachumbari, among the Luhya residing in the western region of the country, ingokho and ugali is a favourite meal. Other than these, they also eat tsisaka, miroo, managu, in the Rift Valley, the Kalenjin have long made Mursik, which they have with kimyet and a vegetable relish called isageek. Also among the Kikuyu of Central Kenya, a lot of tubers, including ngwaci, ndũma, ikwa, and mianga are eaten, as well as legumes like beans and a Kikuyu bean known as njahi. As you travel around the distinct differences are noted mainly based on what foods are locally available around such areas. Grains are a food for groups that grow grains. Other communities such as the Luo and the Coastal community have fish, in semi-arid areas like Turkana, foods made from sorghum are more common staple foods. As you move towards the city – food eaten by working families vary according to preference, rice and stew is more common with working families, and other dishes like chapati, chicken stew, etc. Apart from its flag, Kenya does not have national dress that transcends its diverse ethnic divisions. With more than 42 ethnic communities having their own practices and symbols unique to them. However, several attempts have been made to design an outfit that can be worn as a national dress, Kitenge is a cotton fabric made into colours and design through tie-and-dye and heavy embroidery. It is commonly worn by a number of Kenyas populations, though also worn in many other African countries, Kitenge is yet to be accepted in Kenya as an official dress as it is only worn during ceremonies and non-official functions. The Maasai wear dark red garments to symbolise their love for the earth and it also stands for courage and blood that is given to them by nature
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Culture of Tanzania
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The culture of Tanzania includes the following, A total of 128 languages are spoken in Tanzania, most of them are from the Bantu family. Swahili and English are the two languages of Tanzania. However, Swahili is the national language, as a result, English, the colonial language since the end of World War I, is still the language of high schools and universities. Many students leave school after finishing primary education, although the many non-official languages in Tanzania are not actively suppressed, they do not enjoy the same linguistic rights as Swahili and English. They also face extinction, with one, the Kwadza language. Some writers include, Edwin Semzaba Euphrase Kezilahabi The Tanzanian national anthem is Mungu Ibariki Afrika, the song is also the national anthem of South Africa, Zambia. The music industry in Tanzania has seen changes in the past ten years. With a fusion of local and foreign traditions, Tanzanian musicians have grown in prominence within the African Great Lakes region. It includes artists from music, such as Dionys Mbilinyi, Sabinus Komba, and many others, to new vibrant artists in R&B, pop, Zouk, Taarab. Imani Sanga is a composer, ethnomusicologist, church organist, mwakisinini Felix is a music artist who contributed a lot in church music as a composer, trainer, and choral conductor. Tingatinga are popular Tanzanian paintings, which are painted with enamel paints on canvas, usually, the motifs are animals and flowers in colorful and repetitive design. The style was started by Mr. Edward Saidi Tingatinga, who was born in South Tanzania, later, he moved to Dar es Salaam. Since his death in 1972, the Tingatinga style expanded both in Tanzania and worldwide, one of the most famous African artists, George Lilanga, was born in Tanzania. Outspokenly political cartoons were created on a recent date. In the past decade, the art of cartoons and comics has really taken off in Tanzania, at the present date, there are dozens of cartoonists, some of whom are well known throughout the country. From the 1960s and so on, a number of artists prepared the way, people in Tanzania often sculpt images of people and animals, usually out of clay or a metal. Tanzanian cuisine is unique and widely varied. Along the coastal regions, spicy foods are common, and there is much use of coconut milk
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Zanzibari cuisine
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Zanzibari cuisine reflects several heterogeneous influences, as a consequence of the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nature of Zanzibars and Swahili heritage. It is a mixture of culinary traditions, including Bantu, Arab, Portuguese, Indian, British. The first inhabitants of Zanzibar were Bantus coming from mainland Tanganyika and their diet thus consisted of primarily seafood, such as tuna, mackerel, lobster, squid, octopus and oysters. Other ingredients and recipes brought by Bantus that are found in todays Zanzibari cuisine are common beans, sweet potatoes, manioc chips, yam, in the 9th century, Omanis, Yemenis and Persians began colonizing the Swahili Coast, including the Zanzibar Archipelago. They brought along with new dishes and ingredients, most notably spices, coconut, mango, citrus. One of the most common Zanzibar recipes, the pilau rice, between the 15th century and the 16th century, the Portuguese quickly conquered most of the African Great Lakes, including Zanzibar. The main Portuguese influences on Zanzibari cuisine was the introduction of those that would become major types of food in Zanzibar, namely manioc, maize. In 1651, the Portuguese lost control of Zanzibar to the Omani sultanate, most recipes of foreign origin were adapted to the ingredients that were available on the island, thus giving birth to a largely original fusion cuisine. Around the beginning of the 20th century most of the African Great Lakes region was colonised by the Germans, after independence, Tanzania established a strong relationship with China, Chinese physicians, engineers, and military consultants came to Zanzibar. Although only a fraction of todays Zanzibari population has Chinese origins, some recipes and ingredients. Sorpotel Sorpotel is a recipe of Portuguese-Indian origin, consisting of a mixture of boiled meat, in Zanzibar and it is cooked with masala, as well as tamarind and vinegar. Spice cake The spice cake is the most typical dessert in Zanzibari cuisine and it is made of a pastry with a mix of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and chocolate. Boku-boku Boku-boku is a sort of skew of meat cooked in maize, ginger, cumin, chili, tomato, date and hazelnut bread Bread prepared with hazelnuts and dates, as well as eggs and vanilla, is the most traditional food to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Pilau meat Pilau meat is prepared with goose meat cooked with potatoes, onions, spices, coconut milk. Pepper shark Shark is one of the most traditional types of Zanzibari seafood, Pweza wa nazi Pweza wa nazi is octopus boiled in coconut milk, curry, cinnamon, cardamom, garlic and lime juice
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Ugandan cuisine
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Ugandan cuisine consists of traditional and modern cooking styles, practices, foods and dishes in Uganda, with English, Arab, and Asian influences. Most tribes in Uganda have their own speciality dish or delicacy, many dishes include various vegetables, potatoes, yams, bananas and other tropical fruits. Chicken, pork, fish, beef, goat and mutton are all commonly eaten, although among the poor, meats are consumed less than in other areas. Nyama is the Swahili word for meat, main dishes are usually centered on a sauce or stew of groundnuts, beans or meat. The starch traditionally comes from ugali or matooke in the South, ugali/posho is cooked up into a thick porridge for breakfast. For main meals, white flour is added to the saucepan. It is then turned out onto a plate and cut into individual slices. Cassava, yam, and African sweet potato are also eaten, soybeans were promoted as a healthy food staple in the 1970s and this is also used, especially for breakfast. Chapati, an Asian flatbread, is part of Ugandan cuisine. Various leafy greens are grown in Uganda and these may be boiled in the stews, or served as side dishes in fancier homes. Amaranth, nakati, and borr are examples of regional greens, fruits such as bananas and pineapples are plentiful and commonly consumed, cooked in foods, eaten as snacks or as a dessert. Some traditional and historic Ugandan foods include, Posho or Kawunga - called Ugali in Kenya, it is made from maize but also other starches. Ugandan expatriates make posho from cornmeal, masa harina or grits, kwon is a type of ugali made from millet but in other regions like eastern Uganda they include cassava flour. Groundnuts - groundnuts are a staple and groundnut sauce is probably the most commonly eaten one. They are eaten plain or mixed with smoked fish, smoked meat or mushrooms, additional Ugandan foods Tea and coffee are popular beverages and important cash crops. These can be served English-style or spiced, coca-Cola, Pepsi and Fanta all made inroads in the Ugandan market and soft drinks became very popular. Both traditional and Western beers are probably the most widely available alcoholic beverages across Uganda, pombe and lubisi are generic words for locally made fermented beer, usually from banana or millet. Fermented banana wine is prepared and consumed
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Tajik cuisine
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Tajik cuisine is a traditional cuisine of Tajikistan, and has much in common with Russian, Afghan, and Uzbek cuisines. Plov, also called osh, is the dish in Tajikistan. Green tea is the national drink, Traditional Tajik meals start with a spread of dried fruit, nuts, halva, and other sweets arrayed on the table in small dishes, and then progress to soup and meat, before finishing with plov. The meat is cubed, the carrots are chopped finely into long strips, and the rice is colored yellow or orange by the frying carrots and the oil. The dish is eaten communally from a large plate placed at the center of the table. Before serving the dish is topped with onions fried in oil until golden, qurotob is considered the national dish. Meals are almost always served with non, flatbread found throughout Central Asia, if a Tajik has food but not non, he will say he is out of food. If non is dropped on the ground, people put it up on a high ledge for beggars or birds. Legend holds that one is not supposed to put non upside down because this will bring bad luck, the same holds true if anything is put on top of the non, unless it is another piece of non. Traditional Tajik soups include mainly meat and vegetable soups, and meat soups with noodles, other dishes shared regionally, either as fast food or as an appetizer, include manti, tushbera, sambusa, and belyash. Soviet cuisine both influenced and was in turn influenced by Tajik cuisine, dairy dishes, usually served as part of the spread of appetizers in a Tajik meal and scooped with pieces of flatbread, include chaka, thick yogurt, and kaymak. Qurut balls may be served as a snack or an accompaniment to cold beverages, although not a traditional Tajik drink, kefir, a drinking yogurt, is often served with breakfast. In the summer, Tajikistan abounds in produce and fruit, its grapes, the bazaar also sell pomegranates, apricots, plums, peaches, apples, pears, figs, and persimmons. Tea generally accompanies every meal and is offered between meals as a gesture of hospitality to guests and visitors. It is served hot in a pot with a lid. Because of the popularity of tea-drinking, the choykhona or teahouse, is the most common gathering place in Tajikistan. Soviet cuisine Tajik Cooking, Irfon Publ, house, Dushanbe,1991 Vahob Khojiev, Traditional and Modern Tajik Cooking, Irfon Publ. House, Dushanbe,1990 Laghman, recipe and photos Belyashi in Tajik cuisine, recipe and photos Tajik dining Tajik culinary recipes and photos in English Colorado Tajikistanians, recipes in English
Cookbook: Pilaf 
Media: Pilaf
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The dictionary definition of pilaf at Wiktionary
Pulao at Wikibook Cookbooks
