China
China the People's Republic of China, is a country in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.404 billion. Covering 9,600,000 square kilometers, it is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. China emerged as one of the world's earliest civilizations, in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty in 21st century BCE. Since China has expanded, re-unified numerous times. In the 3rd century BCE, the Qin established the first Chinese empire; the succeeding Han dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC until 220 AD, saw some of the most advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass, along with agricultural and medical improvements.
The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty and Northern Song completed the Four Great Inventions. Tang culture spread in Asia, as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and Horn of Africa. Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution; the Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory in 1949, when the Communist Party of China established the People's Republic of China, a unitary one-party sovereign state on Mainland China, while the Kuomintang-led government retreated to the island of Taiwan. The political status of Taiwan remains disputed. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China's economy has been one of the world's fastest-growing with annual growth rates above 6 percent. According to the World Bank, China's GDP grew from $150 billion in 1978 to $12.24 trillion by 2017. Since 2010, China has been the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and since 2014, the largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity.
China is the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget; the PRC is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as it replaced the ROC in 1971, as well as an active global partner of ASEAN Plus mechanism. China is a leading member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, WTO, APEC, BRICS, the BCIM, the G20. In recent times, scholars have argued that it will soon be a world superpower, rivaling the United States; the word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century. It is not a word used by the Chinese themselves, it has been traced through Portuguese and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Cīna, used in ancient India."China" appears in Richard Eden's 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. Barbosa's usage was derived from Persian Chīn, in turn derived from Sanskrit Cīna.
Cīna was first used including the Mahābhārata and the Laws of Manu. In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived from the name of the Qin dynasty. Although this derivation is still given in various sources, it is complicated by the fact that the Sanskrit word appears in pre-Qin literature; the word may have referred to a state such as Yelang. The meaning transferred to China as a whole; the origin of the Sanskrit word is still a matter of debate, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China"; the shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó, a term which developed under the Western Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne. It was applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing, it was used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians". The name Zhongguo is translated as "Middle Kingdom" in English.
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 2.24 million and 250,000 years ago. The hominid fossils of Peking Man, a Homo erectus who used fire, were discovered in a cave at Zhoukoudian near Beijing; the fossilized teeth of Homo sapiens have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Hunan. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BCE, Damaidi around 6000 BCE, Dadiwan from 5800–5400 BCE, Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BCE; some scholars have suggested. According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE; the dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia dynasty or of another culture from the same period; the succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records. The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE.
Their oracle bone script
Cyprus
Cyprus the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel, north of Egypt, southeast of Greece. The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC; as a strategic location in the Middle East, it was subsequently occupied by several major powers, including the empires of the Assyrians and Persians, from whom the island was seized in 333 BC by Alexander the Great. Subsequent rule by Ptolemaic Egypt, the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire, Arab caliphates for a short period, the French Lusignan dynasty and the Venetians, was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman rule between 1571 and 1878.
Cyprus was placed under the UK's administration based on the Cyprus Convention in 1878 and was formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders and Turkey in the 1950s. Turkish leaders for a period advocated the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as Cyprus was considered an "extension of Anatolia" by them. Following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960; the crisis of 1963–64 brought further intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, which displaced more than 25,000 Turkish Cypriots into enclaves and brought the end of Turkish Cypriot representation in the republic. On 15 July 1974, a coup d'état was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis, the incorporation of Cyprus into Greece; this action precipitated the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July, which led to the capture of the present-day territory of Northern Cyprus in the following month, after a ceasefire collapsed, the displacement of over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots.
A separate Turkish Cypriot state in the north was established by unilateral declaration in 1983. These events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute; the Republic of Cyprus has de jure sovereignty over the entire island, including its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, with the exception of the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which remain under the UK's control according to the London and Zürich Agreements. However, the Republic of Cyprus is de facto partitioned into two main parts: the area under the effective control of the Republic, located in the south and west, comprising about 59% of the island's area. Another nearly 4% of the island's area is covered by the UN buffer zone; the international community considers the northern part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under international law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union.
Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean. With an advanced, high-income economy and a high Human Development Index, the Republic of Cyprus has been a member of the Commonwealth since 1961 and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on 1 May 2004. On 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone; the earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek, ku-pi-ri-jo, meaning "Cypriot", written in Linear B syllabic script. The classical Greek form of the name is Κύπρος; the etymology of the name is unknown. Suggestions include: the Greek word for the Mediterranean cypress tree, κυπάρισσος the Greek name of the henna tree, κύπρος an Eteocypriot word for copper, it has been suggested, for example, that it has roots in the Sumerian word for copper or for bronze, from the large deposits of copper ore found on the island. Through overseas trade, the island has given its name to the Classical Latin word for copper through the phrase aes Cyprium, "metal of Cyprus" shortened to Cuprum.
The standard demonym relating to Cyprus or its people or culture is Cypriot. The terms Cypriote and Cyprian are used, though less frequently; the earliest confirmed site of human activity on Cyprus is Aetokremnos, situated on the south coast, indicating that hunter-gatherers were active on the island from around 10,000 BC, with settled village communities dating from 8200 BC. The arrival of the first humans correlates with the extinction of the dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants. Water wells discovered by archaeologists in western Cyprus are believed to be among the oldest in the world, dated at 9,000 to 10,500 years old. Remains of an 8-month-old cat were discovered buried with a human body at a separate Neolithic site in Cyprus; the grave is estimated to be 9,500 years old, predating ancient Egyptian civilisation and pushing back the ear
Tzatziki
Tzatziki, cacık or tarator is a dip, soup, or sauce found in the cuisines of Southeast Europe and the Middle East. It is made of salted strained yogurt or diluted yogurt mixed with cucumbers, salt, olive oil, sometimes with vinegar or lemon juice, herbs such as dill, mint and thyme, it is served as a cold appetizer or a side dish. The Greek word tzatziki comes from the Turkish word cacık. According to Olga Razuvajeva, the word comes from the Armenian cacıg; the root cac is related to several words in Western Asian languages. Persian zhazh refers to various herbs used for cooking. Evliya Çelebi's 17th-century Seyâhatnâme travelogue defined cacıχ as a kind of herb, added to food. Ahmet Vefik Pasha's 1876 Ottoman dictionary defined cacık as an herb salad with yogurt; this remains the most common definition today. The form tarator is found in languages from the Balkans to the Levant, appears to be of Slavic origin, coming from Bulgaria. Greek-style tzatziki sauce is served as a side with meat dishes.
It may be served as part of an assorted meze small plate platter, traditionally served with the anise-flavored liquor called ouzo. Tzatziki is made of strained yogurt mixed with cucumbers, salt, olive oil, sometimes lemon juice, dill or mint or parsley; some variations are made with cattails or purslane, tofu and seasoned with Vege-sal and either whole allspice or spicebush berries. Purslane is called glistrida in Greek and this may be called glistrida me yiaourti meaning "purslane and yogurt salad" rather than tzatziki. One simple recipe calls for olive oil, red wine vinegar and dill. Another is made with purslane, cilantro and ground coriander, along with the standard yogurt-cucumber base. Turkish cacık is made by combining a bit of water and yogurt in a deep bowl together with garlic and different combinations of fresh vegetables and herbs; the amount of water used depends on how thick the cook wants the cacık to be—sometimes the dish is served as a cold soup, but it can be made thicker according to taste.
Labneh may be substituted for some of the yogurt. Garlic is crushed in a mortar and pestle together with salt and the cucumbers are either chopped or grated; the crushed garlic and cucumber are combined before the dish is garnished with some combination of aleppo pepper, sumac or mint. It is popular during summer months and may optionally be served with ice; when shredded carrots are added along with the cucumber it is called havuçlu cacık. In Turkey tarator is called balkan cacığı and is made with fresh scallions and mint. Other cacık varieties may include chopped red pepper and fresh parsley. Dill can optionally be added as well; some recipes add a tablespoon of vinegar. One version with basil is made with made with ground walnuts and chopped fresh basil. Not all cacıks are made with shredded cucumber—sometimes various types of leafy greens or herbs are used in combination with other ingredients. For example, one version calls for fresh dill, it can be made into a type of salad with purslane. Sometimes it is made with unripe almonds called çağla in Turkish.
It may be made from wild edible plants like çıtlık and eaten in a wrap called dürüm. For cacıklı arap köftesi, kofta made from a mix of bulgur and ground meat is served over cacık. In this case the cacık is made with chard rather than the usual cucumber. Bulgurlu madımak cacığı is made with cracked wheat, cucumber and a type of knotweed called madımak. There are dishes similar to tzatziki called tarator in many Balkan countries. Tarator is more prepared as a cold soup, popular in the summer, it is made of yogurt, garlic, dill, vegetable oil, water, is served chilled or with ice. Local variations may omit nuts or dill, or add bread; the cucumbers may on rare occasions be replaced with lettuce or carrots. The thicker variation more similar to Tzatziki is sometimes known as "dry tarator", or as "Snezhanka" salad, which means "Snow white salad", is served as an appetizer or side dish. During preparation, the yogurt is hung for several hours in a kerchief and loses about half of its water; the cucumbers, minced walnuts and vegetable oil are added.
In Bulgaria, Tarator is a popular meze, but served as a side dish along with Shopska salad with most meals. Sunflower oil and Olive oil more used, walnut is sometimes omitted. Tarator is seasoned with dill, both of which can be omitted. It's a common refresher during the summer. In Albania, Tarator is a popular dish in summer time, it is served cold and is made from yoghurt, parsley, cucumber and olive oil. Fried squids are offered with Tarator. In Cyprus, the dish is known as "ταλαττούρι" and is not a soup like Bulgarian tarator but more of a dipping sauce, it is made from strained yogurt, sliced cucumbers, minced garlic cloves and sprinkled with oregano and sometimes olive oil. Similar dishes in Iraq are known as jajeek, they are served as meze to accompany alcoholic drinks Arak, an Ouzo-like drink made from dates. A similar dish in Iran is called ash-e doogh, instead of cucumbers it contains a variety of herbs such as basil, mint, black pepper and raisins. In this style, sometimes dried bread chips, chopp
Tempura
Tempura is a Japanese dish consisting of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. The dish was influenced by fritter-cooking techniques introduced by Portuguese residing in Nagasaki in the 16th century, the name "tempura" relates to that origin. A light batter is made of soft wheat flour. Eggs, baking soda or baking powder, oil, and/or spices may be added. Tempura batter is traditionally mixed in small batches using chopsticks for only a few seconds, leaving lumps in the mixture that, along with the cold batter temperature, result in the unique fluffy and crisp tempura structure when cooked; the batter is kept cold by adding ice, or by placing the bowl inside a larger bowl with ice in it. Overmixing the batter will result in activation of wheat gluten, which causes the flour mixture to become soft and dough-like when fried. Specially formulated tempura flour is available in worldwide supermarkets; this is light flour, contains leaveners such as baking powder. Tempura does not use breadcrumbs in the coating.
Fried foods which are coated with breadcrumbs are considered to be furai, Japanese-invented Western-style deep fried foods, such as tonkatsu or ebi furai. Thin slices or strips of vegetables or seafood are dipped in the batter briefly deep-fried in hot oil. Vegetable oil or canola oil are most common. Many specialty shops still use sesame oil or tea seed oil, it is thought certain compounds in these oils help to produce light, crispier batter; the bits of batter are scooped out between batches of tempura, so they do not burn and leave a bad flavor in the oil. A small mesh scoop is used for this purpose. Tenkasu are reserved as ingredients in other dishes or as a topping. Various seafood and vegetables are used as the ingredients in traditional tempura; the most popular seafood tempura is ebi tempura. Types of seafood used in tempura includes: Vegetables tempura is called yasai tempura; the all vegetable tempura might be served as a vegetarian dish. Types of vegetables includes: Cooked bits of tempura are either eaten with dipping sauce, salted without sauce, or used to assemble other dishes.
Tempura is served with grated daikon and eaten hot after frying. In Japan, it is found in bowls of soba or udon soup in the form of a shrimp, shiso leaf, or fritter; the most common sauce is tentsuyu sauce. Alternatively, tempura may be sprinkled with sea salt before eating. Mixtures of powdered green tea and salt or yuzu and salt are used. Kakiage is a type of tempura made with mixed vegetable strips, such as onion and burdock, sometimes including shrimp or squid, which are deep fried as small round fritters. Tempura is used in combination with other foods; when served over soba, it is called tempura tensoba. Tempura is served as a donburi dish where tempura shrimp and vegetables are served over steamed rice in a bowl and on top of udon soup. Earlier Japanese deep-fried food was either fried without breading or batter, or fried with rice flour. However, toward the end of the 16th century, a fritter-cooking technique using flour and eggs as a batter was acquired from Portuguese missionaries and merchants from the region of Alentejo, who resided in Nagasaki.
It came about as a way to fulfill the fasting and abstinence rules for Catholics surrounding the quarterly ember days. Hence, the etymology of the word, tempura. In those days, tempura in Nagasaki was deep-fried in lard with a batter consisting of flour, water and salt, unlike the modern version, was eaten without a dipping sauce. In the beginning of the 17th century around the Tokyo Bay area, the raw materials of tempura and its method underwent a remarkable change as the Yatai culture gained more popularity. Making the best use of fresh seafood while preserving its delicate taste, tempura used only flour and water as ingredients and the batter was not flavored; as the batter was mixed minimally in cold water, it avoided the dough-like stickiness caused by the activation of wheat gluten, resulting in the crispy texture, now characteristic of tempura. It became customary to eat tempura by dipping in a sauce mixed with grated daikon just before it was eaten. Today in Japan the mainstream of tempura recipes originate from "Tokyo style" tempura, invented at the food stalls along the riverside fish market in the Edo period.
There are several factors for the popularization and flourishing of tempura at Tokyo Bay in the Edo period. The abundance of seafood in the Tokyo Bay is the basic factor. In addition, as oil extraction techniques advanced, cooking oil became inexpensive. In those days, serving deep-fried foods indoors was prohibited in Edo due to a possible fire hazard. Traditional Japanese housing was constructed with paper and wood which could catch fire from the tempura oil. For that reason, tempura gained popularity as fast food eaten outside at the food stall. Eating tempura in those days was made to be convenient like fast food as tempura was skewered and eaten with a dipping sauce. Tempura has been considered as one of "the Edo Delicacies" along with soba and sushi which were food stall take outs; the modern tempura recipe was first published in 1671 in the cook book called "料理献立抄". After t
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is an important part of Chinese culture, which includes cuisine originating from the diverse regions of China, as well as from Chinese people in other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many other cuisines in Asia, with modifications made to cater to local palates. Chinese food staples such as rice, soy sauce, noodles and tofu, utensils such as chopsticks and the wok, can now be found worldwide; the preference for seasoning and cooking techniques of Chinese provinces depend on differences in historical background and ethnic groups. Geographic features including mountains, rivers and deserts have a strong effect on the local available ingredients, considering that the climate of China varies from tropical in the south to subarctic in the northeast. Imperial and noble preference plays a role in the change of Chinese cuisines; because of imperial expansion and trading and cooking techniques from other cultures are integrated into Chinese cuisines over time.
The most praised "Four Major Cuisines" are Chuan, Lu, Yue and Huaiyang, representing West, North and East China cuisine correspondingly. The modern "Eight Cuisines" of China are Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang cuisines. Color and taste are the three traditional aspects used to describe Chinese food, as well as the meaning and nutrition of the food. Cooking should be appraised with respect to the ingredients used, cooking time and seasoning. Chinese society valued gastronomy, developed an extensive study of the subject based on its traditional medical beliefs. Chinese culture centered around the North China Plain; the first domesticated crops seem to have been the foxtail and broomcorn varieties of millet, while rice was cultivated in the south. By 2000 BC, wheat had arrived from western Asia; these grains were served as warm noodle soups instead of baked into bread as in Europe. Nobles hunted various wild game and consumed mutton and dog as these animals were domesticated. Grain was stored against famine and flood and meat was preserved with salt, vinegar and fermenting.
The flavor of the meat was enhanced by cooking it in animal fats though this practice was restricted to the wealthy. By the time of Confucius in the late Zhou, gastronomy had become a high art. Confucius discussed the principles of dining: "The rice would never be too white, the meat would never be too finely cut... When it was not cooked right, man would not eat; when it was cooked bad, man would not eat. When the meat was not cut properly, man would not eat; when the food was not prepared with the right sauce, man would not eat. Although there are plenty of meats, they should not be cooked more than staple food. There is no limit for alcohol, before a man gets drunk." During Shi Huangdi's Qin dynasty, the empire expanded into the south. By the time of the Han dynasty, the different regions and cuisines of China's people were linked by major canals and leading to a greater complexity in the different regional cuisines. Not only is food seen as giving "qi", but food is about maintaining yin and yang.
The philosophy behind it was rooted in the I Ching and Chinese traditional medicine: food was judged for color, aroma and texture and a good meal was expected to balance the Four Natures and the Five Tastes. Salt was used as a preservative from early times, but in cooking was added in the form of soy sauce, not at the table; the predominance of chopsticks and spoons as eating utensils necessitated that most food be prepared in bite-sized pieces or be so tender that it could be picked apart. By the Later Han period, writers complained of lazy aristocrats who did nothing but sit around all day eating smoked meats and roasts. During the Han dynasty, the Chinese developed methods of food preservation for military rations during campaigns such as drying meat into jerky and cooking and drying grain. Chinese legends claim that the roasted, flat bread shaobing was brought back from the Xiyu by the Han dynasty General Ban Chao, that it was known as hubing; the shaobing is believed to be descended from the hubing.
Shaobing is believed to be related to the Persian nan and Central Asian nan, as well as the Middle Eastern pita. Foreign westerners sold sesame cakes in China during the Tang dynasty. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties non-Han people like the Xianbei of Northern Wei introduced their cuisine to northern China, these influences continued up to the Tang dynasty, popularizing meat like mutton and dairy products like goat milk and Kumis among Han people, it was during the Song dynasty that Han Chinese developed an aversion to dairy products and abandoned the dairy foods introduced earlier. The Han Chinese rebel Wang Su who received asylum in the Xianbei Northern Wei after fleeing from Southern Qi, at first could not stand eating dairy products like goat's milk and meat like mutton and had to consume tea and fish instead, but after a few years he was able to eat yogurt and lamb, the Xianbei Emperor asked him which of the foods of China he preferred, fish vs mutton and tea vs yogurt; the great migration of Chinese people south during the invasions preceding and during the Song dynasty increased the relative importance of southern Chinese staples such as rice and congee.
Su Dongpo has improved the red brai
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a hot dish of English origin consisting of fried fish in batter served with chips. It is an early example of culinary fusion. Fish and chips first appeared in the UK in the 1860s. By 1910 there were more than 25,000 fish and chip shops across the UK, by the 1930s there were over 35,000. Fish and chips are now a staple takeaway meal in numerous countries in English-speaking and Commonwealth countries; the tradition in the UK of fish battered and fried in oil may have come from Jewish immigrants from Spain and Portugal. Western Sephardic Jews settling in England as early as the 16th century would have prepared fried fish in a manner similar to pescado frito, coated in flour fried in oil. Charles Dickens mentions "fried fish warehouses" in Oliver Twist, in 1845 Alexis Soyer in his first edition of A Shilling cookery for the People, gives a recipe for "Fried fish, Jewish fashion", dipped in a batter of flour and water; the exact location of the first fish and chip shop is unclear.
The earliest known shops were opened in the 1860s, in London by Joseph Malin and in Mossley, near Oldham, Lancashire, by John Lees. However, fried fish, as well as chips, had existed independently for at least fifty years, so the possibility that they had been combined at an earlier time cannot be ruled out. Fish and chips became a stock meal among the working classes in England as a consequence of the rapid development of trawl fishing in the North Sea, the development of railways which connected the ports to major industrial cities during the second half of the 19th century, so that fresh fish could be transported to the populated areas. Deep-fried chips as a dish may have first appeared in England in about the same period: the Oxford English Dictionary notes as its earliest usage of "chips" in this sense the mention in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities: "Husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil"; the modern fish-and-chip shop originated in the United Kingdom, although outlets selling fried food occurred throughout Europe.
Early fish-and-chip shops had only basic facilities. These consisted principally of a large cauldron of cooking fat, heated by a coal fire; the fish-and-chip shop evolved into a standard format, with the food served, in paper wrappings, to queuing customers, over a counter in front of the fryers. By 1910, there were more than 25,000 fish and chip shops across the country, in the 1920s there were more than 35,000 shops; as a boy Alfred Hitchcock lived above a fish and chip shop in London, the family business. According to Professor John Walton, author of Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, the British government made safeguarding supplies of fish and chips during World War I a priority: "The cabinet knew it was vital to keep families on the home front in good heart, unlike the German regime that failed to keep its people well fed". In 1928, Harry Ramsden opened his first chip shop in Guiseley, West Yorkshire. On a single day in 1952, the shop served 10,000 portions of fish and chips, earning a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
In George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, which documents his experience of working class life in the north of England, the author considered fish and chips chief among the'home comforts' which acted as a panacea to the working classes. During World War II, fish and chips remained one of the few foods in the United Kingdom not subject to rationing. Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to the combination of fish and chips as "the good companions". John Lennon enjoyed his fish and chips—a staple of the working class—smothered in ketchup. British fish and chips were served in a wrapping of old newspapers but this practice has now ceased, with plain paper, cardboard, or plastic being used instead. In the United Kingdom, the Fish Labelling Regulations 2003 and in Ireland the European Communities Regulations 2003 enact directive 2065/2001/EC, mean that "fish" must be sold with the particular commercial name or species named. In the United Kingdom the Food Standards Agency guidance excludes caterers from this.
A prominent meal in British culture, the dish became popular in wider circles in London and South East England in the middle of the 19th century: Charles Dickens mentions a "fried fish warehouse" in Oliver Twist, first published in 1838, while in the north of England a trade in deep-fried chipped potatoes developed. The first chip shop stood on the present site of Oldham's Tommyfield Market, it remains unclear when and where these two trades combined to become the fish-and-chip shop industry we know. A Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, opened the first recorded combined fish-and-chip shop in London in 1860 or in 1865; the concept of a fish restaurant, as opposed to take-away, was introduced by Samuel Isaacs who ran a thriving wholesale and retail fish business throughout London and the South of England in the latter part of the 19th century. Isaacs' first restaurant opened in London in 1896 serving fish and chips and butter, tea for nine pence, its popularity ensured a rapid expansion of the chain.
The restaurants were carpeted, had table service, flowers, chi
Gladius (cephalopod)
The gladius, or pen, is a hard internal bodypart found in many cephalopods of the superorder Decapodiformes and in a single extant member of the Octopodiformes, the vampire squid. It is so named for its superficial resemblance to the Roman short sword of the same name, is a vestige of the ancestral mollusc shell, external; the gladius is located dorsally within the mantle and extends for its entire length. Composed of chitin, it lies within the shell sac, responsible for its secretion. Gladii are known from a number of extinct cephalopod groups, including teudopseids and prototeuthids. Gladii are shaped in many distinctive ways and vary between species, though are like a feather or leaf; some examples are shown below. Cuttlebone Belemnoidea Argonaut Nautilus Mollusc shell Bizikov, V. A.. Squid gladius: its use for the study of growth, intraspecies structure and evolution. Ph. D. Thesis. Institute of Oceanology, SSSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow. 513 pp. Toll, R. B.. The comparative morphology of the gladius in the order Teuthoidea in relation to systematics and phylogeny.
Ph. D. Thesis. University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. 390 pp. Toll, R. B.. The gladius in teuthoid systematics. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 586: 55–67
.jpg)
_2.jpg)
Media related to Squid as food at Wikimedia Commons
