1.
Tarator
–
Tarator, tarathor, taratur, or ttalattouri, is a soup, appetizer, or sauce found in the cuisines of Eastern Europe. It generally includes ground walnuts, garlic, and yogurt or tahini, and often cucumber, herbs, in the Balkans, it is a cold soup, popular in the summer. It is made of yogurt, cucumber, garlic, walnut, dill, vegetable oil, and water, local variations may replace yogurt with water and vinegar, omit nuts or dill, or add bread. The cucumbers may on occasions be replaced with lettuce or carrots. Turkish and Levantine tarator is usually a sauce based on tahini and it is often served with fish or fried seafood. Cypriot Greek, τταλαττούρι is not a soup-like sauce like Bulgarian tarator, the word is found in languages from the Balkans to the Levant, and appears to be of Bulgarian origin. In Bulgaria, tarator is a meze but also served as a side dish along with Shopska salad with most meals. It is probably the most popular dish in the hot summer days, sunflower and olive oil are more commonly used and walnut is sometimes omitted. Tarator is seasoned with garlic and dill both of which can be omitted if so desired, Tarator is a popular dish in Bulgaria. A salad version of tarator is known as Snow-white salad, also called Dry Tarator and it is made of thick yogurt, without water. It can be served as an appetizer or as a side to the main meal, in Albania, Tarator is a very popular dish in summertime. It is usually served cold and is made from yoghurt, garlic, parsley, cucumber, salt. Fried squids are usually offered with tarator, in Greece, a similar dish is known as Tzatziki. Tzatziki usually contains olive oil, dill, lemon juice in addition to the ingredients listed above, a similar dish in Iran is called ab-doogh-khiar which contains salt, basil, leek, mint, black pepper, raisins, and ice. In this style, sometimes dried bread chips are put in the dish just before serving, Tarator is a popular salad and dip in Serbia and Macedonia, it is also known as tarator salata. It is made with yogurt, sliced cucumber and diced garlic, in Turkish cuisine, tarator is a dip sauce generally eaten with fried fish and squid. The sauce includes white bread crumbs, walnuts, lemon juice or vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic, herbs, one Turkish version using the name, tahinli tarator, is a similar dish specifically containing tahin or sesame. In the coastal towns of Turkey, fried squid or mussels are almost always served with tarator sauce, in Syria and Lebanon, طرطور is made of Tahini, lemon juice, crushed garlic, salt and water
2.
Dipping sauce
–
A dip or dipping sauce is a common condiment for many types of food. Unlike other sauces, instead of applying the sauce to the food, dips are commonly used for finger foods, appetizers, and other easily held foods. Thick dips based on cream, crème fraiche, milk, yogurt, mayonnaise, soft cheese. Alton Brown suggests that a dip is defined based on its ability to contact with its transport mechanism over three feet of white carpet. Dips in various forms are all over the world and people have been using sauces for dipping for thousands of years. Some types of dip include, Aioli, a mayonnaise flavored with garlic, ajika, a spicy, subtly flavoured dip in Caucasian cuisine, based on hot red pepper, garlic, herbs and spices. Ajvar, made from red bell peppers with garlic, found in Serbian cuisine Artichoke dip, some versions are served chunky, while others are puréed and have a smooth texture Baba ghanoush, a dip made from eggplant. It is popular in the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of South Asia, bagna càuda, a regional dish of the Italian Piedmont, it is composed of garlic, anchovies, oil and dairy, and is served with assorted vegetables for dipping. Barbecue sauce, a common sauce either tomato, vinegar, or mustard based, often used for grilled and fried meats, and french fries in the United States. Bean dip, dip made from refried beans Blue cheese dressing is made from mayonnaise, sour cream, yogurt, blue cheese, milk, vinegar, onion powder, dry mustard. It is commonly used as a dip for raw vegetables or buffalo wings, buffalo sauce, made from vinegar-based pepper hot sauce, is often used as both a coating for buffalo wings as well as a standalone dipping sauce for other foods. Chile con queso, a dip of melted cheese and chili peppers used in Tex Mex cuisine with tortilla chips, chili oil is used as a dipping sauce for meat and dim sum. Chocolate, a dip for various fruits, doughnuts, profiteroles, chutney, any of a wide variety of sauces with origins in the sub-continent of India, from freshly chopped herbs in yogurt, to bottled, spiced fruit mixtures. Used with snacks like deep fried samosas and pakoras, in India and Sri Lanka, it is also commonly served with dosa and idli. Clam dip, a kind of condiment for dipping crackers and chips, cocktail sauce, a popular dip for seafood made from ketchup or chili sauce and horseradish. Crab dip, a thick dip popular in Maryland usually made from cream cheese, curry ketchup, also called Currygewürz in Germany, is a spicier form of ketchup. Fish sauce, or nam pla, the fermented fish equivalent of soy sauce, used in southeastern Asian cuisines as a dip for snacks, fish paste or bagoong, fermented fish paste, used in southeastern Asian cuisines as a dip for rice dishes. Fondue, a cheese sauce, which rose in popularity in the U. S
3.
Soup
–
Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot, that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, traditionally, soups are classified into two main groups, clear soups and thick soups. The established French classifications of clear soups are bouillon and consommé, other ingredients commonly used to thicken soups and broths include egg, rice, lentils, flour, and grains, many popular soups also include carrots and potatoes. Soups are similar to stews, and in some there may not be a clear distinction between the two, however, soups generally have more liquid than stews. Evidence of the existence of soup can be found as far back as about 20,000 BC, boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of waterproof containers. Animal hides and watertight baskets of bark or reeds were used before this, to boil the water hot rocks were used. This method was used to cook acorns and other plants. The word soup comes from French soupe, which comes through Vulgar Latin suppa from a Germanic source, from which comes the word sop. In 1765, a Parisian entrepreneur opened a shop specializing in such soups and this prompted the use of the modern word restaurant for the eating establishments. A1772 cookbook, The Frugal Housewife, contained a chapter on the topic. English cooking dominated early colonial cooking, but as new immigrants arrived from other countries, in particular, German immigrants living in Pennsylvania were famous for their potato soups. In 1794, Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat dis Julien, a refugee from the French Revolution, opened an establishment in Boston called The Restorator. The first American cooking pamphlet dedicated to soup recipes was written in 1882 by Emma Ewing, Soups, portable soup was devised in the 18th century by boiling seasoned meat until a thick, resinous syrup was left that could be dried and stored for months at a time. Commercial soup became popular with the invention of canning in the 19th century, doctor John T. Dorrance, a chemist with the Campbell Soup Company, invented condensed soup in 1897. Today, Campbells Tomato, Cream of Mushroom, and Chicken Noodle Soup are three of the most popular soups in America, americans consume approximately 2.5 billion bowls of these three soups alone each year. Canned soup can be condensed, in case it is prepared by adding water, or it can be ready-to-eat. Canned soup can be prepared by heating in a pan, on the stovetop or in the microwave, such soups can be used as a base for homemade soups, with the consumer adding anything from a few vegetables to eggs, meat, cream or pasta. Condensing soup allows soup to be packaged into a smaller can, the soup is usually doubled in volume by adding a can full of water or milk
4.
Hors d'oeuvre
–
An hors doeuvre, appetizer, or starter is a small dish served before a meal. Some hors doeuvres are served cold, others hot, Hors doeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the meal, or they may be served before seating. Formerly, hors doeuvres were also served between courses, typically smaller than a main dish, it is often designed to be eaten by hand. Hors doeuvre in French means outside the work—that is, not part of the set of courses in a meal. Appetizer is a synonym for hors doeuvre, starter is sometimes used to denote an hors doeuvre, sometimes to denote more substantial courses, known in Europe and North America as entrées. A small number of historians believe that the tradition may have begun in Russia. However, it may be that the custom originated in China, possibly coming through Steppes, into Russia, Scandinavia, France, the tradition may have reached Italy, Greece and the Balkan nations through Russia or Persia. Many national customs are related, including the Swedish smörgåsbord, Russian zakuska, Lebanese mezze, during the Roman Period the meal practice was to have two main courses which were supplemented before the meal with small amounts of fish, vegetables, cheeses, olives and even stuffed dormice. These would be served at the start of the known as either gustatio or promulsis. The Greeks called the appetizer course propoma, during the Middle Ages formal French meals were served with entremets between the serving of plates. These secondary dishes could be either actual food dishes, or elaborate displays, in the 14th century, recipes for entremets were mostly made with meat, fish, pork and vegetables. Along with this came elaborate silver and ceramic table displays as well as pièces montées, the entremets were placed between the other dishes within the main work of the meal. At about this time in the 17th century, smaller dishes began to be served by being placed outside the work of symmetrically placed dishes. These were known as hors doeuvre, Hors doeuvres were originally served as a canapé of small toasted bread with a savoury topping before a meal. In the French publication Les plaisirs de la table, Edouard Nignon stated that hors doeuvres originated in Asia and he went on to state that the French considered hors-doeuvres to be superfluous to a well cooked meal. Service à la française continued in Europe until the early 19th century, after the 19th century the entremet would become almost exclusively a sweet dish or dessert with the British custom of the savoury being the only remaining tradition of the savoury entremet. The style of formal dining changed drastically in the 19th century, some traditional hors doeuvres would remain on the table throughout the meal. These included olives, nuts, celery and radishes, the changing, contemporary hors doeuvres, sometimes called dainty dishes became more complicated in preparation
5.
Side dish
–
A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal. Side dishes such as salad, potatoes and bread are used with main courses throughout many countries of the western world. New side orders introduced within the past decade, such as rice and couscous, have grown to be popular throughout Europe. When used as an adjective qualifying the name of a dish, for example, a side salad usually served in a small bowl or salad plate, in contrast to a large dinner-plate-sized entrée salad. A typical American meal with a main dish might include one vegetable side dish, sometimes in the form of a salad. Some common side dishes include, Some restaurants offer a selection of side dishes which are included with the price of the entrée as a combination meal. In contrast, sometimes side dishes are ordered separately from an a la carte menu, the term may or may not imply that the dish can only be ordered with other food. French fries are the most common dish served at fast-food restaurants. The related phrase on the side may be synonymous with side dish – as in French fries on the side – or may refer to a sauce or condiment served in a separate dish. For example, a diner may request a salad be served with its dressing on the side, banchan, Korean side dishes Food pyramid In a basket Platter Greene, Janet, et al. Family Living, Simply Delicious Side Dishes
6.
Meze
–
Meze or mezze is a selection of small dishes served to accompany alcoholic drinks in the Near East, the Balkans, and parts of Central Asia. In Levantine, Caucasian, and Balkan cuisines, meze is served at the beginning of multi-course meals. The word is found in all the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, in Greece, Cyprus and the Balkans, mezé, mezés, or mezédhes are small dishes, hot or cold, spicy or savory. Popular meze dishes include, Mutabbal/Babaghanoush – eggplant mashed and mixed with seasonings, Hummus – a dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas Hummus with meat Falafel – a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both. Tashi – Dip made from tahini, garlic, salt and lemon juice with chopped parsley garnish, souvlaki – Bite sized meat cubes, grilled on a skewer over charcoal. Stifado – Slow cooked beef stew with lots of onions, garlic, tomatoes, cinnamon, pepper, afelia – Diced pork marinated in wine with coriander seed, then stewed. Lountza – Smoked pork loin slice, usually grilled, dolma Vegetables like peppers, eggplants or courgettes stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, minced meat. Sarma – Grape vine leaves, stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, yogurt Tzatziki – Dip made from plain yogurt, chopped cucumber with finely chopped garlic and mint leaf. Tarama – a fish roe dip based on cured carp fish roe, mashed potatoes, in the traditional Istanbul variety of this dish, a substantial part of the roe must remain intact. Labneh – strained youghurt which tastes similar to cream or sour cream only more tart, there are vegetarian, meat or fish mezes. Groups of dishes arrive at the table about 4 or 5 at a time, establishments will offer their own specialities, but the pattern remains the same. Naturally the dishes served will reflect the seasons, for example, in late autumn, snails will be prominent. As so much food is offered, it is not expected that every dish be finished, eating a Cypriot meze is a social event. In the Balkans, meze is very similar to Mediterranean antipasti in the sense that cured cold-cuts, cheese and salads are dominant ingredients, in southern Croatia, Herzegovina and Montenegro more mediterranean forms of cured meat like pršut and panceta and regional products like olives are common. Albanian-style meze platters typically include prosciutto ham, salami and brined cheese, in Bulgaria, popular mezes are lukanka, soujouk, sirene, and Shopska salad made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, roasted peppers and sirene. In Romania, mezelic means quick appetizer and includes Zacuscă, cheeses and salamis, meze is generally accompanied by the distilled drinks rakı, arak, ouzo, Aragh Sagi, rakia, mastika, or tsipouro. It may also be consumed with beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks, Cyprus Brandy is a favourite drink to accompany meze in Cyprus, although lager or wine are popular with some. The same dishes, served without alcoholic drinks, are termed muqabbilat in Arabic, in Bulgaria, meze is served primarily at consumption of wine but also as an appetizer for rakia and mastika
7.
Ottoman Empire
–
After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
8.
Anatolia
–
Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
9.
Balkans
–
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
10.
Caucasus
–
The Caucasus /ˈkɔːkəsəs/ or Caucasia /kɔːˈkeɪʒə/ is a region at the border of Europe and Asia, situated between the Black and the Caspian seas. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, which contain Europes highest mountain, politically, the Caucasus region is separated between northern and southern parts. The southern parts consist of independent sovereign states, and the parts are under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. The region is known for its diversity, aside from Indo-European and Turkic languages, the Kartvelian, Northwest Caucasian. Pliny the Elders Natural History derives the name of the Caucasus from Scythian kroy-khasis, German linguist Paul Kretschmer notes that the Latvian word Kruvesis also means ice. According to German philologists Otto Schrader and Alfons A. Nehring, the South Caucasus region and southern Dagestan were the furthest points of Persian expansions, with areas to the north of Caucasus Mountains practically impregnable. The mythological mountain of Qaf, the worlds highest mountain that ancient lore shrouded in mystery, was said to be situated in this region, therefore, the Caucasus might be associated with the legendary mountain. The Ciscaucasus contains the majority of the Greater Caucasus Mountain range. It includes Southwestern Russia and northern parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan, the Transcaucasus is bordered on the north by Russia, on the west by the Black Sea and Turkey, on the east by the Caspian Sea, and on the south by Iran. It includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands, all of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are in South Caucasus. The main Greater Caucasus range is generally perceived to be the line between Asia and Europe. The highest peak in the Caucasus is Mount Elbrus in the western Ciscaucasus in Russia, the Caucasus is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse regions on Earth. The nation states that comprise the Caucasus today are the post-Soviet states Georgia, Armenia, three territories in the region claim independence but are recognized as such by only a handful or by no independent states, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are recognised by the majority of independent states as part of Georgia, the Russian divisions include Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, and the autonomous republics of Adygea, Karachay–Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan. The region has many different languages and language families, there are more than 50 ethnic groups living in the region. Russian is used as a common language, today the peoples of the Northern and Southern Caucasus tend to be either Eastern Orthodox Christians, Oriental Orthodox Christians, or Sunni Muslims. Shia Islam has had many adherents historically in Azerbaijan, located in the part of the region. Located on the peripheries of Turkey, Iran, and Russia, the region has been an arena for political, military, religious, throughout its history, the Caucasus was usually incorporated into the Iranian world
11.
Strained yogurt
–
Like many types of yogurt, strained yogurt is often made from milk that has been enriched by boiling off some of its water content, or by adding extra butterfat and powdered milk. In Europe and North America, it is made with low-fat or fat-free yogurt. In Scandinavia, particularly Iceland, a product, skyr is produced. Such dishes may be cooked or raw, savory or sweet, due to the straining process to remove excess whey, even non-fat varieties of strained yogurt are much thicker, richer, and creamier than yogurts that have not been strained. In western Europe and the US, strained yogurt has increased in popularity compared to unstrained yogurt, since the straining process removes some of the lactose, strained yogurt is lower in sugar than unstrained yogurt. It was reported in 2012 that most of the growth in the $4.1 billion US yogurt industry came from the strained yogurt sub-segment, in the US there is no legal definition of Greek yogurt, and yogurt thickened with thickening agents may also be sold as Greek yogurt. Strained yogurt contains a higher density than regular yogurt. The protein in strained yogurt is largely casein protein, in Armenia, strained yogurt is called kamats matzoon. Traditionally, it was produced for long-term preservation by draining matzoon in cloth sacks, afterwards it was stored in leather sacks or clay pots for a month or more depending on the degree of salting. In Albania, strained yogurt is called salcë kosi, after preparing yogurt from micro-cultured milk, it is drained in a cloth sack from few hours, to overnight. The water released from this process is called hir and can be used to preserve cheese or as a drink. Meanwhile the strained yogurt is used in many variation in the Albanian cuisine and is either plain or with added elements such as dill, garlic, cucumber, nuts. In the countries of the former Yugoslavia, strained yogurt made of milk has become very popular in recent years. It is usually labeled grčki tip jogurta and eaten on its own as a snack or dessert, in Macedonia its widely known as „павлака. In Bulgaria, where yogurt is considered to be a part of the national cuisine, strained yogurt is called tsedeno kiselo mlyako. Another similar product is katak, which is made from sheep or goat milk. In the cuisines of many Iranian, Baloch, and Turkic peoples and it is obtained by draining qatiq, a local yogurt variety. By further drying it, one obtains qurut, a kind of dry fresh cheese, Strained yogurt in Balochistan is called Sheelanch and is a vital part of the nomadic diet
12.
Cucumber
–
Cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. It is a vine that bears cucumiform fruits that are used as vegetables. There are three varieties of cucumber, slicing, pickling, and seedless. Within these varieties, several cultivars have been created, in North America, the term wild cucumber refers to plants in the genera Echinocystis and Marah, but these are not closely related. The cucumber is originally from South Asia, but now grows on most continents, many different types of cucumber are traded on the global market. The cucumber is a vine that roots in the ground and grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin. The plant may also root in a medium and will sprawl along the ground if it does not have supports. The vine has large leaves form a canopy over the fruits. The fruit of cultivars of cucumber is roughly cylindrical, but elongated with tapered ends. Botanically speaking, the cucumber is classified as a pepo, a type of berry with a hard outer rind. Much like tomato and squash, it is perceived, prepared. Cucumber fruits are more than 90% water. A few cultivars of cucumber are parthenocarpic, the blossoms creating seedless fruit without pollination, pollination for these cultivars degrades the quality. In the United States, these are grown in greenhouses. In Europe, they are outdoors in some regions. Most cucumber cultivars, however, are seeded and require pollination, thousands of hives of honey bees are annually carried to cucumber fields just before bloom for this purpose. Cucumbers may also be pollinated by bumblebees and several other bee species, most cucumbers that require pollination are self-incompatible, so pollen from a different plant is required to form seeds and fruit. Some self-compatible cultivars exist that are related to the Lemon cultivar, symptoms of inadequate pollination include fruit abortion and misshapen fruit
13.
Garlic
–
Garlic is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use, garlic is native to the region between the Mediterranean and China, and has long been a common seasoning worldwide. It was known to Ancient Egyptians, and has used both as a food flavoring and as a traditional medicine. Allium sativum is a bulbous plant and it grows up to 1.2 m in height. Its hardiness is USDA Zone 8 and it is pollinated by bees and other insects. Allium sativum grows in the wild in areas where it has become naturalized, the wild garlic, crow garlic, and field garlic of Britain are members of the species Allium ursinum, Allium vineale, and Allium oleraceum, respectively. In North America, Allium vineale and Allium canadense, known as garlic or wild garlic. So-called elephant garlic is actually a wild leek, and not a true garlic, single clove garlic originated in the Yunnan province of China. A. sativum var. ophioscorodon Döll, called Ophioscorodon, or hard-necked garlic, includes porcelain garlics, rocambole garlic and it is sometimes considered to be a separate species, Allium ophioscorodon G. Don. A. sativum var. sativum, or soft-necked garlic, includes artichoke garlic, silverskin garlic, Garlic is easy to grow and can be grown year-round in mild climates. While sexual propagation of garlic is possible, nearly all of the garlic in cultivation is propagated asexually, in colder climates, cloves are planted in the autumn, about six weeks before the soil freezes, and harvested in late spring or early summer. The cloves must be planted deep enough to prevent freeze/thaw, which causes mold or white rot, Garlic plants can be grown closely together, leaving enough space for the bulbs to mature, and are easily grown in containers of sufficient depth. Garlic does well in loose, dry, well-drained soils in sunny locations, when selecting garlic for planting, it is important to pick large bulbs from which to separate cloves. Large cloves, along with proper spacing in the planting bed, Garlic plants prefer to grow in a soil with a high organic material content, but are capable of growing in a wide range of soil conditions and pH levels. There are different varieties or subspecies of garlic, most notably hardneck garlic, the latitude where the garlic is grown affects the choice of type, as garlic can be day-length sensitive. Hardneck garlic is grown in cooler climates and produces relatively large cloves, whereas softneck garlic is generally grown closer to the equator and produces small. Garlic scapes are removed to all the garlics energy into bulb growth. The scapes can be eaten raw or cooked, Garlic plants are usually hardy and not affected by many pests or diseases
14.
Olive oil
–
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives, a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The oil is produced by pressing whole olives and it is commonly used in cooking, whether for frying or as a salad dressing. It is also used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps, and as a fuel for oil lamps. It is associated with the Mediterranean diet for its health benefits. The olive is one of three core food plants in Mediterranean cuisine, the two are wheat and grapes. Olive trees have grown around the Mediterranean since the 8th millennium BC. Spain is the largest producer of oil, followed by Italy. However, per capita consumption is highest in Greece, followed by Spain, Italy, consumption in North America and northern Europe is far less, but rising steadily. The composition of oil varies with the cultivar, altitude, time of harvest. It consists mainly of acid, with smaller amounts of other fatty acids including linoleic acid. The olive tree is native to the Mediterranean basin, wild olives were collected by Neolithic peoples as early as the 8th millennium BC, the wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor or in ancient Greece. It is not clear when and where trees were first domesticated, in Asia Minor, in the Levant. Archeological evidence shows that olives were turned into oil by 6000 BC and 4500 BC in present-day Palestine. Until 1500 BC, eastern areas of the Mediterranean were most heavily cultivated. Evidence also suggests that olives were being grown in Crete as long ago as 2,500 BC, the cultivation of olive trees in Crete became particularly intense in the post-palatial period and played an important role in the islands economy, as it did across the Mediterranean. Recent genetic studies suggest that species used by modern cultivators descend from multiple wild populations, Olive trees and oil production in the Eastern Mediterranean can be traced to archives of the ancient city-state Ebla, which were located on the outskirts of the Syrian city Aleppo. Here some dozen documents dated 2400 BC describe lands of the king and these belonged to a library of clay tablets perfectly preserved by having been baked in the fire that destroyed the palace. A later source is the frequent mentions of oil in the Tanakh, dynastic Egyptians before 2000 BC imported olive oil from Crete, Syria and Canaan and oil was an important item of commerce and wealth
15.
Salt
–
Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams of solids per litre, Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. The tissues of animals contain larger quantities of salt than do plant tissues, Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation. Salt was also prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites, Egyptians, and the Indians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, the scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over it and use it to raise tax revenues. Salt is used in ceremonies and has other cultural significance. Salt is processed from salt mines, or by the evaporation of seawater or mineral-rich spring water in shallow pools. Its major industrial products are caustic soda and chlorine, and is used in industrial processes including the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride, plastics, paper pulp. Of the annual production of around two hundred million tonnes of salt, only about 6% is used for human consumption. Other uses include water conditioning processes, de-icing highways, and agricultural use, edible salt is sold in forms such as sea salt and table salt which usually contains an anti-caking agent and may be iodised to prevent iodine deficiency. As well as its use in cooking and at the table, sodium is an essential nutrient for human health via its role as an electrolyte and osmotic solute. Excessive salt consumption can increase the risk of diseases, such as hypertension, in children. Such health effects of salt have long been studied, accordingly, numerous world health associations and experts in developed countries recommend reducing consumption of popular salty foods. The World Health Organization recommends that adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, humans have always tended to build communities either around sources of salt, or where they can trade for it. All through history the availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization, the word salary comes from the Latin word for salt because the Roman Legions were sometimes paid in salt. The Natron Valley was a key region that supported the Egyptian Empire to its north, because it supplied it with a kind of salt that came to be called by its name, natron. Even before this, what is now thought to have been the first city in Europe is Solnitsata, in Bulgaria, even the name Solnisata means salt works. A very ancient salt-works operation has been discovered at the Poiana Slatinei archaeological site next to a spring in Lunca, Neamț County
16.
Lemon
–
The lemon, Citrus limon Osbeck, is a species of small evergreen tree in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia. The trees ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world, primarily for its juice, the pulp and rind are also used in cooking and baking. The juice of the lemon is about 5% to 6% citric acid, the distinctive sour taste of lemon juice makes it a key ingredient in drinks and foods such as lemonade and lemon meringue pie. The origin of the lemon is unknown, though lemons are thought to have first grown in Assam, a study of the genetic origin of the lemon reported it to be hybrid between bitter orange and citron. Lemons entered Europe near southern Italy no later than the second century AD, however, they were not widely cultivated. They were later introduced to Persia and then to Iraq and Egypt around 700 AD, the lemon was first recorded in literature in a 10th-century Arabic treatise on farming, and was also used as an ornamental plant in early Islamic gardens. It was distributed throughout the Arab world and the Mediterranean region between 1000 and 1150. The first substantial cultivation of lemons in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the 15th century, the lemon was later introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola on his voyages. Spanish conquest throughout the New World helped spread lemon seeds and it was mainly used as an ornamental plant and for medicine. In the 19th century, lemons were increasingly planted in Florida, in 1747, James Linds experiments on seamen suffering from scurvy involved adding lemon juice to their diets, though vitamin C was not yet known. The origin of the lemon may be Middle Eastern. The word draws from the Old French limon, then Italian limone, from the Arabic laymūn or līmūn, and from the Persian līmūn, a term for citrus fruit. The Bonnie Brae is oblong, smooth, thin-skinned, and seedless, the Eureka grows year-round and abundantly. This is the common supermarket lemon, also known as Four Seasons because of its ability to produce fruit and this variety is also available as a plant to domestic customers. There is also a pink-fleshed Eureka lemon, with a green, the Femminello St. Teresa, or Sorrento is native to Italy. This fruits zest is high in lemon oils and it is the variety traditionally used in the making of limoncello. The Meyer is a cross between a lemon and possibly an orange or a mandarin, and was named after Frank N. Meyer, who first introduced it to the USA in 1908. Thin-skinned and slightly less acidic than the Lisbon and Eureka lemons, Meyer lemons often mature to a yellow-orange color
17.
Dill
–
Dill is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is the species in the genus Anethum. Dill is widely grown in Eurasia where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food, dill grows up to 40–60 cm, with slender hollow stems and alternate, finely divided, softly delicate leaves 10–20 cm long. The ultimate leaf divisions are 1–2 mm broad, slightly broader than the leaves of fennel, which are threadlike, less than 1 mm broad. The flowers are white to yellow, in small umbels 2–9 cm diameter, the seeds are 4–5 mm long and 1 mm thick, and straight to slightly curved with a longitudinally ridged surface. Dill is a Germanic word whose origin is unknown, fresh and dried dill leaves are widely used as herbs in Europe and central Asia. Like caraway, the leaves of dill are aromatic and are used to flavor many foods such as gravlax and other fish dishes, borscht and other soups. Dill is best when used fresh as it loses its flavor rapidly if dried, however, dill seed, having a flavor similar to caraway but also resembling that of fresh or dried dill weed, is used as a spice. Dill oil is extracted from the leaves, stems and seeds of the plant, the oil from the seeds is distilled and used in the manufacturing of soaps. Dill is the ingredient in dill pickles, cucumbers preserved in salty brine and/or vinegar. In central and eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Baltic states, Russia and Finland and it is also popular in summer to drink fermented milk mixed with dill. In the same way, prepared dill is used as a topping for boiled potatoes covered with fresh butter – especially in summer there are so-called new, or young. The dill leaves can be mixed with butter, making a dill butter, dill leaves mixed with tvorog form one of the traditional cheese spreads used for sandwiches. Fresh dill leaves are used all round as an ingredient in salads, e. g. one made of lettuce, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. In Poland, fresh dill leaves mixed with sour cream are the basis for dressings and it is especially popular to use this kind of sauce with freshly cut cucumbers, which practically are wholly immersed in the sauce, making a salad called mizeria. The dill leaves serve as a basis for cooking dill sauce, used hot for baked freshwater fish and for chicken or turkey breast, in Poland it is popular to cook a dill-based soup, served with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Whole stems including roots and flower buds are used to prepare Polish-style pickled cucumbers. Whole stems of dill are also cooked with potatoes, especially the potatoes of autumn and winter, some kinds of fish, especially trout and salmon, are traditionally baked with the stems and leaves of dill
18.
Mentha
–
Mentha is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae. It is estimated that 13 to 18 species exist, and the distinction between species is still unclear. Hybridization between some of the species occur naturally, many other hybrids, as well as numerous cultivars, are known. The genus has a distribution across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. Mints are aromatic, almost exclusively perennial, rarely annual herbs and they have wide-spreading underground and overground stolons and erect, square, branched stems. The leaves are arranged in pairs, from oblong to lanceolate, often downy. Leaf colors range from green and gray-green to purple, blue. The flowers are white to purple and produced in whorls called verticillasters. The corolla is two-lipped with four lobes, the upper lobe usually the largest. The fruit is a nutlet, containing one to four seeds, while the species that make up the Mentha genus are widely distributed and can be found in many environments, most grow best in wet environments and moist soils. Mints will grow 10–120 cm tall and can spread over an indeterminate area, due to their tendency to spread unchecked, some mints are considered invasive. The list below all of the taxa recognized as species in recent works on Mentha. No author has recognized all of them, as with all biological classifications of plants, this list can go out of date at a moments notice. Common names are given for species that have them. Synonyms, along with cultivars and varieties, are given in articles on the species, Mentha is a member of the tribe Mentheae in the subfamily Nepetoideae. The tribe contains about 65 genera, and relationships within it remain obscure, authors have disagreed on the circumscription of Mentha. Some authors have excluded M. cervina from the genus, M. cunninghamii has also been excluded by some authors, even in some recent treatments of the genus. In 2004, a phylogenetic study indicated both of these species should be included in Mentha
19.
Parsley
–
Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. Parsley is widely used in European, Middle Eastern, and American cooking, curly leaf parsley is often used as a garnish. In central Europe, eastern Europe and southern Europe, as well as in western Asia, root parsley is very common in central, eastern and southern European cuisines, where it is used as a snack or a vegetable in many soups, stews, and casseroles. Mycenaean Greek se-ri-no, in Linear B, is the earliest attested form of the word selinon, garden parsley is a bright green, biennial, plant in temperate climates, or an annual herb in subtropical and tropical areas. Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. In the second year, it grows a stem to 75 cm tall with sparser leaves. The seeds are ovoid, 2–3 mm long, with prominent style remnants at the apex, one of the compounds of the essential oil is apiol. The plant normally dies after seed maturation, Parsley grows best in moist, well-drained soil, with full sun. It grows best between 22–30 °C, and usually is grown from seed, germination is slow, taking four to six weeks, and it often is difficult because of furanocoumarins in its seed coat. Typically, plants grown for the crop are spaced 10 cm apart. Parsley attracts several species of wildlife, bees and other nectar-feeding insects also visit the flowers. Birds such as the goldfinch feed on the seeds, in cultivation, parsley is subdivided into several cultivar groups, depending on the form of the plant, which is related to its end use. Often these are treated as varieties, but they are cultivated selections. The two main groups of parsley used as herbs are curly leaf and Italian, or flat leaf, of these, a third type, sometimes grown in southern Italy, has thick leaf stems resembling celery. Another type of parsley is grown as a vegetable, the Hamburg root parsley. This type of parsley produces much thicker roots than types cultivated for their leaves. Although seldom used in Britain and the United States, root parsley is common in central and eastern European cuisine, although root parsley looks similar to the parsnip, which is among its closest relatives in the family Apiaceae, its taste is quite different. Parsley is widely used in Middle Eastern, European, Brazilian and American cooking, curly leaf parsley is used often as a garnish
20.
Turkish language
–
Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
21.
Sauce
–
In cooking, a sauce is liquid, cream, or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves, they add flavor, moisture, Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsa, meaning salted. Possibly the oldest recorded European sauce is garum, the sauce used by the Ancient Greeks, while doubanjiang. Sauces need a liquid component, but some sauces may contain more components than liquid. Sauces are an element in cuisines all over the world. Sauces may be used for sweet or savory dishes and they may be prepared and served cold, like mayonnaise, prepared cold but served lukewarm like pesto, cooked and served warm like bechamel or cooked and served cold like apple sauce. Sauces may be prepared by the cook, especially in restaurants. Sauces for salad are called salad dressing, Sauce made by deglazing a pan are called pan sauces. A cook who specializes in making sauces is called a saucier, sauces used in traditional Japanese cuisine are usually based on shōyu, miso or dashi. Ponzu, citrus-flavored soy sauce, and yakitori no tare, sweetened soy sauce, are examples of shoyu-based sauces. Miso-based sauces include gomamiso, miso with ground sesame, and amamiso, in modern Japanese cuisine, the word sauce often refers to Worcestershire sauce, introduced in the 19th century and modified to suit Japanese tastes. Tonkatsu, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba sauces are based on this sauce, Japanese horseradish or wasabi sauce is used on sushi and sashimi or mixed with soy sauce to make wasabi-joyu. Some sauces in Chinese cuisine are soy sauce, doubanjiang, hoisin sauce, sweet sauce, chili sauces, oyster sauce. Korean cuisine uses sauces such as doenjang, gochujang, samjang, aekjeot, southeast Asian cuisines, such as Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, often use fish sauce, made from fermented fish. Indian cuisines use sauces such as tomato-based curry sauces, tamarind sauce, coconut milk-/paste-based sauces, there are substantial regional variations in Indian cuisine, but many sauces use a seasoned mix of onion, ginger and garlic paste as the base of various gravies and sauces. Various cooking oils, ghee and/or cream are also ingredients in Indian sauces. Filipino cuisine typically uses toyomansi as well as different varieties of suka, patis, bagoong and banana ketchup, indonesian cuisine uses typical sauces such as kecap manis, bumbu kacang and tauco, while popular hot and spicy sauces are sambal, dabu-dabu and rica-rica. In traditional British cuisine, gravy is a used on roast dinner
22.
Sheep
–
The sheep is a quadrupedal, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, although the name sheep applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female sheep is referred to as a ewe, a male as a ram or occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a wether. Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe, one of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleece, meat and milk. A sheeps wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is harvested by shearing. Ovine meat is called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older ones, Sheep continue to be important for wool and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as dairy animals, or as model organisms for science. Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the inhabited world, in the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely associated with sheep production. Sheepraising has a lexicon of unique terms which vary considerably by region. Use of the sheep began in Middle English as a derivation of the Old English word scēap. A group of sheep is called a flock, herd or mob, many other specific terms for the various life stages of sheep exist, generally related to lambing, shearing, and age. Being a key animal in the history of farming, sheep have a deeply entrenched place in human culture, as livestock, sheep are most often associated with pastoral, Arcadian imagery. Sheep figure in many mythologies—such as the Golden Fleece—and major religions, in both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used as sacrificial animals. Domestic sheep are relatively small ruminants, usually with a crimped hair called wool, domestic sheep differ from their wild relatives and ancestors in several respects, having become uniquely neotenic as a result of selective breeding by humans. A few primitive breeds of sheep retain some of the characteristics of their wild cousins, depending on breed, domestic sheep may have no horns at all, or horns in both sexes, or in males only. Most horned breeds have a pair, but a few breeds may have several. Another trait unique to domestic sheep as compared to wild ovines is their variation in color. Wild sheep are largely variations of brown hues, and variation within species is extremely limited, colors of domestic sheep range from pure white to dark chocolate brown, and even spotted or piebald
23.
Goat
–
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the family Bovidae and is related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat, Goats are one of the oldest domesticated species, and have been used for their milk, meat, hair, and skins over much of the world. In 2011, there were more than 924 million live goats around the globe, according to the UN Food, female goats are referred to as does or nannies, intact males are called bucks or billies, and juveniles of both sexes are called kids. Goat meat from animals is called kid or cabrito, while meat from older animals is known simply as goat or sometimes called chevon. To refer to the male, Old English used bucca until ousted by hegote, hegoote in the late 12th century, nanny goat originated in the 18th century and billy goat in the 19th. Goats are among the earliest animals domesticated by humans, the most recent genetic analysis confirms the archaeological evidence that the wild Bezoar ibex of the Zagros Mountains is the likely original ancestor of probably all domestic goats today. The earliest remnants of domesticated goats dating 10,000 years before present are found in Ganj Dareh in Iran. Goat remains have been found at sites in Jericho, Choga Mami Djeitun and Çayönü. Studies of DNA evidence suggests 10,000 years BP as the domestication date, historically, goat hide has been used for water and wine bottles in both traveling and transporting wine for sale. It has also used to produce parchment. Goats are considered small livestock animals, compared to animals such as cattle, camels and horses, but larger than microlivestock such as poultry, rabbits, cavies. Each recognized breed of goats has specific weight ranges, which vary from over 140 kg for bucks of larger breeds such as the Boer, within each breed, different strains or bloodlines may have different recognized sizes. At the bottom of the range are miniature breeds such as the African Pygmy. Most goats naturally have two horns, of various shapes and sizes depending on the breed, Goats have horns unless they are polled or the horns have been removed, typically soon after birth. There have been incidents of polycerate goats, although this is a genetic rarity thought to be inherited, the horns are most typically removed in commercial dairy goat herds, to reduce the injuries to humans and other goats. Unlike cattle, goats have not been bred to be reliably polled, as the genes determining sex. Breeding together two genetically polled goats results in a number of intersex individuals among the offspring, which are typically sterile
24.
Yogurt
–
Yogurt, yoghurt, or yoghourt is a food produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as yogurt cultures, fermentation of lactose by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give yogurt its texture and characteristic tart flavor. Cows milk is available worldwide, and, as such, is the milk most commonly used to make yogurt. Milk from water buffalo, goats, ewes, mares, camels, milk used may be homogenized or not, both types may be used, with substantially different results. In North America, yogurt is plain, sweetened, or sweetened and flavoured with fruit, vanilla, coffee. Yogurt is produced using a culture of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp, in addition, other lactobacilli and bifidobacteria are also sometimes added during or after culturing yogurt. To produce yogurt, milk is first heated, usually to about 85 °C, after heating, the milk is allowed to cool to about 45 °C. The bacterial culture is mixed in, and a temperature of 45 °C is maintained for four to twelve hours to allow fermentation. The word is derived from Turkish, yoğurt, and is related to the verb yoğurmak, to knead, or to be curdled or coagulated. It may be related to yoğun, meaning thick or dense, the sound ğ was traditionally rendered as gh in transliterations of Turkish from around 1615-1625. In English, there are variations of the spelling of the word, including yogurt. Yogurt is common only in the United States, and Yoghurt mostly used elsewhere, yogourt is often used in Canada, as the spelling is the same in English and French. Analysis of the L. delbrueckii subsp, bulgaricus genome indicates that the bacterium may have originated on the surface of a plant. Milk may have become spontaneously and unintentionally exposed to it through contact with plants, the origins of yogurt are unknown, but it is thought to have been invented in Mesopotamia around 5000 BC. In ancient Indian records, the combination of yogurt and honey is called the food of the gods, Persian traditions hold that Abraham owed his fecundity and longevity to the regular ingestion of yogurt. The cuisine of ancient Greece included a product known as oxygala which is believed to have been a form of yogurt. Galen mentioned that oxygala was consumed with honey, similar to the way thickened Greek yogurt is eaten today, the oldest writings mentioning yogurt are attributed to Pliny the Elder, who remarked that certain barbarous nations knew how to thicken the milk into a substance with an agreeable acidity. The use of yogurt by medieval Turks is recorded in the books Diwan Lughat al-Turk by Mahmud Kashgari, both texts mention the word yogurt in different sections and describe its use by nomadic Turks
25.
Vinegar
–
Vinegar is a liquid consisting of about 5–20% acetic acid, water, and other trace chemicals, which may include flavorings. The acetic acid is produced by the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria, Vinegar is now mainly used as a cooking ingredient, or in pickling. As the most easily manufactured mild acid, it has historically had a variety of industrial, medical. Commercial vinegar is produced either by a fast or a slow fermentation processes, in general, slow methods are used in traditional vinegars where fermentation proceeds slowly over the course of a few months or up to a year. The longer fermentation period allows for the accumulation of a non-toxic slime composed of acetic acid bacteria, fast methods add mother of vinegar to the source liquid before adding air to oxygenate and promote the fastest fermentation. In fast production processes, vinegar may be produced between 20 hours to three days, the conversion of ethanol and oxygen to acetic acid takes place by the following reaction, CH3CH2OH + O2 → CH3COOH + H2O Vinegar has been made and used by people for thousands of years. Traces of it have been found in Egyptian urns from around 3000 BC, apple cider vinegar is made from cider or apple must, and has a brownish-gold color. It is sometimes sold unfiltered and unpasteurized with the mother of vinegar present and it can be diluted with fruit juice or water or sweetened for consumption. Balsamic vinegar is an aged vinegar produced in the Modena. The original product—Traditional Balsamic Vinegar—is made from the juice, or must. It is very dark brown, rich, sweet, and complex, with the finest grades being aged in casks made variously of oak, mulberry, chestnut, cherry, juniper. Regardless of how it is produced, balsamic vinegar must be made from a grape product, a high acidity level is somewhat hidden by the sweetness of the other ingredients, making it very mellow. It ranges from yellow to golden brown in color, and has a mellow flavor, similar in some respects to rice vinegar. Because it contains no sugar, it is no sweeter than any other vinegar. In the Philippines, it often is labeled as sukang maasim, cane vinegars from Ilocos are made in two different ways. One way is to simply place sugar cane juice in large jars, the other way is through fermentation to produce a local wine known as basi. Low-quality basi is then allowed to undergo acetic acid fermentation that converts alcohol into acetic acid, a white variation has become quite popular in Brazil in recent years, where it is the cheapest type of vinegar sold. It is now common for other types of vinegar to be mixed with cane vinegar to lower the cost
26.
Western Asia
–
Western Asia, West Asia, Southwestern Asia or Southwest Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia. The concept is in limited use, as it overlaps with the Middle East. The term is used for the purposes of grouping countries in statistics. The total population of Western Asia is an estimated 300 million as of 2015, in an unrelated context, the term is also used in ancient history and archaeology to divide the Fertile Crescent into the Asiatic or Western Asian cultures as opposed to ancient Egypt. As a geographic concept, Western Asia almost always includes the Levant, Mesopotamia, the term is used pragmatically and has no correct or generally agreed-upon definition. In contrast to this definition, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation in its 2015 yearbook also includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, unlike the UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division excludes Iran from Western Asia and include Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in the region. These four countries are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, the Olympic Council of Asias multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these thirteen countries. Among the regions sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association, West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation, West Asian Football Federation, Western Asia was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, even before Near East became current as a geopolitical concept. Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from the 1960s, Western Asia is located directly south of Eastern Europe. The region is surrounded by seven major seas, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit the region somewhat from Asia itself, three major tectonic plates converge on Western Asia, including the African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge, extending across North Africa, the Red Sea. The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate at the East Anatolian Fault, several major aquifers provide water to large portions of Western Asia. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea. Cretaceous and Eocene-origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia, flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across Western Asia for agriculture. Western Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid, and can be subject to drought, the region consists of grasslands, rangelands, deserts, and mountains. Water shortages are a problem in parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water. Major rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, provide sources for water to support agriculture
27.
Persian language
–
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
28.
Travel literature
–
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century AD, in the early modern period, James Boswells Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides helped shape travel memoir as a genre. The travel genre was a common genre in medieval Arabic literature. Travel literature became popular during the Song Dynasty of medieval China, the genre was called travel record literature, and was often written in narrative, prose, essay and diary style. One of the earliest known records of taking pleasure in travel, of travelling for the sake of travel and he states that he went to the mountaintop for the pleasure of seeing the top of the famous height. His companions who stayed at the bottom he called frigida incuriositas and he then wrote about his climb, making allegorical comparisons between climbing the mountain and his own moral progress in life. Antoine de la Sale, author of Petit Jehan de Saintre, climbed to the crater of a volcano in the Lipari Islands in 1407, councils of mad youth were his stated reasons for going. In 1589, Richard Hakluyt published Voyages, a text of the travel literature genre. In the 18th Century, travel literature was commonly known as the book of travels, in 18th century Britain, almost every famous writer worked in the travel literature form. Captain James Cooks diaries were the equivalent of todays best sellers, Other later examples of travel literature include accounts of the Grand Tour. Aristocrats, clergy, and others with money and leisure time travelled Europe to learn about the art, a very popular subgenre of travel literature started to emerge in the form of narratives of exploration, a still unexplored source for colonial and postcolonial studies. Travel books range in style from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic and they are often associated with tourism and include guide books, meant to educate the reader about destinations, provide advice for visits, and inspire readers to travel. Travel writing may be found on web sites, in periodicals and it has been produced by a variety of writers, such as travelers, military officers, missionaries, explorers, scientists, pilgrims, social and physical scientists, educators, and migrants. Travel literature often intersects with essay writing, as in V. S. Naipauls India, A Wounded Civilization, whose trip became the occasion for extended observations on a nation and this is similarly the case in Rebecca Wests work on Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. Sometimes a writer will settle into a locality for an extended period, examples of such writings include Lawrence Durrells Bitter Lemons, Deborah Talls The Island of the White Cow, and Peter Mayles best-selling A Year in Provence and its sequels. Travel and nature writing merge in many of the works by Sally Carrighar, Gerald Durrell and these authors are naturalists, who write in support of their fields of study. Another naturalist, Charles Darwin, wrote his famous account of the journey of HMS Beagle at the intersection of science, natural history, a number of writers famous in another field have written about their travel experiences. H. Lawrences Twilight in Italy and Other Essays, Mornings in Mexico and Other Essays, Rebecca Wests Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, in the world of sailing Joshua Slocums Sailing Alone Around the World is a classic of outdoor adventure literature
29.
Ahmed Vefik Pasha
–
Ahmed Vefik Pasha, was a Ottoman statesman, diplomat, playwright, and translator of the Tanzimat and First Constitutional periods. He was commissioned with top-rank governmental duties, including presiding over the first Ottoman parliament in 1877 and he also served as Grand Vizier for two brief periods. Vefik also established the first Ottoman theatre and initiated the first Western style theatre plays in Bursa and he started his education in 1831 in Constantinople and later went to Paris with his family, where he graduated from Saint Louis College. Ahmed Vefik Pasha was a pioneer of the Pan-Turkism movement, ahmed Vefik became the Minister of Education of the Ottoman Empire and Grand Vizier two times. He built a theatre in Bursa when he was made the governor of the city, in 1860, he became the Ottoman ambassador to France. He wrote the first Turkish Dictionary and is considered to be the first Turkist of Ottoman Turks and this contains a more detailed biography, although comparison with the newer Encyclopædia Britannica entry suggests the information about his early life is in error
30.
Ouzo
–
Ouzo is an anise-flavoured aperitif that is widely consumed in Greece and Cyprus. Its taste is similar to other anise liquors like pastis, sambuca, arak, rakı, and mastika, Ouzo has its roots in tsipouro, which is said to have been the work of a group of 14th-century monks on Mount Athos. One version of it was flavoured with anise and this version eventually came to be called ouzo. Modern ouzo distillation largely took off in the beginning of the 19th century following Greek independence, the first ouzo distillery was founded in Tyrnavos in 1856 by Nikolaos Katsaros, giving birth to the famous ouzo Tyrnavou. When absinthe fell into disfavour in the early 20th century, ouzo was one of the products whose popularity rose to fill the gap, in 1932, ouzo producers developed a method of distillation using copper stills that is now the standard method of production. Ouzo is traditionally mixed with water, becoming cloudy white, sometimes with a faint blue tinge, Ouzo can also be drunk straight from a shot glass. Ouzo is traditionally served with a plate of a variety of appetizers called mezes, usually small fresh fish, fries, olives. Ouzo can be described to have a taste to absinthe which is liquorice-like. On October 25,2006, Greece won the right to label ouzo as an exclusively Greek product, there is an ouzo museum in Plomari, Lesvos. The origin of the name ouzo is disputed, a popular derivation is from the Italian uso Massalia—for use in Marseille—stamped on selected silkworm cocoons exported from Tyrnavos in the 19th century. According to anecdote, this came to stand for superior quality. During a visit to Thessaly in 1896, the late professor Alexander Philadelpheus delivered to us valuable information on the origins of the word ouzo, which has come to replace the word tsipouro. One day, the Ottoman Greek consulate physician, named Anastas Bey, upon tasting the drink, the physician immediately exclaimed, This is uso Massalia, my friends—referring to its high quality. The term subsequently spread by word of mouth, until tsipouro gradually became known as ouzo, —The Times of Thessaly,1959 However, the major Greek dictionaries derive it from the Turkish word üzüm grape. Ouzo production begins with distillation in copper stills of 96 percent alcohol by volume rectified spirit, anise is added, sometimes with other flavorings such as star anise, fennel, mastic, cardamom, coriander, cloves, and cinnamon. The flavoring ingredients are often closely guarded company recipes, and distinguish one ouzo from another, the ouzo yeast is then distilled. After several hours of distillation, a distillate of approximately 80 ABV is produced. The spirit at the beginning of the distillation and end is removed to avoid light and heavy alcohols
31.
Turkish cuisine
–
Turkish cuisine is largely the continuation of Ottoman cuisine, which in turn borrowed many elements from Circassian, Central Asian, Caucasian, Middle Eastern, Balkan and Greek cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including those of Southeast Europe, Central Europe, Turkish cuisine varies across the country. The cuisine of the Black Sea Region uses fish extensively, especially the Black Sea anchovy, the cuisine of the southeast is famous for its variety of kebabs, mezes and dough-based desserts such as baklava, şöbiyet, kadayıf, and künefe. Especially in the parts of Turkey, where olive trees grow abundantly. The cuisines of the Aegean, Marmara and Mediterranean regions are rich in vegetables, herbs, Central Anatolia has many famous specialties, such as keşkek, mantı and gözleme. Dishes directly cognate with mantı are found also in Chinese and Korean cuisine, a specialtys name sometimes includes that of a city or region, either in or outside of Turkey, and may refer to the specific technique or ingredients used in that area. For example, the difference between Urfa kebap and Adana kebap is the thickness of the skewer and the amount of hot pepper that the kebab contains, Urfa kebap is less spicy and thicker than Adana kebap. Although meat-based foods such as kebabs are the mainstay in Turkish cuisine as presented in countries, native Turkish meals largely center around rice, vegetables. Turks usually prefer a rich breakfast, a speciality for breakfast is called menemen, which is prepared with tomatoes, green peppers, onion, olive oil and eggs. Invariably, Turkish tea is served at breakfast, the Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, means before coffee. Homemade food is preferred by Turkish people. Although the newly introduced way of life pushes the new generation to eat out, a typical meal starts with soup, followed by a dish made of vegetables or legumes boiled in a pot, often with or before rice or bulgur pilav accompanied by a salad or cacık. In summertime many people prefer to eat a dish of vegetables cooked with olive oil instead of the soup, either before or after the main course. Although fast food is gaining popularity and many major foreign fast food chains have opened all over Turkey, Turkish people still rely primarily on the rich and extensive dishes of Turkish cuisine. In addition, some traditional Turkish foods, especially köfte, döner, kokoreç, kumpir midye tava börek, eating out has always been common in large commercial cities. Esnaf lokantası are widespread, serving traditional Turkish home cooking at affordable prices, in the hot Turkish summer, a meal often consists of fried vegetables such as eggplant and peppers or potatoes served with yogurt or tomato sauce. Menemen and çılbır are typical dishes, based on eggs. Sheep cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelons and melons also make a summer meal
32.
Greek cuisine
–
Greek cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine. It has some characteristics with the traditional cuisines of the Balkans. Contemporary Greek cookery makes wide use of vegetables, olive oil, grains, fish, wine, other important ingredients include olives, cheese, eggplant, zucchini, lemon juice, vegetables, herbs, bread and yoghurt. The most commonly used grain is wheat, barley is also used, common dessert ingredients include nuts, honey, fruits, and filo pastry. Greek cuisine has a tradition of some 4,000 years and is a part of the history. Its flavors change with the season and its geography, Greek cookery, historically a forerunner of Western cuisine, spread its culinary influence - via ancient Rome - throughout Europe and beyond. It has influences from the different peoples cuisine the Greeks have interacted with over the centuries, as evidenced by several types of sweets and it was Archestratos in 320 B. C. who wrote the first cookbook in history. Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality and was founded on the Mediterranean triad, wheat, olive oil and this trend in Greek diet continued in Roman and Ottoman times and changed only fairly recently when technological progress has made meat more available. Wine and olive oil have always been a part of it. Culinary advice was influenced by the theory of humors, first put forth by the ancient Greek doctor Claudius Aelius Galenus, Byzantine cuisine benefited from Constantinople’s position as a global hub of the spice trade. The most characteristic and ancient element of Greek cuisine is olive oil and it is produced from the olive trees prominent throughout the region, and adds to the distinctive taste of Greek food, however, they are also widely eaten. The basic grain in Greece is wheat, though barley is also grown, important vegetables include tomato, aubergine, potato, green beans, okra, green peppers, and onions. Honey in Greece is mainly honey from the nectar of fruit trees and citrus trees, lemon, orange, bigarade trees, thyme honey, mastic is grown on the Aegean island of Chios. Greek cuisine uses some flavorings more often than other Mediterranean cuisines do, namely, oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill, other common herbs and spices include basil, thyme and fennel seed. Parsley is also used as a garnish on some dishes, many Greek recipes, especially in the northern parts of the country, use sweet spices in combination with meat, for example cinnamon, whole spice and cloves in stews. The climate and terrain has tended to favour the breeding of goats and sheep over cattle, fish dishes are common in coastal regions and on the islands. A great variety of types are used in Greek cuisine, including Feta, Kasseri, Kefalotyri, Graviera, Anthotyros, Manouri, Metsovone, Ladotyri, Kalathaki, Katiki-Tsalafouti. Too much refinement is generally considered to be against the hearty spirit of the Greek cuisine, dining out is common in Greece, and has been for quite some time
33.
Portulaca oleracea
–
Portulaca oleracea is an annual succulent in the family Portulacaceae, which may reach 40 centimetres in height. Approximately forty cultivars are currently grown, scientists suggested that the plant was already eaten by native Americans, who spread its seeds. How it reached the New World is currently unknown and it is naturalised elsewhere, and in some regions is considered an introduced weed. It has smooth, reddish, mostly prostrate stems and alternate leaves clustered at stem joints, the yellow flowers have five regular parts and are up to 6 millimetres wide. Depending upon rainfall, the flowers appear at any time during the year, the flowers open singly at the center of the leaf cluster for only a few hours on sunny mornings. Seeds are formed in a pod, which opens when the seeds are mature. Purslane has a taproot with fibrous roots and is able to tolerate poor compacted soils. Widely used in East Mediterranean countries, archaeobotanical finds are common at prehistoric sites. In historic contexts, seeds have been retrieved from a layer in Kastanas, as well as from the Samian Heraion dating to seventh century BC. In the fourth century BC, Theophrastus names purslane, andrákhne, as Portulaca it figures in the long list of comestibles enjoyed by the Milanese given by Bonvesin de la Riva in his Marvels of Milan. In antiquity, its properties were thought so reliable that Pliny the Elder advised wearing the plant as an amulet to expel all evil. A common plant in parts of India, purslane is known as sanhti, punarva, paruppu keerai, gangabayala kura, although purslane is considered a weed in the United States, it may be eaten as a leaf vegetable. It has a sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, the Middle East, Asia. The stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible, purslane may be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for soups and stews. Australian Aborigines use the seeds of purslane to make seedcakes, greeks, who call it andrakla or glystrida, use the leaves and the stems with feta cheese, tomato, onion, garlic, oregano, and olive oil. They add it in salads, boil it, or add it to casseroled chicken, in Turkey, besides being used in salads and in baked pastries, it is cooked as a vegetable similar to spinach. Similarly, in Egypt, it is known as reglah رجلة, called Bakleh in Syria and Lebanon, is eaten raw in a famous salad called fattoush, and cooked as a garniture in fatayeh. In the south of Portugal, baldroegas are used as a soup ingredient, in Pakistan, it is known as qulfa and is cooked as in stews along with lentils, similarly to spinach, or in a mixed green stew
34.
Sumac
–
Sumac is any one of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, especially in East Asia, Africa, sumacs are shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of 1–10 m. The leaves are arranged, they are usually pinnately compound. The flowers are in panicles or spikes 5–30 cm long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red. The fruits form clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs. The dried drupes of species are ground to produce a tangy crimson spice. Sumacs propagate both by seed, and by new shoots from rhizomes, forming clonal colonies. The taxonomy of Rhus has a history, with de Candolle proposing a subgeneric classification in 1825. At its largest cicumscription Rhus, with over 250 species, has been the largest genus in the family Anacardiaceae, other authors used subgenera and placed some species in separate genera, hence the use of Rhus sensu lato and Rhus sensu stricto. One classification uses two subgenera, Rhus and Lobadium, while at the same time Cotinus, Duckera, Malosma, Metopium, Searsia, other genera that have been segregated include Actinocheita and Baronia. As defined, Rhus s. s. appears monophyletic by molecular phylogeny research, however the subgenera do not appear to be monophyletic. The larger subgenus, Lobadium, has divided further into sections, Lobadium. The word sumac traces its etymology from Old French sumac, from Mediaeval Latin sumach, from Arabic summāq, from Syriac summāq - meaning red. Species including the fragrant sumac, the littleleaf sumac, the skunkbush sumac, the smooth sumac, the fruits of the genus Rhus are ground into a reddish-purple powder used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a tart, lemony taste to salads or meat. In Arab cuisine, it is used as a garnish on dishes such as hummus and tashi. In Iranian, Afghan and Kurdish cuisines, sumac is added to rice or kebab, in Jordanian and Turkish cuisines, it is added to salad-servings of kebab and lahmajoun. Rhus coriaria is used in the spice mixture zaatar, in North America, the smooth sumac and the staghorn sumac are sometimes used to make a beverage termed sumac-ade, Indian lemonade, or rhus juice. This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth, Native Americans also use the leaves and drupes of the smooth and staghorn sumacs combined with tobacco in traditional smoking mixtures
35.
Aleppo pepper
–
The Aleppo pepper is a variety of Capsicum annuum used as a spice, particularly in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. Also known as the Halaby pepper, it starts as pods, which ripen to a burgundy color, the pepper flakes are known in Turkey as pul biber. The pepper is named after Aleppo, a city along the Silk Road in northern Syria. Population according to the 1994 publication of The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert, the Aleppo pepper has a moderate heat level of about 10,000 on the Scoville scale, with some fruitiness and mild, cumin-like undertones. Its flavor is similar to the chile, but oilier and slightly salty. It is fairly mild, with its heat building slowly, with a fruity raisin-like flavor and it has also been described as having the flavor of sweetness, roundness and perfume of the best kind of sundried tomatoes, but with a substantial kick behind it. Unlike crushed red pepper, the flakes contain no inner flesh and seeds, crushed Aleppo pepper can be used as a substitute for crushed red pepper or paprika. The spice is an ingredient in some of the dishes that comprise a meze. Urfa biber List of Capsicum cultivars
36.
Thyme
–
Thyme is an evergreen herb with culinary, medicinal, and ornamental uses. The most common variety is Thymus vulgaris, Thyme is of the genus Thymus of the mint family, and a relative of the oregano genus Origanum. Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming, the ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing it was a source of courage. The spread of thyme throughout Europe was thought to be due to the Romans, as used it to purify their rooms and to give an aromatic flavour to cheese. In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep, in this period, women also often gave knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves, as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer. Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals, the name of the genus of fish Thymallus, first given to the grayling originates from the faint smell of the herb thyme, which emanates from the flesh. Thyme is best cultivated in a hot, sunny location with well-drained soil and it is generally planted in the spring, and thereafter grows as a perennial. It can be propagated by seed, cuttings, or dividing rooted sections of the plant, the plants can take deep freezes and are found growing wild on mountain highlands. In some Levantine countries, and Assyria, the condiment zaatar contains thyme as a vital ingredient and it is a common component of the bouquet garni, and of herbes de Provence. Thyme is sold fresh and dried. While summer-seasonal, fresh greenhouse thyme is often available year round, the fresh form is more flavourful, but also less convenient, storage life is rarely more than a week. Although the fresh form only lasts a week or two under refrigeration, it can last many months if carefully frozen, fresh thyme is commonly sold in bunches of sprigs. A sprig is a single stem snipped from the plant and it is composed of a woody stem with paired leaf or flower clusters spaced 1⁄2 to 1 inch apart. A recipe may measure thyme by the bunch, or by the sprig, dried thyme is widely used in Armenia in tisanes. Depending on how it is used in a dish, the whole sprig may be used, or the leaves removed, usually, when a recipe specifies bunch or sprig, it means the whole form, when it specifies spoons, it means the leaves. It is perfectly acceptable to substitute dried for whole thyme, leaves may be removed from stems either by scraping with the back of a knife, or by pulling through the fingers or tines of a fork. Thyme retains its flavour on drying better than other herbs. Oil of thyme, the oil of common thyme, contains 20–54% thymol
37.
Paprika
–
In many languages, but not English, the word paprika also refers to the plant and the fruit from which the spice is made. Although paprika is often associated with Hungarian cuisine, the peppers from which it is made are native to the New World and were introduced to the Old World. Originating in central Mexico, paprika was brought to Spain in the 16th century, the seasoning is also used to add color to many types of dishes. In Spanish, paprika has been known as pimentón since the 16th century, despite its presence in Central Europe since the beginning of Ottoman conquests, it did not become popular in Hungary until the late 19th century. Paprika can range from mild to hot – the flavor also varies from country to country –, sweet paprika is mostly composed of the pericarp, with more than half of the seeds removed, whereas hot paprika contains some seeds, stalks, placentas, and calyces. The red, orange or yellow color of paprika is due to its content of carotenoids, the plant used to make the Hungarian version of the spice was grown in 1529 by the Turks at Buda. Central European paprika was hot until the 1920s, when a Szeged breeder found a plant that produced sweet fruit, the first recorded use of the word paprika in English is from 1896, although an earlier reference to Turkish paprika was published in 1831. The word derives from the Hungarian word paprika, a diminutive of the Serbo-Croatian word papar meaning pepper, paprika and similar words, peperke, piperke, and paparka, are used in various Slavic languages in the Balkans for bell peppers. The exact word paprika entered a number of languages, probably via German. European languages use a similar if not identical word, Czech, Slovak, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Bulgarian, Hebrew, paprika is produced in various places including Hungary, Serbia, Spain, the Netherlands, China, and some regions of the United States. Hungary is a source of commonly-used paprika. Some Spanish paprika, like de la Vera, has a distinct smoky flavor and aroma as it is dried by smoking. As of September 15,2016, McCormicks paprika used peppers grown in the United States, paprika is used as an ingredient in numerous dishes throughout the world. It is principally used to season and color rices, stews, and soups, such as goulash, in the United States, paprika is frequently sprinkled raw on foods as a garnish, but the flavor is more effectively pronounced by heating it in oil. Hungarian paprika is often specified in recipes because it is unique and it is bright red and said to be sweeter than the same paprika grown in other soils and climates. In paprikash, Hungarian paprika is commonly used, in Moroccan cuisine, paprika is usually augmented by the addition of a small amount of olive oil blended into it. The red, orange or yellow color of paprika powder derives from its mix of carotenoids, yellow-orange paprika colors derive primarily from α-carotene and β-carotene, zeaxanthin, lutein and β-cryptoxanthin, whereas red colors derive from capsanthin and capsorubin. In a typical serving size of one teaspoon, paprika supplies 6 calories and is rich in vitamin A, the dictionary definition of paprika at Wiktionary
38.
Anise
–
Anise, also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor has similarities with other spices, such as star anise, fennel. Anise is an annual plant growing to 3 ft or more tall. The leaves at the base of the plant are simple, 3⁄8–2 in long and shallowly lobed, while leaves higher on the stems are feathery pinnate, the flowers are white, approximately 1⁄8 inch in diameter, produced in dense umbels. The fruit is an oblong dry schizocarp, 1⁄8–1⁄4 in long, Anise is a food plant for the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the lime-speck pug and wormwood pug. Anise was first cultivated in Egypt and the Middle East, but was brought to Europe for its medicinal value, Anise plants grow best in light, fertile, well-drained soil. The seeds should be planted as soon as the ground warms up in spring, because the plants have a taproot, they do not transplant well after being established, so they should be started either in their final location or transplanted while the seedlings are still small. Western cuisines have long used anise to flavor dishes, drinks, the word is used for both the species of herb and its licorice-like flavor. Star anise is considerably expensive to produce, and has gradually displaced P. anisum in Western markets. While formerly produced in quantities, by 1999 world production of the essential oil of anise was only 8 tons. As with all spices, the composition of anise varies considerably with origin and these are typical values for the main constituents. The yield of oil is influenced by the growing conditions and extraction process. Regardless of the method of isolation the main component of the oil is anethole, with minor components including 4-anisaldehyde, estragole and pseudoisoeugenyl-2-methylbutyrates, Anise is sweet and very aromatic, distinguished by its characteristic flavor. It is a key ingredient in Mexican atole de anís and champurrado, which is similar to hot chocolate, the Ancient Romans often served spiced cakes with aniseed called mustaceoe at the end of feasts as a digestive. This tradition of serving cake at the end of festivities is the basis for the tradition of serving cake at weddings and these liquors are clear, but on addition of water become cloudy, a phenomenon known as the ouzo effect. It is believed to be one of the ingredients in the French liqueur Chartreuse. It is also used in some beers, such as Virgils in the United States. Anise has also thought a treatment for menstrual cramps and colic
39.
Bulgarian cuisine
–
Bulgarian cuisine is a representative of the cuisine of Southeastern Europe. Essentially South Slavic, it shares characteristics with other Balkans cuisines, Bulgarian cooking traditions are diverse because of geographical factors such as climatic conditions suitable for a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruit. Aside from the vast variety of local Bulgarian dishes, Bulgarian cuisine shares a number of dishes with the Russian, Italian, Greek cuisine and even Middle Eastern cuisines. Bulgarian food often incorporates salads as appetizers and is noted for the prominence of dairy products, wines. The cuisine also features a variety of soups, such as the cold soup tarator, and pastries, such as the filo dough based banitsa, pita, main courses are very typically water-based stews, either vegetarian or with lamb, goat meat, veal, chicken or pork. Deep-frying is not common, but grilling - especially different kinds of sausages - is very prominent, pork is common, often mixed with veal or lamb, although fish and chicken are also widely used. While most cattle are bred for milk production rather than meat, veal is popular for grilling meats appetizers, as a substantial exporter of lamb, Bulgarias own consumption is notable, especially in the spring. Similarly to other Balkan cultures the per capita consumption of yogurt among Bulgarians is traditionally higher than the rest of Europe, the country is notable as the historical namesake for Lactobacillus bulgaricus, a microorganism chiefly responsible for the local variety of the dairy product. Bulgarian cuisine shares a number of dishes with the Middle Eastern Cuisine as well as a number with the Indian. This is evident from the popularity of dishes like moussaka, gyuvetch, kyufte and baklava. White brine cheese called sirene, similar to feta, is also an ingredient used in salads. Holidays are often observed in conjecture with certain meals, as in many areas of the Balkans that were formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, food in Bulgaria is influenced by the Turkish—ayran, baklava, gyuvech, and moussaka are all of Ottoman derivation. Bulgarian Breakfast Banitsa — breakfast pastry of eggs, white cheese, katino meze—Hot starter with chopped pork meat, onion, mushrooms with fresh butter and spices. Tahan/Tahini halva is the most popular version, available in two different types with sunflower and with sesame seed, traditionally, the regions of Yablanitsa and Haskovo are famous manufacturers of halva. Jonathan Bousfield & Matthew Willis, DK Eyewitness Travel, Bulgaria, deutsch, Bulgaria in Ethnic American Food Today, A Cultural Encyclopedia. Fiona Ross, Bulgaria in Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia, Bulgaria, A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette
40.
Serbian cuisine
–
Serbian cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Balkan country Serbia, sharing characteristics with the rest of the Balkan nations. The national dishes include pljeskavica, ćevapi, and Karađorđeva šnicla, the national drink is the plum brandy šljivovica or Homemade rakija. Serbian food is characterized not only of elements from Serbia, peasantry has greatly influenced the cooking process. In recent times, the Serbian diaspora has spread the cuisine across the world. William, archbishop of Tyre, who visited Constantinople in 1179, described the Serbs, They are rich in herds and flocks and unusually well supplied with milk, cheese, butter, meat, honey and wax. The first published cookbook in Serbia is The Big Serbian Cookbook, the best known Serbian cookbook is Patas Cookbook, written by Spasenija Pata Marković in 1907, the book remains in publication even today. An old Serbian legend says that during the time of the 14th-century Serbian Empire, under the rule of Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, meals in the Serbian palace were eaten with golden spoons, historians say that mediaeval Serbian cuisine mainly consisted of milk, dairy produce and vegetables. Not a lot of bread was eaten, but when it was, the rich ate bread made from wheat, the only meat consumed was game, with cattle kept for agricultural use. Most people in Serbia will have three meals daily, breakfast, lunch and dinner, with lunch being the largest in the Mediterranean fashion, however, traditionally, only lunch and dinner existed, with breakfast being introduced in the second half of the 19th century. It has a mix of various traditions, Serbian confectioneries often offer koljivo, baklava, nut roll. A number of foods which are bought in the West, are often made at home in Serbia. These include rakija, slatko, jam, jelly, various pickled foods, notably sauerkraut, the reasons for this range from economical to cultural. Food preparation is a part of the Serbian family tradition. Breakfast in Serbia is an early but hearty meal, although before breakfast most people take a cup of coffee. The most common are simple pottages made of beef or poultry with added noodles, fishermans soup and lamb soup are considered to be delicacies. Grilled meats are the main course dishes offered in most restaurants. They are often eaten as fast food and they are traditionally made by holding the meat to the wind and cold air and only later smoked. A traditional Serbian welcome is to offer the guest with just bread and salt, some people believe that it is sinful to throw away bread regardless of how old it is
41.
Bulgarian language
–
Bulgarian /bʌlˈɡɛəriən/, /bʊlˈ-/ is an Indo-European language, a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family. Various evidential verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Bulgarian became one of the official languages of the European Union. Development of the Bulgarian language may be divided into several periods, prehistoric period – occurred between the Slavonic migration to eastern Balkans and the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia in the 860s. Old Bulgarian – a literary norm of the southern dialect of the Common Slavic language from which Bulgarian evolved. It was used by Saints Cyril and Methodius and their disciples to translate the Bible, Middle Bulgarian – a literary norm that evolved from the earlier Old Bulgarian, after major innovations were accepted. It was a language of literary activity and the official administration language of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Modern Bulgarian – dates from the 16th century onwards, undergoing general grammar, present-day written Bulgarian language was standardized on the basis of the 19th-century Bulgarian vernacular. Bulgarian was the first Slavic language attested in writing, as Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, in the oldest manuscripts this language was initially referred to as языкъ словяньскъ, the Slavic language. In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was replaced by the name языкъ блъгарьскъ. In some cases, the name языкъ блъгарьскъ was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing the Slavonic case system, today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in the latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот, непонятен, ядро and others. As usual in cases, many other loans from French, English. Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of the language, between 1835–1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and linguistic chaos ensued. Eventually the eastern dialects prevailed, and in 1899 the Ministry of Education officially codified a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography, the language is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Common Slavic yat vowel. This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgarias, E. g. млеко – milk, хлеб – bread. This rule obtains in most Eastern dialects, although some have ya, or an open e sound. The literary language norm, which is based on the Eastern dialects
42.
Macedonian language
–
It is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia and a recognized minority language in parts of Albania, Romania and Serbia. Standard Macedonian was implemented as the language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1945 and has since developed a modern literature. Most of the codification was formalized during the same period, Macedonian dialects form a continuum with Bulgarian dialects, they in turn form a broader continuum with Serbo-Croatian through the transitional Torlakian dialects. The name of the Macedonian language is a matter of controversy in Greece. Macedonians closest relative is Bulgarian, with which it has a degree of mutual intelligibility. The next closest relative is Serbo-Croatian, all South Slavic languages, including Macedonian, form a dialect continuum. Its other principal members are Romanian, Greek and Albanian, all of which belong to different genetic branches of the Indo-European family and they are also the only Slavic languages with any definite articles. Bulgarian and Macedonian are the only Indo-European languages that use of the narrative mood. Prior to the codification of the language, Macedonian dialects were described by linguists as being either dialects of Bulgarian or Serbian. Similarly, Torlakian was also regarded as Bulgarian. On the other hand, many Macedonian intellectuals maintained that their language was neither a dialect of Serbian nor of Bulgarian, but the core of its standard was not formed out of dialects or variants that had ever been covered by the Bulgarian standard. Consequently, its autonomy could not have resulted from a conscious distancing of a variant of a pluricentric language, like the other South Slavic standards, the Macedonian standard was based on dialects which had never before been covered by a standard. Modern questions of classification are largely shaped by political and social factors, likewise, this view does not take into account the fact that a Macedonian koiné language was already in existence. The codifiers ultimately chose the dialects, but did so because they were most widespread. The population of the Republic of Macedonia was 2,022,547 in 2002, outside of the Republic, there are Macedonians living in other parts of the geographical area of Macedonia. There are ethnic Macedonian minorities in neighbouring Albania, in Bulgaria, in Greece, according to the official Albanian census of 1989,4,697 ethnic Macedonians reside in Albania. A large number of Macedonians live outside the traditional Balkan Macedonian region, with Australia, Canada, according to a 1964 estimate, approximately 580,000 Macedonians live outside of the Macedonian Republic, nearly 30% of the total population. The Macedonian language has the status of official language only in the Republic of Macedonia, and is a minority and official language in parts of Albania, Romania
43.
Serbian language
–
Serbian is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the language of Serbia and one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, it is a minority language in Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. Standard Serbian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian, which is also the basis of Standard Croatian, Bosnian, the other dialect spoken by Serbs is Torlakian in southeastern Serbia, which is transitional to Macedonian and Bulgarian. Serbian is practically the only European standard language with complete synchronic digraphia, the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić, who created the alphabet on phonemic principles. The Latin alphabet was designed by Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in 1830, Serbian is a standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian, a Slavic language, of the South Slavic subgroup. Other standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian are Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin and it has lower intelligibility with the Eastern South Slavic languages Bulgarian and Macedonian, than with Slovene. The 2011 census show that 42. 88% still declare Serbian to be their native language, Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic and Latin script. Even in official government documents this constitutional requirement is rarely enforced, Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. Media and publishers typically select one alphabet or another, for example, the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, predominantly uses the Cyrillic script whereas the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink, predominantly use the Latin script. A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors the Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors the Cyrillic one and these are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the mood, there is also the imperative mood. The conditional mood has two more tenses, the first conditional and the second conditional, Serbian has active and passive voice. As for the verb forms, Serbian has one infinitive. Most Serbian words are of native Slavic lexical stock, tracing back to the Proto-Slavic language, there are many loanwords from different languages, reflecting cultural interaction throughout history. Notable loanwords were borrowed from Greek, Latin, Italian, Turkish, Hungarian, Russian, Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages, and included such works as Miroslavljevo jevanđelje in 1192 and Dušanov zakonik in 1349. In the mid-15th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, however, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form of oral literature, the most notable form being Serbian epic poetry. The epic poems were written down in the 19th century, and preserved in oral tradition up to the 1950s
44.
Walnut
–
A walnut is the nut of any tree of the genus Juglans, particularly the Persian or English walnut, Juglans regia. Technically a walnut is the seed of a drupe or drupaceous nut and it is used for food after being processed while green for pickled walnuts or after full ripening for its nutmeat. Nutmeat of the black walnut from the Juglans nigra is less commercially available. The walnut is nutrient-dense with protein and essential fatty acids, walnuts are rounded, single-seeded stone fruits of the walnut tree commonly used for the meat after fully ripening. Following full ripening, the removal of the husk reveals the wrinkly walnut shell, during the ripening process, the husk will become brittle and the shell hard. The shell encloses the kernel or meat, which is made up of two halves separated by a partition. The seed kernels – commonly available as shelled walnuts – are enclosed in a seed coat which contains antioxidants. The antioxidants protect the seed from atmospheric oxygen, thereby preventing rancidity. Walnuts are late to grow leaves, typically not until more than halfway through the spring and they secrete chemicals into the soil to prevent competing vegetation from growing. Because of this, flowers or vegetable gardens should not be planted close to them, the two most common major species of walnuts are grown for their seeds – the Persian or English walnut and the black walnut. The English walnut originated in Persia, and the black walnut is native to eastern North America, the black walnut is of high flavor, but due to its hard shell and poor hulling characteristics it is not grown commercially for nut production. Numerous walnut cultivars have been developed commercially, which are nearly all hybrids of the English walnut, other species include J. californica, the California black walnut, J. cinerea, and J. major, the Arizona walnut. In 2013, worldwide production of walnuts was 3.458 million tonnes, other major producers were, Iran, United States, Turkey and Ukraine. The average worldwide walnut yield was about 3.5 tonnes per hectare in 2013, eastern European countries had the highest yield, with Slovenia and Romania each harvesting about 22 tonnes per hectare. The United States is the worlds largest exporter of walnuts, followed by Turkey, the Central Valley of California produces 99 percent of United States commercial English walnuts. Walnuts, like tree nuts, must be processed and stored properly. Poor storage makes walnuts susceptible to insect and fungal mold infestations, a mold-infested walnut batch should be entirely discarded. The ideal temperature for longest possible storage of walnuts is in the −3 to 0 °C and low humidity – for industrial and home storage
45.
Bulgaria
–
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska
Cookbook: Tzatziki 
Media: Tzatziki
