European Cuisine

EUROPEAN CUISINE
Food is not only important from health point of view but also from cultural point of view.
Some people might not be aware of the fact that you can find more about the particular culture from
the type of food they prepare and eat. Hence, cuisines or the specific set of cooking traditions and
practices are often associated with a specific culture. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the
ingredients that are available locally and through trade. Factors like religion can greatly influence
the cuisine and hence the importance of cuisines cannot be ignored.
European cuisine is also known as Western cuisine and is a term collectively referring to all
the local cuisines in Europe and other western countries. European cuisine includes delicacies from
Russia, France, Romania and other interior parts of Europe. Astonishingly, European cuisine is also
known as Continental cuisine especially in parts of the United Kingdom. The term European cuisine
was first used by the East Asians to emphasize on the difference between European cuisine and
Asian cuisine. However, Westerners from North America, Australia and Latin America who
travelled to Europe made the word European cuisine more popular globally and from then, local
dishes and delicacies in Europe were termed as European cuisine.
North European cuisine included Danish cuisine, Estonian cuisine, Finnish cuisine, Irish
cuisine, Swedish cuisine, English cuisine, Scottish cuisine, Welsh cuisine and Anglo-Indian cuisine.
On the other hand South European cuisine included Albanian cuisine, Croatian cuisine, Greek
cuisine, Italian cuisine, Sicilian cuisine, Macedonian cuisine, Portuguese cuisine, Spanish cuisine,
and Turkish cuisine. Western European cuisine included Austrian, Belgian, French, German and
Swiss cuisine that were popular in Europe as well as in countries outside Europe. Eastern European
cuisine is strongly influenced by climate and includes East German cuisine, Polish cuisine, Russian
cuisine, Bulgarian cuisine, Slovak cuisine, Romanian cuisine, Ukrainian cuisine, and Hungarian
cuisine.
The European is not the oldest culture in the world, nor has Europe probably been the place
where men cooked their food for the first time. But Europes innate curiosity, adventurous spirit,
and ability to assimilate other ingredients have made European cuisines tremendously diverse and
very sophisticated.
European countries were fighting each other for the good part of two thousand years, at least
since Greek and Roman civilizations saw the light, until the creation of the European Community;
where all their still strong voices can be heard and European countries can disagree in harmony. It is
no surprising that each one have developed a strong tendency to cook things their own way.
Many of the European nations were world powers in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and
nineteenth century, when the spectrum of available foods widened enormously. After all, it was
Europes hunger for spices the driving force behind all explorations and the fuse igniting the events
that shaped the world into what it is today.
From the culinary point of view, French cuisine is the base of Western cuisine and the one to
set standards during many years. Though pasta is a Chinese concoction, it was the Italian cuisine the
one to get it into everyones menu. Apart of being the most innovative country in today's food
world, Spain opened the door through which many ingredients -think tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla,
chocolate or peppers, particularly chili peppers- came into all kitchens.
Gastronomy is taken seriously in Europe. Food being always an important matter, is

elevated to gourmet status. Lets sniff around, from borscht to colcannon, with gravad lax and
spanakopita on the side, before give into the one pastime that Europeans hold so dear: eating.
Is British food truly that bad as some say? We do not know till we will have experimented it
for some time. English will joke about their cuisine, or the lack of it.
When talking about Greece it is traditional to start with the ancient days of Homer and his
heroes, quickly jump through the vast periods of Roman and Turkish occupation, then concentrate
on the current offerings in the tourist centres. Greek cuisine is interesting, varied and healthy, many
times mentioned as an example of a healthy mediterranean diet, that is why food in Greece is an
overwhelming subject.
If we speak about food in Italy, pasta is the Italian food of world fame. Spaghetti is
everywhere.
Food in Spain is a fiesta of colors and flavors. Spanish cooking shows Roman, Arab, Italian,
French, Greek, even Caribbean influences, depending where you eat.
Swiss food reflects the country's love of nature and their clever use of regional, seasonal
ingredients.
Is Russian cuisine good? This question cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. Russia is a vast
country where land and climate vary tremendously from one region to the other and so does the
food. We should not speak of Russian cuisine but of Russian cuisines.
The Romanian cuisine is a diverse blend of different dishes from several traditions with
which it has come into contact, but it also maintains its own character. It has been influenced by
Ottoman cuisine while it also includes influences from the cuisines of other neighbours, such as
Germans, Serbians, and Hungarians.
Quite different types of dishes are sometimes included under a generic term; for example,
the category ciorb includes a wide range of soups with a characteristic sour taste. These may be
meat and vegetable soups, tripe and calf foot, or fish soups, all of which are soured by lemon juice,
vinegar, or traditionally bor (fermented wheat bran). The category uic is a generic name for a
strong alcoholic spirit in Romania, while in other countries, every flavour has a different name.
Visitors from foreign countries appreciate Romanian food very much, especially the traditional
mititei, mamaliga and sarmalutze.
A great number of proverbs and sayings have developed around the activity of eating. They range
from the funny saying of thanks:
Thank you for the meal,it was good and tasty, and the cook lady was beautiful and fat
to the more philosophical: Thank you Lord for the food I have eaten or the philosophicalLove
passes through the stomachor the simple: Appetite comes while eating or a total fulfillment
saying:Ate well, drank well, in the morning woke up dead.
Mmliga has long been considered the poor man's dish:
He doesn't even have a mmliga on the table
Pork is the preferred meat in Romanian cuisine:
The best fish will always be the pork or
The best vegetable is chicken meat and the best chicken meat is pork.
Hence cuisine represents not only an important and fascinating item from cultural point of
view, but it also can reveal specific traits of the respective peoples and can be, in a way, a liaison
between peoples and cultures.
Arsin Maria
Cl. VII
Cercul de Cultura si Civilizatie Anglofona
Palatul Copiilor Sibiu

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EUROPEAN CUISINE

Gastronomy is taken seriously in Europe. Food being always an important matter, is

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