Are Hamburgers from Hamburg?

Work in pairs and talk about what dishes are typical of your country or region. What are typical ways of preparing food?

In Argentina, we eat a lot of meat, which we usually grill.

1. What food is typical to the United States of America?

2. Think about the typical cooking in your country and make a list of ten or twelve basic ingredients.

3. Show your list to another students. Do they agree with you?

4. Make a list of typical dishes from your region or country, and talk to your partner about them. Ask and say what they’re made with, how you make them (if you know), and if there is any special advice.

Caucasian Cuisine

Caucasian cuisine is rich in various appetizers, soups, hot and cold dishes. A great variety of green vegetables is used in making appetizers. They are: egg-plants, tomatoes, string-beans, cabbage, sauerkraut, cauliflower, beets, potatoes, garlic, brown onions, spinach and also greens, spices, mushrooms, eggs and walnuts, the latter are used in making sauces to dishes of all kind. What appetizers can guests taste? Here are some of them. 1) Egg-plants stuffed with walnuts, garlic, brown onions, cut small kinza, celery, parsley, dried cinnamon, clove, winy vinegar, cayenne, salt. 2) Baked egg-plants with walnuts and pomegranate. 3) Fried egg-plants and tomato sauce. 4) Salted egg-plants and walnuts. 5) Grilled mushrooms and walnut sauce. 6) Stewed tomatoes and walnuts. 7) String-bean salad. 8) Spinach, garlic and thick sour-cream.

There are soups to any taste but most popular are spicy soup khartcho, tender chihirtma and thick chanahy.

As for meat dishes you can taste meat-boiled, roast, stewed grilled and on a spit. For example: 1) boiled beef in tomato sauce with greens; 2) roast beef and string-beans with greens; 3) beef fillet stewed in walnut and tomato sauce; 4) pork fillet stewed with quince; 5) boiled mutton in garlic sauce; 6) liver in pomegranate sauce; 7) pilaff.

Meat on a spit shashlyk is served everywhere in Georgia. It is suckling, lamb, beef, chicken and even kidneys.

The poultry dishes are also very popular in Caucasian cookery: 1) boiled chicken in garlic sauce; 2) roast or boiled chicken in walnut sauce (bazha). The sauce is made from minced walnuts, garlic, cut small kinza, salt and vinegar. The chicken is roasted or boiled, then cut in pieces, put on a dish and poured with this sauce. 3) chakhohbily of chicken; 4) chicken “Tabaka”; satsivy of poultry.

How about fish and fish dishes? The guests can taste: 1) fried fish in tomato sauce; 2) boiled fish in garlic sauce; 3) satsivy of fish.

There are many egg-dishes: 1) cheese-sulguny and eggs; 2) tomatoes and eggs; 3) string-beans and eggs; 4) walnuts, pomegranate and eggs and some others.

Let us add a few words about baked items. We all know khachapouri-pies with cheese and egg filling. But not everybody knows that khachapouri can be baked with potatoes, kidney-beans or top beans. Then go pies with raisins and walnuts, honey pies and sweet, delicious gozinaky (shelled chopped walnuts boiling with honey). Gozinaky is a traditional New-Year dish. For tea you can have a great variety of jams: apricot, sweet cherries, water-melon, fig, quince and even green tomato jams.

Notes:

33. Read the text and sum up what the text says about:

-Chinese cooking

-Japanese cooking

-Indian cooking

Oriental Cookery

It is interesting to compare the cooking methods in China, Japan, and India with those Europeans and people of European ethnic origin in North America.

In some ways Chinese cooking is similar to Italian cooking. This is because it probably involved in much the same way. As in Italy, there was a shortage of timber available for fuel and so the food had to be cooked quickly over a hot fire. The ingredients were carefully prepared beforehand so that a minimum of cooking was necessary. Many meals are accompanied by noodles, which are form of the pasta. The Chinese were eating pasta long before Marco Polo discovered it and introduced it to the Italians in 1295. Most Chinese food is stir-fried (a mixture of frying and steaming) or steamed. The pot they use has a round base and is called a wok. It can be used simply for frying, but is deep enough for deep-frying or boiling. Food can be steamed over it in bamboo baskets. Food already cooked can be kept warm in rack placed over one side of the pan while other things are being cooked underneath. If the ingredients are all prepared beforehand the whole meal can be produced very quickly, and all in one pan. Dairy produce is not used in Chinese cooking. One of the characteristic flavours is soy sauce, which has a salty taste and is made from soya beans. The Chinese also use monosodium glutamate (a flavour enhancer often used in processed food) just as Europeans would use salt and pepper. In Chinese meals food is served in small bowls with serving spoons and eaten with chopsticks. The basis of the meal is a dish of rice. Little meat is eaten at home-cooked meals. Fish and vegetables are the most common foods. Soup is usually served at a fairly late stage during the meal and drink slowly until the end. Tea is also drunk before and after the meal. Fish is generally brought to the table at the end of the meal.

Japanese cooking has some similarities with Chinese cooking, in particular, the cooked rice, which is sticky, or glutinous. But the dominant feature is that many of the foods are raw or very lightly cooked. Many dishes have fish or seafood as an ingredient and, like Chinese food, there is very little dairy produce. Bean curd, made from soya beans, is a source of protein, and ginger is one of the dominant flavours. There are also sweet dishes made of paste of red beans. A typical meal might include, in the following order, pickled fish, raw fish, boiled fish and seaweed, simmered food, grilled and fried food, and end with fruit.

Indian and Pakistani food is characterised by the use of many spices, often producing “hot” flavours; the “hotness” of the food is determined by the amount of chilli used. There may be as many as six or seven other spices used in one dish. Some are used whole, others are crushed or ground in to a paste. Rice accompanies dishes in southern India, where coconut oil is used for cooking. Rice can also be used as a flour to be made into a pancake. In the north and in Pakistan and Bangladesh chapattis or parathas (thin round unleavened bread, cooked on a special metal hot-plate) are usually served. Pooris are similar, but are deep fried. Indians usually eat meals with their fingers. Meat is eaten frequently in the north where more Moslems live; in the south many people are Hindu and vegetarian, or eat fish instead of meat. The Tandoori method of cooking is used in northern India where food, usually chicken, is marinated in yoghurt and spices and then cooked quickly in a very hot clay oven over charcoal. A type of that bread called nan is often cooked and served with it, and the whole dish is accompanied by lemon slices and salad.

Many Indian sweets are made of milk cooked for a long time with spices, and some are made of semolina, the kind of wheat used in making pasta. On special occasions they may be decorated with a thin film of silver.

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