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Food
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Typical forms of fast food - potato cakes and chicken pieces
Healthy vegetable and white cheese saladFood is any substance that can be consumed for nutritional value and to provide extra energy. Food is the main source of energy and of nutrition for animals, and is usually of animal or plant origin. Many countries have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions and practices.
The study of food is called food science. In English, the term food is often used metaphorically or figuratively, as in food for thought.
In a broader sense, "food" can refer to anything ingested that provides energy or growth.

Contents
1 Legal definition
2 Human eating habits
2.1 Historical development
2.2 Meals
3 Food production or acquisition
3.1 From plants
3.2 From animals
3.3 From others
4 Food preparation
4.1 Food manufacture
4.1.1 Types of manufactured food
5 Food Technology
6 Food trade
6.1 Food retailing
6.2 Food sufficiency
6.2.1 Food aid
6.3 Food safety
6.3.1 Food allergies
6.4 Dietary habits
6.5 Nutrients in food

Legal definition
Western food law defines four categories of object as food:
any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans whether of nutritional value or not;
water and other drinks;
chewing gum;
articles and substances used as an ingredient or component in the preparation of food.
Links to official legal definitions of food:
US federal definition of food
UK definition of food
EU definition of food

Human eating habits

Historical development
Humans are omnivorous animals that can consume both plant and animal products. Evidence suggests that early humans employed hunter-gatherer techniques as their primary method of food collection. This involves combining stationary plant and fungal food sources (such as fruits, grains, roots, and mushrooms) with mobile animals which must be hunted and killed in order to be consumed. Additionally, it is believed that humans have used fire to prepare food prior to eating since their divergence from Homo erectus, possibly even earlier.
At least ten thousand years ago, humans developed agriculture, which has altered the kind of food people eat. This led to a variety of important historical consequences, such as increased population, the development of cities, and the wider spread of infectious diseases. The types of food consumed, and the way in which they are prepared, have varied widely by time, location, and culture.

Meals
A portion of food or the act of eating a portion of food is considered a meal.
Often named and patterned, meals play a role in an important social occasion, such as the celebration of many key cultural and religious festivals.
A meal can be used as means for feeding a single individual or shared and eaten simultaneously by two or more people.
The number of meals consumed by individuals in a day, their size, composition, when and how they are prepared and eaten varies greatly around the world. This diversity can be attributed to a number of local factors, including climate, ecology, economy, cultural traditions and industrialisation.
In societies where the availability of food has risen above subsistence levels and beyond staple foods, meals are also sold pre-prepared for immediate consumption in restaurants and other similar retail premises.
Food eaten in smaller quantities between the culturally normative meals is regarded as snack food.
See also: Appetite, Buddhist cuisine, Eucharist, Fast food, Fasting, Gault Millau restaurant guide, Halaal, I-tal, Kashrut, Michelin restaurant guide, Muslim dietary laws, Potluck, Totemism.

Food production or acquisition
Food is traditionally obtained through farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other methods of subsistence locally important for some populations, but minor for others.
In the modern era in developed nations, food supply is increasingly dependent upon agriculture, industrial farming, aquaculture and fish farming techniques. These techniques aim to maximize the amount of food produced while minimizing the cost. The techniques include a reliance on mechanized tools, from the threshing machine and seed drill, to the tractor and combine. Developed tools have been combined with the use of pesticides to promote high crop yields and to combat insects or mammals which reduce yield.
More recently, there has been a growing trend towards more Sustainable agricultural practices. This approach - which is partly fuelled by consumer demand - encourages biodiversity, local self-reliance and Organic farming methods.
Major influences on food production are international policy, e.g. the World Trade Organization and Common Agricultural Policy, national government policy or law and war.
Food for livestock is fodder and traditionally comprises hay or grain.
See also: mariculture, horticulture, agribusiness, gardening.
Food from plant sources
From plants
Seeds
Cereals from grasses, including barley, maize, oats, rice, rye, and wheat
Cereals from non-grasses, including buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa
Legumes, including beans, peas, and lentils
Nuts, including peanuts, almonds and pine nuts
Oilseeds, including sesame, sunflower, and hemp
Vegetables (see also list of vegetables)
Root vegetables, including potatoes, cassava, and turnips
Leaf vegetables, including amaranth, spinach, and kale
Sea vegetables, including dulse, kombu, and dabberlocks
Stem vegetables, including bamboo shoots, nopales, and asparagus
inflorescence vegetables, including globe artichokes, broccoli, and daylilies
Fruit vegetables, including pumpkin, okra, and eggplant
Fruits (see also list of fruits)
Herbs and spices (see also list of herbs and spices)
Various raw meats[edit]
From animals
Dairy products, including milk
Eggs, including roe and caviar
Insects, including honey
Meat, including beef, frogs' legs, goat, horse, kangaroo, lamb, mutton, pork, veal, rodents, human (i.e. cannibalism)
Offal, including blood
Poultry, including chicken, turkey, duck, goose, pigeon or dove, ostrich, emu, guinea fowl, pheasant, quail
Seafood, including finfish such as salmon and tilapia, and shellfish such as mollusks and crustaceans
Snails
Game, this includes all animals hunted for food.

From others
Salt
Yeast, which is a type of fungi (and an essential ingredient in bread and beer)
Mushrooms, which are a type of fungi
Seaweed, which is a protist
Water, including mineral water and spring (water)
Blue Green Algae (cyanobacteria)

Food preparation
Food being prepared in large quantitiesMain article: Cooking
While some food can be eaten without preparation, many foods undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability, or flavor. At the simplest level this may involve washing, cutting, trimming or adding other foods or ingredients, such as spices. It may also involve mixing, heating or cooling, pressure cooking, fermentation, or combination with other food. Most food preparation takes place in a kitchen.
The preparation of animal-based food will usually involve slaughter, evisceration, hanging, portioning and rendering.
See also: Barbecue, Eating utensils, Frankfurt kitchen, Hangi, Oven, Microwave oven, Refrigeration, Food preparation utensils.

Food manufacture
Early food processing techniques were limited by the available food preservation, packaging and transportation. Early food processing mainly involved salting, curing, curdling, drying, pickling and smoking. An early processed food product was cheese.
During the industrialisation era in the 19th century, food manufacturing arose. This development took advantage of new mass markets and emerging new technology, such as milling, preservation, packaging and labelling and transportation. It brought the advantages of pre-prepared time saving food to the bulk of ordinary people who did not employ domestic servants.
At the start of the 21st century, a two-tier structure has arisen, with a few international food processing giants controlling a wide range of well known food brands; with a populous number of small local or national food processing companies.
See also: Best before, Canning, Coloring, Food quality, Snap freezing, Additives, Flavoring, Enzymes, Genetically modified food, Pasteurization, Shelf-life, Ultra-high temperature processing.

Types of manufactured food
Drinks: beer, juice, soft drink, squash, wine.
Bread is a staple food for many nations, being made of risen dough of wheat or other cereals.
Cakes and cookies
Cheese is a curdled milk product, of which many varieties exist.
Dessert is a course, usually sweet, and generally served after the main course, e.g. Ice cream.
French fries, Chips
Functional food
Jam and Jelly
Pasta
Pie
Pizza
Processed meats
Sandwiches
Salad
Sauce
Sausage

Food Technology
The food-processing industry benefits from a wide a range of new advanced technologies. Technological advances include computer-based information and control systems, as well as sophisticated processing and packaging methods that enhance [[product quality, improve food safety and reduce costs. There are a lot of technolgies used in food industry such as technolgies for production, for processing raw materials in finished products, for logistics, for distribution as well as for capacity building of industry Human resources (knowledge management tools, elearning). Technologies used:

Food trade
Some Brand name food
Gourmet FoodsFood is now traded on a global basis. The variety and availability of food is no longer restricted by the diversity of locally grown food or the limitations of the local growing season. Between 1961 and 1999 there has been a 400% increase in worldwide food exports. Some countries are now economically dependent on food exports, which in some cases account for over 80% of all exports.
In 1994 trade liberalisation began when over 100 countries became signatories to the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which included an agreement to reduce subsidies paid to farmers. This is underpinned by the WTO enforcement of agricultural subsidy, tariffs, import quotas and settlement of trade disputes that cannot be bilaterally resolved. Where trade barriers are raised on the disputed grounds of public health and safety, the WTO refer the dispute to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which was founded in 1962 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization.

Food retailing
Supermarket goodsThe sale of surplus food traditionally took place once a week when farmers took their wares on market day, into the local village market place. Here food was sold to grocers for sale in their local shops for purchase by local people.
With the onset of industrialisation, and the development of the food processing industry, a wider range of food could be sold and distributed in distant locations. Typically early grocery shops would be counter-based shops, in which purchasers told the shop-keeper what they wanted, so that the shop-keeper could get it for them.
In the 20th century supermarkets were born. Supermarkets brought with them a self service approach to shopping using shopping carts/trolleys and were able to offer quality food at lower cost, through economies of scale and reduced staffing costs. This was sometimes known as 'pile it high' In the latter part of the 20th century, this has been further revolutionised by the development of vast warehouse sized out-of-town supermarkets, selling an extraordinarily wide range of food from around the world.
Unlike food processors, food retailing is a two-tier market in which a small number of very large companies control a large proportion of supermarkets. The supermarket giants wield great purchasing power over farmers and processors, and strong influence over consumers. Nevertheless, in 2000 only 19% of all US consumer expenditure spent on food went to farmers.
Recent technological innovations such as point of sale technology - barcodes. This allows ordering of goods and food to be driven by actual sales.

Food sufficiency
Food deprivation leads to malnutrition and ultimately starvation. This is often connected with famine, which involves the absence of food in entire communities. This can have a devastating and widespread effect on human health and mortality. In 2003 it was estimated that each year, 40 million people die of hunger worldwide. Rationing is sometimes used to distribute food in times of shortage, most notably during times of war.
Food deprivation is regarded as a deficit need in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and is measured using famine scales.

Food aid
Food aid can benefit people suffering from a shortage of food. Conversely, badly managed food aid can create problems by disrupting local markets, depressing crop prices and discouraging food production. Its provision, or threatened withdrawal, is sometimes used as a political tool to influence the politics of the destination country. International efforts to distribute food to the neediest countries are co-ordinated by the World Food Programme.
See also: Fair trade, food security.

Food safety
Foodborne illness, commonly called "food poisoning," is caused by bacteria, toxins, viruses and prions. Food poisoning has been recognised as a disease of man since as early as Hippocrates. Murder by food poisoning was used during the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages all Royal Courts had food tasters.
The sale of rancid, contaminated or adulterated food was commonplace until introduction of hygiene, refrigeration, and vermin controls in the 19th century. Discovery of techniques for killing bacteria using heat and other microbiological studies by scientists such as Louis Pasteur contributed to the modern sanitation standards that we enjoy today. This was further underpinned by the work of Justus von Liebig whose work led to the development of modern food storage and food preservation methods.
The two most common factors leading to cases of bacterial foodborne illness are cross-contamination of ready-to-eat food from other uncooked foods and improper temperature control.
Less commonly, acute adverse reactions can also occur if chemical contamination of food occurs, for example from improper storage, or use of non-food grade soaps and disinfectants. Food can also be adulterated by a very wide range of articles (known as 'foreign bodies') during farming, manufacture, cooking, packaging, distribution or sale. For example, pests (or their feces), hairs, cigarette butts, wood chips, metal shards, plasters etc. It is possible for certain types of food to become contaminated if stored or presented in an unsafe container, such as a ceramic pot with lead-based glaze.
Understanding of the causes of food-borne-illnesses and more systematic techniques for their elimination has led to the development of commercial systems such as HACCP which can, if properly implemented, identify and eliminate many, but not all, possible risks. HACCP is well suited to identifying and controlling these potential food safety risks.

Food allergies
Some people have food allergies or sensitivities to foods which are otherwise wholesome to the majority of people.
The amount of the food substance required to provoke a reaction in a susceptible individual can be minute. For instance, tiny amounts of food in the air, too minute to be smelled, have been known to provoke lethal reactions in sufficiently sensitive individuals. In theory, any food may provoke a reaction, however, this most commonly involves gluten, corn, shellfish (mollusks), peanuts, and soy.
Most patients present with diarrhea after ingesting certain foodstuffs, skin symptoms (rashes), bloating, vomiting and regurgitation. The digestive complaints usually develop within half an hour of ingesting the allergen.
Rarely, food allergy can lead to anaphylactic shock: hypotension (low blood pressure) and loss of consciousness. This is a medical emergency. An allergen associated with this type of reaction is peanut, although latex products can induce similar reactions. Initial treatment is with epinephrine (adrenaline), often carried by known patients in the form of an Epi-pen.
Food allergy is thought to develop easier in patients with the atopic syndrome, a very common combination of diseases: allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis, eczema and asthma. The syndrome has a strong inherited component; a family history of these diseases can be indicative of the atopic syndrome.

Dietary habits
Dietary habits play a significant role in the health and mortality of all humans. For example:
Eating disorders are a group of mental disorders that interfere with normal food consumption. They often affect people with a negative body image;
13% of the world's population suffer from Iodine deficiency;
In 2003 it was estimated that vitamin A deficiency causes blindness in up to 500,000 children each year;
Vitamin C deficiency results in scurvy;
Calcium, Vitamin D and Phosphorus are inter-related. The consumption of each may affect the absorption of the others.
Kwashiorkor and marasmus are childhood disorders caused by lack of dietary protein.
Obesity, a serious problem in the western world, leads to higher chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, and many other diseases.
Concerns about foodborne illness have long influenced diet. Traditionally humans have learned to avoid foods that induce acute illness. Some believe that this is the underlying rationale behind some traditional religious dietary requirements. Additionally, many people choose to forgo food from animal sources to varying degrees; see vegetarianism, veganism, fruitarianism, living foods diet, and raw foodism.
The nutrient content of diets in industrialised countries contain more animal fat, sugar, energy, alcohol and less dietary fiber, carbohydrates and antioxidants. Contemporary changes to work, family and exercise patterns, together with concerns about the effect of nutrition and overeating on human health and mortality are all having an effect on traditional eating habits. Physicians and alternative medicine practitioners may recommend changes to diet as part of their recommendations for treatment.
More recently, dietary habits have been influenced by the concerns that some people have about the chronic impact on health that arise through the consumption of genetically modified food. Further concerns about the impact of industrial farming on animal welfare, human health and the environment are also having an effect on contemporary human dietary habits. This has led to the emergence of a counterculture with a preference for organic and local food.
See also: Food faddism, Health claims on food labels, list of diets, Slow Food.

Nutrients in food
Nutrients in food are grouped into several categories. Macronutrients means fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Micronutrients are the minerals and vitamins. Additionally food contains water and dietary fiber. See the appropriate section for further details. Diets are to reduce weight

For more information on Food, please visit Wikipedia.

Restaurant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom's Restaurant, a restaurant in New York made familiar by Suzanne Vega and the television sitcom SeinfeldFor other uses, see Restaurant (disambiguation).
A restaurant is an establishment that serves prepared food and beverages to be consumed on the premises. The term covers a multiplicity of venues and a diversity of styles of cuisine.
Restaurants are sometimes a feature of a larger complex, typically a hotel, where the dining amenities are provided for the convenience of the residents and, of course, for the hotel to maximise their potential revenue. Such restaurants are often also open to non-residents.

Contents
1 History
2 Types of restaurants
3 Specific types of restaurant
3.1 Brasserie, bistro, pub
3.2 Dining car
3.3 Fast food restaurants
3.4 Family style
4 Restaurant guides
5 Economics

History
The term restaurant (from the French restaurer, to restore) first appeared in the 16th century, meaning "a food which restores", and referred specifically to a rich, highly flavoured soup.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Sobrino de Botin in Madrid, Spain is the oldest restaurant in existence today. It opened in 1725.
The modern sense of the word was born around 1765 when a Parisian soup-seller named Boulanger opened his establishment. The first restaurant in the form that became standard (customers sitting down with individual portions at individual tables, selecting food from menus, during fixed opening hours) was the Grand Taverne de Londres, founded in 1782 by a man named Beauvilliers.
Whilst inns and taverns were known from antiquity, these were establishments aimed at travellers, and in general locals would rarely eat there. The restaurant became established in France after the French Revolution broke up catering guilds and forced the aristocracy to flee, leaving a retinue of servants with the skills to cook excellent food; whilst at the same time numerous provincials arrived in Paris with no family to cook for them. Restaurants were the means by which these two could be brought together � and the French tradition of dining out was born. In this period the star chef Auguste Escoffier, often credited with founding classic French cuisine, flourished, becoming known as the "Cook of Kings and the King of Cooks."
Restaurants then spread rapidly across the world, with the first in the United States (Jullien's Restarator) opening in Boston in 1794. Most however continued on the standard approach (Service � la fran�aise) of providing a shared meal on the table to which customers would then help themselves, something which encouraged them to eat rather quickly. The modern formal style of dining, where customers are given a plate with the food already arranged on it, is known as Service � la russe, as it is said to have been introduced to France by the Russian Prince Kurakin in the 1810s, from where it spread rapidly to England and beyond.

Types of restaurants
Restaurants in Greek islands are often situated right on the beach. This is an example from Astipalea.Restaurants range from unpretentious lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with simple food served in simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and wines in a formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear casual clothing. In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal, or even in rare cases formal wear.
Standardly customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is ready, and the customers pay the bill before leaving. In finer restaurants there will be a host or hostess or even a ma�tre d'h�tel to welcome customers and to seat them. Other staff waiting on customers include busboys and sommeliers.
Depending on local custom, a tip of varying proportions of the bill (often 10�20%) may be added, which (usually) goes to the staff rather than the restaurant. This gratuity might be added directly to the bill or it may be given voluntarily.
Restaurants often specialise in certain types of food or present a certain unifying, and often entertaining, theme. For example, there are seafood restaurants, vegetarian restaurants or ethnic restaurants. Generally speaking, restaurants selling "local" food are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of foreign origin are called accordingly, for example, a Chinese restaurant and a French restaurant..
Depending on local customs and the establishment, restaurants may or may not serve alcoholic beverages. Restaurants are often prohibited from selling alcohol without a meal by alcohol sale laws; such sale is considered to be activity for bars, which are meant to have more severe restrictions. Some restaurants are licensed to serve alcohol ("fully licensed"), and/or permit customers to "bring your own" alcohol (BYO / BYOB).

Specific types of restaurant
Brasserie, bistro, pub
In France, a brasserie is a caf� doubling as a restaurant and serving single dishes and other meals in a relaxed setting. A bistro is a familiar name for a caf� serving moderately priced simple meals in an unpretentious setting, especially in Paris; bistros have become increasingly popular with tourists. Mainly in the UK and other countries influenced by British culture, the pub (short for public house) today serves a similar dual menu, offering beer and other alcohol along with basic food fare. Traditionally, pubs were primarily drinking establishments, whereas the modern pub business relies on food as well, to the point where so-called gastropubs are known for their high-quality "pub food".

Dining car
Main article: Dining car
An interior view of a Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad dining car, circa 1927.A dining car (British English: restaurant car) or diner (but not "diner car," except in uninformed parlance) is a railroad passenger car that serves meals on a train in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other types of railroad food-service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, principally cars of various types in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either within the car or elsewhere in the train. While dining cars are less common today than they were in the past, they still play a significant role in passenger railroading, especially on medium- and long-distance trains.

Fast food restaurants
Main article: Fast-food restaurant
In the U.S., fast-food restaurants and take-outs have become so widespread that the traditional standard type is now sometimes referred to as a sit-down restaurant (a retronym).
There are various types of fast-food restaurant:
one collects food from a counter and pays, then sits down and starts eating (self-service restaurant); sub-varieties:
one collects ready portions
one serves oneself from containers
one is served at the counter
a special procedure is that one first pays at the cash desk, collects a ticket and then goes to the food counter, where one gets the food in exchange for the ticket
one orders at the counter; after preparation the food is brought to one's table; paying may be on ordering or after eating.

Family style
"Family style", or sometimes called table d�h�te ("host's table") in France, are restaurants that have a fixed menu and fixed price, usually with dinners seated at a communal table such as on bench seats. More common in the 19th and early 20th century, they can still be found in rural communities, or as theme restaurants, or in vacation lodges. There is no menu to choose from, rather food is brought out in courses, usually with communal serving dishes, like at a family meal. Typical examples can include crab-houses, German-style beer halls, BBQ restaurants, hunting/fishing lodges. Some normal restaurants will mix elements of family style, such as a table salad or bread bowl that is included as part of the meal.

Restaurant guides
Main article: Restaurant rating
Restaurant guides list the best places to eat. One of the most famous of these, in Western Europe, is the Michelin series of guides which accord from 1 to 3 stars to restaurants they perceive to be of high culinary merit. Restaurants with stars in the Michelin guide are formal, expensive establishments; in general the more stars awarded, the higher the prices. In the United States, the Mobil Travel Guides and the AAA rate restaurants on a similar 1 to 5 star (Mobil) or Diamond (AAA) scale. Three, four, and five star/diamond ratings are roughly equivalent to the Michelin one, two, and three star ratings while one and two star ratings typically indicate more casual places to eat. In 2005, Michelin released a New York City guide, its first for the United States. The popular Zagat Survey compiles individuals' comments about restaurants but does not pass an "official" critical assessment.
Nearly all major American newspapers employ restaurant critics and publish online dining guides for the cities they serve. American newspaper restaurant critics typically visit dining establishments anonymously and return several times so as to sample the entire menu. Newspaper restaurant guides, therefore, tend to provide the most thorough coverage of various cities' dining options.
Economics
In economics, restaurants are the end of the supply chain in the foodservice industry. There is usually much competition in most cities since barriers to entry are relatively low, which means that for most restaurants, it is hard to make a profit. In most First World industrialized countries, restaurants are heavily regulated to ensure the health and safety of the customers.[citation needed]
The typical restaurant owner faces many obstacles to success, including raising initial capital, finding competent and skilled labour, maintaining consistent and excellent food quality, maintaining high standards of safety, and the constant hassle of minimising potential liability for any food poisoning or accidents that may occur.
Additionally, when economic conditions change�for example an increase in gasoline prices�households typically spend less on dining out.
In 2006, there are approximately 215,000 full-service restaurants in the United States, accounting for $298 billion, and approximately 250,000 limited-service (fast food) restaurants, accounting for $260 billion, according to the 2006 U.S. Industry & Market Outlook by Barnes Reports.

For more information on restaurant, please visit Wikipedia.

Cuisine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part
of the Cuisine series
Preparation techniques and cooking items
Techniques - Utensils
Weights and measures
Ingredients and types of food
Spices and Herbs
Sauces - Soups - Desserts
Cheese - Pasta - Bread
Other ingredients
Regional cuisines
Asia - Europe - Caribbean
South Asian - Latin America
Mideast - North America - Africa
Other cuisines...
See also:
Famous chefs - Kitchens - Meals
Wikibooks: Cookbook
A cuisine (from French cuisine, meaning "cooking; culinary art; kitchen"; itself from Latin coquina, meaning the same; itself from the Latin verb coquere, meaning "to cook") is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a place of origin. Religious food laws can also exercise a strong influence on cuisine. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade. (For example, the "Asian" dish chop suey clearly reflected the adaptation of Chinese immigrant cooking styles to the different ingredients available in North America.)

Contents
1 Overview
2 Cuisines of the Americas
2.1 Cuisines of Canada
2.2 Cuisines of the United States (including Puerto Rico)
2.3 Cuisines of the Caribbean
2.4 Cuisines of Latin America
3 Cuisines of Europe
3.1 Cuisines of Northern Europe
3.2 Cuisines of the Mediterranean
4 Cuisines of Asia
4.1 Cuisines of the Middle East
4.2 Cuisines of the Indian Subcontinent
4.3 Cuisines of East Asia
4.4 Cuisines of Central Asia
5 Cuisines of Africa
6 Cuisines of Oceania
7 Non-regional cuisines

Overview
The last century or so has produced enormous improvements in food production, preservation, storage and shipping. Today almost every locale in the world has access to not only its traditional cuisine, but also to many other world cuisines, as well. New cuisines are constantly evolving, as certain aesthetics rise and fall in popularity among professional chefs and their clientele.
In addition to food, a cuisine is also often held to include beverages, including wine, liquor, tea, coffee and other drinks. Increasingly, experts hold that it further includes the raw ingredients and original plants and animals from which they come. The Slow Food movement is a global effort to preserve local plants, animals, and techniques of food preparation. It has 70,000 adherents in 50 countries.
There are also different cultural attitudes to food, for example:
In India, consumption of food is regarded as an offering, a Yajna. Thus the stomach is considered to be a homagunda (holy fire) and all the food consumed is an offering to the holy fire.
In Japan, Tea drinking is a fine-art and there is an elaborate ceremony about it. Not drinking tea in the right way is considered to be an act of barbarism.
The following section is an overview of world cuisines. It is incomplete. It is organized roughly by geographical area, starting in the Western hemisphere and working Eastward and from North to South. Please help complete it.

Cuisines of the Americas
Cuisines of the Americas are based on the cuisines of the countries from which the immigrant peoples came, primarily Europe. However, the traditional European cuisine has been adapted to a greater or lesser degree and many local ingredients and techniques have been added to the tradition.

Cuisines of Canada
See also: Canadian cuisines
Atlantic Canada
Canadian Chinese
Fast food
First Nations
Fusion
Qu�b�cois
Toronto
Vancouver
Vegetarian

Cuisines of the United States (including Puerto Rico)
See also: Cuisine of the United States
Chinese American
Barbecue
California
Euro-asian (a type of Fusion cuisine)
Fast food
Floribbean
Kentucky
Hawaii
Italian American
Midwest
Native American
New England
New York City
Pennsylvania Dutch
Philadelphia
Puerto Rico
Southern
Cajun
Creole
Soul food
Southwest
Tex-Mex
[edit]
Cuisines of the Caribbean
See also: Cuisine of the Caribbean

Cuba
Dominican Republic
Jamaica
Puerto Rico

Cuisines of Latin America
See also: Latin American cuisine, Cuisine of South America
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Mexico
Nicaragua
Paraguay
Peru
El Salvador
Uruguay
Venezuela
Andes Region
Native American

Cuisines of Europe
See also: Cuisine of Europe

Cuisines of Northern Europe
Austrian
Belgium
British
Modern British
Denmark
Germany
Finland
Norway
Hungary
Polish
Russian
Slovakia
Sweden

Cuisines of the Mediterranean
See also: Cuisine of the Mediterranean
Portugal
Spain
Catalonia
Italy excluding Sicily
Sicily
French
Provencal
Cuisines of the Balkans
Albania
Bulgaria
Croatia
Greece
Romania
Turkey
Serbia
Armenia

Cuisines of Asia

Cuisines of the Middle East
Middle East
Gulf Countries
Assyrian
Persia

Cuisines of the Indian Subcontinent
Cuisines of the Indian subcontinent includes cuisines from the peninsular region of South Asia, which includes India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, usually also Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. One characteristic component of the cuisines of these regions is rice and curry dishes. See also: Cuisine of India
India
North Indian cuisines
Punjabi cuisine
Kashmiri cuisine
Benarasi cuisine
South Indian cuisines
Kerala cuisine
Andhra cuisine
Karnataka cuisine
Tamil cuisine
West Indian cuisines
Maharashtrian cuisine
Malvani cuisine
Goan cuisine
Rajasthani Cuisine
Gujarati cuisine
East Indian Cuisines
West Bengali Cuisine
Assamese cuisine
Bihari Cuisine
Oriya Cuisine
Anglo-Indian Cuisine
Bangladesh
Bangladeshi cuisine
Pakistan
Pakistani cuisine
Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan cuisine

Cuisines of East Asia
See also: Cuisine of Asia
Cambodia
China
Chinese Buddhist
Cantonese
Chiuchow
Hakka
Hunan
Islamic
Mandarin
Shanghai
Szechuan
Taiwanese
Indonesia
Japan
Korea
Laos
Malaysia
Penang
Ipoh
Mongolia
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Tibet
Vietnam

Cuisines of Central Asia
See also Central Asian Cuisine
Kazakhstan

Cuisines of Africa
See also: Cuisine of Africa
West Africa
Ethiopia
Morocco
South Africa
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Cuisines of Oceania
Australia
Hawaii
Fiji
New Zealand
Polynesia
Nauru

Non-regional cuisines
Fast food, and its nemesis Slow food which preserves regional cuisines
Fusion
Jewish
Raw food diet
Vegan
Vegetarian

For more information on cuisine, please visit Wikipedia.

Eating
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In general terms, eating (formally, ingestion) is the process of consuming something edible, i.e. food, for the purpose of providing for the nutritional needs of an animal, particularly their energy requirements. All animals must eat other organisms in order to survive: carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, and omnivores consume a mixture of both.

While the process of eating varies from species to species, in humans eating is performed by placing food in the mouth and then swallowing it, with chewing often occurring between these actions. Eaten food is then digested.

Contents [hide]
1 Eating practices
2 Eating in infancy and childhood
3 Disorders
4 Wolfing

Eating practices
Eating is often made into a social occasion.Most homes have a kitchen or cooking area devoted to preparation of meals and food, and many also have a dining room or another designated area for eating. Dishware, silverware, drinkware for eating and cookware and other implements for cooking come in an almost infinite array of forms and sizes. Most societies also have restaurants and food vendors, so that people may eat when away from home, lack the time to prepare food, or wish to use eating as a social occasion. Occasionally, such as at potlucks and food festivals, eating is in fact the primary purpose of the social gathering.
Most individuals have fairly regular daily patterns of eating, and commonly most eating occurs during two to three meals per day, with snacks consisting of smaller amounts of food being consumed in between. The issue of healthy eating has long been an important concern to individuals and cultures. Among other practices, fasting, dieting, and vegetarianism are all techniques employed by individuals and encouraged by societies to increase longevity and health. Leading nutritionists believe that instead of idulging oneself in 3 large meals each day, it is much heathier and easier on the metabolism to eat 5 smaller meals each day. (e.g. better digestion, easier on the lower intestine to deposite wastes; whereas larger meals are tougher on the digestive track and may call for the use of laxatives) Eating can be a way of making money, see competitive eating

Eating in infancy and childhood
Eating as mentioned above is originally done to gain energy and nutrients from the food consumed. In babies, however, it is the first process that leads to pleasure or satisfaction and therefore is very important for mental development as well. The following ideas are inspired by the essay �The Psychoanalytic Study of Infantile Feeding Disturbances� by Anna Freud. Some of the things that parents do to cause eating problems in their children include: weaning too abruptly, forcing the use of utensils, not letting them eat the quantity of food they desire, dictating when and what the children will eat. These actions can lead to children associating eating with negative feelings and then therefore not wanting to eat or being very picky. Children may also see food as a battle between child and usually mother and if they refuse to eat they feel they are winning especially since mother wants so badly for them to eat. These problems may persist into latter stages of life or until children are given more freedom on food choices. When the pleasure of eating is taken away problems result. So it is important for parents to ensure that their actions do not ruin the experience for their children and lead of eating problems.

Disorders
Physiologically, eating is generally triggered by hunger, but there are numerous physical and psychological conditions that can affect appetite and disrupt normal eating patterns. These include depression, food allergies, bulimia, anorexia nervosa, pituitary gland misfunction and other endocrine problems, and numerous other illnesses and eating disorders.

A chronic lack of nutritious food can cause various illnesses, and will eventually lead to starvation. When this happens in a locality on a massive scale it is considered a famine.
If eating and drinking is not possible, as is often the case when recovering from surgery, alternatives are enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition.

Wolfing
For dietary, religious, or alternative medicine purposes, some people may choose to consume more food than necessary, even after uncomfortably full. Such practices is called wolfing, named after the wolf. Wolfing may lead to obesity or malnutrition if the food or substance consumed delpletes nutritional stores in the body. Chronic wolfing may also be a sign of binge eating disorder.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating"

For more information on dining, please visit Wikipedia.

Cooking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part
of the Cuisine series
Preparation techniques and cooking items
Techniques - Utensils
Weights and measures
Ingredients and types of food
Spices and Herbs
Sauces - Soups - Desserts
Cheese - Pasta - Bread
Other ingredients
Regional cuisines
Asia - Europe - Caribbean
South Asian - Latin America
Mideast - North America - Africa
Other cuisines...
See also:
Famous chefs - Kitchens - Meals
Wikibooks: Cookbook
Cooking is an act of preparing food for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result. Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools and the skill of the individual cooking.
The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it.
Cooking requires applying heat to a food which usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional properties. There is archaeological evidence of cooked foodstuffs, both animal and vegetable, in human settlements dating from the earliest known use of fire. The earliest use of cooking was possibly done by Homo erectus, although the evidence is in contention among paleoanthropologists.

Content
1 Effects of cooking
1.1 Food safety
1.2 Proteins
1.3 Fat
1.4 Carbohydrates
2 Cooking techniques
3 Other preparation techniques

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Effects of cooking
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Food safety
If heat is used in the preparation of food, this can kill or inactivate potentially harmful organisms including bacteria and viruses. The effect will depend on temperature, cooking time, and technique used. The temperature range from 4�C to 57�C (41�F to 135�F) is the "food danger zone." Between these temperatures bacteria can grow rapidly. Under the correct conditions bacteria can double in number every twenty minutes. The food may not appear any different or spoiled but can be harmful to anyone who eats it. Meat, poultry, dairy products, and other prepared food must be kept outside of the "food danger zone" to remain safe to eat. Refrigeration and freezing do not kill bacteria, but only slow their growth.

Proteins
Much edible animal material is made of proteins, including muscle, offal, and egg white. Almost all vegetable matter also includes proteins although generally in smaller amounts. They may also be a source of essential amino acids. When proteins are heated to near boiling point they become de-natured and change texture. In many cases this causes the structure of the material to become softer or more friable - meat becomes cooked. In some cases proteins can form more rigid structures such as the production of stable foams using egg whites. These are believed to be formed through the partial unravelling of the albumen protein molecules in response to beating with a whisk. The formation of a relatively rigid but flexible matrix from egg white provides an important component of much cake cookery and also underpins many desserts based on meringue.

Fat
Fats and oils come from both animal and plant sources. In cooking, fats provide tastes and textures but probably the most significant attribute is the wide range of cooking temperatures that can be provided by using a fat as the principal cooking medium rather than water. Commonly used fats and oils include butter, olive oil, sunflower oil, lard, beef fat - both dripping or tallow, rapeseed oil or Canola, and peanut oil. The inclusion of fats tend to add flavour to cooked food even though the taste of the oil on its own is often unpleasant. This fact has encouraged the popularity of high fat foods many of which are classified as junk food such as hamburgers or convenience fried cereal snacks. Fats can also be blended with cereal flours to make a range of doughs and pastries. Roux made with heated fat and flour can also absorb large volumes of water-based liquids, including milk and water itself to form smooth sauces. This relies on the properties of starches to create simpler mucilaginous saccharides during cooking, which causes the familiar thickening of sauces.
Oils are commonly emulsified with water-based fluids such as vinegar or lemon juice to make mayonaises. In this the fatty content of egg yolk is used as the emulsification agent.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates used in cooking include a variety of sugars and starches including cereal flour, rice, arrowroot, and potato. Long chain sugars such as starch tend to break down into more simple sugars when cooked or made more acidic, such as with lemon juice or vinegar. Simple sugars can form syrups. If sugars are heated so that all water of crystallisation is driven off, then caramelisation starts with the sugar undergoing thermal decomposition with the formation of carbon and other breakdown products producing caramel.

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Cooking techniques
Some major hot cooking techniques:
Baking
Baking Blind
Broiling
FlashBake
Boiling
Blanching
Braising
Coddling
Double steaming
Infusion
Poaching
Pressure cooking
Simmering
Steaming
Steeping
Stewing
Vacuum flask cooking
Frying
Deep frying
Hot salt frying
Hot sand frying
Pan frying
Pressure frying
Saut�ing
Stir frying
Microwaving
Roasting
Barbecuing
Grilling
Rotisserie
Searing
Smoking

Other preparation techniques
Some cool techniques
Brining
Drying
Grinding (e.g. sesame seeds to produce tahini), chopping, slicing finely, grating, etc..
Julienning
Marinating
Mincing
Pickling
Salting
Seasoning
Sprouting
Sugaring

For more information on cooking, please visit Wikipedia.