Cuisine

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Cuisine

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.)

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

Cuisines of the United States (including Puerto Rico)

See also: Cuisine of the United States

Cuisines of the Caribbean

See also: Cuisine of the Caribbean

Cuisines of Latin America

See also: Latin American cuisine, Cuisine of South America

Cuisines of Europe

See also: Cuisine of Europe

Cuisines of Northern Europe

Cuisines of the Mediterranean

See also: Cuisine of the Mediterranean

Cuisines of Asia

Cuisines of the Middle East

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