Japan



Japanese Cuisine and techniques are widely used and very popular. Many dishes are based on Rice and Fish with seasonal spices and herbs.

Fish is eaten raw as Sushi or cooked in a light batter called Tempura. Vegetables are also often cooked in this way.

Sushi is probably the most famous japanese food and is used all over the world. Some people call it an art as such and takes years to master how to make sushi perfectly. There are lots of different types of sushi with different ingredients, but all sushi has one thing in common and that is rice. Rice used in Sushi can either be white or brown rice and is usually cooked vinegared rice. Seafood, vegetable and sometimes tropical fruits are included in sushi and is usually served with grated wasabi, ginger and soy sauce. Most fish used in Sushi is usually raw but sometimes it can be cooked depending on what the recipe is. Seaweed is used to wrap the rice and ingredients together.                                                                                                    

This is a Video of a Master Sushi chef talking through some of his techniques.



Staples of traditional Japanese food include noodles, miso soup and fried dumplings. Before, Japan traditionally shunned the eating of meat but since the moderation of the cities and western culture moving into the country this has changed since the 1860s.

India

Indian Cuisine is very unique to its country and though its charectoristics have been copied into many differnet cultures and been made into various take aways you can only get the specific tasteb and experience indian food gives you from India.

I chose India for my first post because its a very cultured and interesting counrty with a very unique and special view on food and cooking that I personally have never researched before.



Indias Population is 1.237billion adn the capital city is Mumbai. It is found in South East Asia and is the seventh largest country. It has a Tropical climate which affects the agriculture and food production hugely. Winter is based between the months of December and April and has temperature ranges of between 10 and 15 degrees celsius. Summer is based from April to July and has a temperature range of 32 to 40 degrees. 

The monsoon period which makes up the rest of the year (June-September) has torrential rainfall all over the country, although trhe southern half of the counrty tend to get even more than the northern half. 

This varied climate affects agriculture hugely. They have diverse crops and farming systems due to the weather and therefore groundwater produces wheat and rice playing a huge role in food production and exportation. 

Indian food is known for beeing the spiciest foods in the world. There are five Regions and twenty eight states in India each with their own cuisines and food preperation techniques. The North of India is known for having very aromatic and delicatly spiced foods. They have mainly meat based meals usually made with lamb or goat and use Saffron and Kashmiri chillies to spice.These Kashmiri chillies arent that spicy compared to some varieties. In classic North Indian dishes they use dried fruits and nuts throughout their dishes. This gives the fruity aroma of traditional foods that is so famous and classic to India.

This is a Rogan Josh. It is a Saffron flavored Lamb curry which is very traditional to Northern India.

West India has a huge amount of people who eat mainly vegetarian foods, this is beacuse of the strrong religous factors based on Hinduism and Jainism. This creates a new type of cuisine that we can find in India. Sweet and Sour dishes are very popular and chilli and ginger is used a lot in many dishes.They tend to eat lots of rice nuts and dairy products. In some parts of West India Fish, Pork, Chicken and Beef are famous but only due to Europe influences. Seafood accompanied with coconut is also very common.

This is Badam Halwa. It is a sweet Almond pudding. This is traditional to West India.

The East and North- East regions of India are different again. Vegetarianism is not highly practised and Fish,Potatoes coconut, rice and green vegetables dominate most of the traditional dishes.  You could say that the Eastern regions of India are very proud of their food and it means a lot to them. East Indians spend most of their income and spare time on food. They are famous for their sweet and spicy flavours and freshwater fish is a typical ingrediant to most dishes.

This is a Freshwater Fish and Coconut Curry.

India has a wide variety of food and a varied culture all over the country.

After looking at the variety of food throughout the country I think I will try to cook some more Indian foods at home and also visit India some time in the near future.

Introduction

Hi, My names Lucy and this is my blog based on food and the cultures around food and food production. I will be posting about different countries and what their cultures are and tradition around food. I hope this will be of interest and am looking forward to starting this blog and hopefully learn about other couuntries traditions.