Looking for recommendations of good English-language books or articles about Polish and eastern European cuisine, particularly pre-1800.
I'm not talking about about veganised appropriations of the original (such as pizza with vegan sheese and seitan) but cuisines that a vegan could have enjoyed 100 years ago. Thanks!
In the UK, I'd say Italian cuisine would be the most popular European cuisine, followed by French and Spanish cuisines (Spanish being mainly tapas places).
In Australia the most popular European cuisine is still Italian, but I'd probably say Greek cuisine would be in second place. As for third, Australia has several major fast food chains selling Portuguese-inspired food, but if you don't count that then I'd probably say French cuisine would be in third place.
include dishes if you can!
Trying to expand my cooking but whenever I come across recipes online I'm always missing a few ingredients. If yall don't mind, could you share your list of basic ingredients needed to make a bunch of these recipes?
I'm of half russian descent but was raised by extended family who weren't & I was left with very little knowledge on the food in my culture & general eastern European culture. Anything helps.
u/shiba_snorter , you inspired me to make this post because of what you said on my other post
Note that I'm basically asking about elite cuisines.
A bit that I know from culinary history is that in the Medieval period, European cuisines in many ways resembled those of the Maghreb, Middle East or South Asia - lots of eating with hands from big plates and utilizing different breads to eat the dish, heavy use of different spices, strong combinations of spicy, savory and sweet, uses of things like diced nuts and almond milk, etc. Dillegrout is probably a good example of this type of cuisine.
Anyway, at some point in the early modern period this seems to have gone away/fallen far from favor. An 18th century aristocrat, lady or gentleman is far more likely to eat a roast with separate sweet desserts, not much bread in a dinner, and using utensils, thank you very much. Even with dillegrout, it seems like it was mostly served at English coronations out of tradition (to a very "meh" response) before being dropped altogether after 1821.
What changed? Is it just a cultural shift? Or the result of technological changes? Or even changes in types of food caused by contact and trade with the Western Hemisphere?
I want to know if the Mongol conquests brought an intermixing with European culinary traditions
Like the potato opened up a lot of previously unproductive land to cultivation, did corn grow in unused land? Did farmers stop growing barley or wheat for corn? Or did corn make minuscule headway into Europe compared to traditional crops/tatters?
Californian here, and I eat Mexican food at least once a week (including both Mexican American and more authentic dishes). Most of the Europeans I know that have moved out here are Brits, and they’re usually big fans (insert joke about British food here) but I’d like to know if that’s the case across the continent.
That's been something I've been wondering for a while. One of my favorite channels on YouTube is Historical Italian Cooking (very no-nonsense channel name, by the way - much appreciated!) and I've watched all of their videos (I'm surprised they're not mentioned more often on this sub). They're fantastic (mainly because they draw from and are faithful to the original recipes from millennia ago and present things in a very informative, simple, and straightforward way), but it's made me wonder - most of these foods are simple enough and don't require too much preparation (in comparison to say, modern French cuisine) or wacky ingredients that are no longer available to us. Why hasn't someone opened a restaurant dedicated to that cuisine?
I mean, people generally enjoy trying new cuisines (so long as it isn't too far out of the norm, which I'd say Roman and Medieval European cuisine certainly isn't) and I think a restaurant serving Ancient Roman food would be quite a hit. Open it as one of those fancy joints or a themed restaurant or something. The novelty and uniqueness of it would probably allow it to do pretty well and become financially successful, methinks (think of it as a bit like Benihana in terms of its novelty and uniqueness - something that most other restaurants can't/don't offer).
What I'd like to know is do restaurants serving ancient cuisines actually exist? And if not, why don't they exist? Is it due to lack of awareness or interest on the part of chefs and restauranteurs? Is it cost?
P.S. I can't be the only one who'd love to dine in a restaurant serving ancient Roman cuisine in an authentic fashion (you know, laying down on couches, things of that nature).
The Mediterranean diet may lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease:
- Mediterranean Diet, Cognitive Function, and Dementia: A Systematic Review
- Association of Mediterranean diet with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
In case anyone doesn't know what a Mediterranean diet is, it involves:
>high consumption of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits, and vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of non-fish meat products.
Living in Australia, it is not hard to follow the Mediterranean diet, especially since a significant part of Australia has a Mediterranean climate. But despite our climate and immigration from the Mediterranean region, Australia is not a major producer of olives, nor are olives a major part of the diet here.
And it's not just Australia. South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the USA all have large areas with a Mediterranean climate. Like Australia, they have all adopted some forms of Mediterranean agriculture, especially wineries. But why did olive cultivation not boom in these nations in the same way that wineries did?
Considering the adaptability of the olive tree, why wouldn't it be more widely cultivated in Mediterranean climates worldwide?
Are/were there any Ashkenazi dishes that had Mediterranean or West Asian influences?
I'm always saddened by the amount of people who have never tried basic novelty Asian dishes. Asian cuisine is such a flavourful diverse world to explore, and to me it will always beat out anything you could get in Italy or France. I've experienced both cuisines thoroughly, the finest restaurants in Europe could never come close to the delicious food I've experienced in Asia.
I’m probably generalizing a bit but it seems like Asian food more often has fried/boiled eggs in “dinner” foods more than European/american.
How did this come to be or if I’m wrong what are some European examples?
Edit: Thanks for all the responses! I think I could have been more clear, I was thinking more about egg being a topping or a primary protein of a "dinner" dish. For example, Korean Bimbimbap, Indonesian Nasi Goreng or Egg Foo Young.
I think there are definitely examples of egg topping in all cuisines, but it seems like its more common in Asian cuisine (i.e. you might eat it every few days). Then again, I am probably thinking about this with too much of an American Mindset
When watching videos about historical recipes from Europe or colonial America, the ubiquity of raisins in sweet dishes jumped out to me. Contrast this with nowadays, and I get the sense that many, if not most people (myself included) don’t like them very much, or even actively dislike them. While this might be generalizing a lot, I find it odd that they went from THE sweet fruit ingredient to being either hated or rarely used today. I know that changing tastes may be hard to explain, but I’m curious if there is a cause to the decline of raisins.
As I am running Horror on the Orient Express, my players went to Paris. We will be playing on monday and I know my friends enough to know, that they will be trying to sightseeing and talking and wasting their time for long enough (i don't mind it at all, I love listening to them roleplaying, but I know i will have to make for them time limits especially on the Train) I want to make their journey as much satisfying as I can and with tourist attractions I don't have a problem...
But with old 20' cuisine I have a little problem. I know about cheese, wine in France, also croissants, some ravioli in Italy... But that isn't enough. I don't know, maybe I didn't look enough in Google but i couldn't find aby good menu or even traditional 20's food in any od the countries, they will be going to.
My question is, did you handle with local cuisines? If so, do you have some resources of characteristic food in countries my players will visit?
What is your favorite style of European cuisine?
