Food nourishes language

Food nourishes language. From the magazine Forum. Because of this importance, much of our language regardless of the language contains references to food. These references conjure up images worth a thousand words each. The idiom page contains several references to food and shows how these are used in a non-food-related discussion.

Think about the idioms and expressions in your native language related to food and how and when you use them. Do you use food expressions to describe someone s physical characteristics e.g He s as skinny as a string bean his belly shakes like a bowl full of jelly. or, to describe someone s personality e.g Harry is a cre3am puff she s as sweet as sugar. or, to describe a situation or activity e.g Something is fishy here That crossword puzzle is a piece of cake How we use food expressions depends on how we perceive the food, or the culture associated with the food. Food For Different Cultures.

From the magazine Forum. Have you ever stopped to really think about what you and your family eat everyday and why Have you ever stopped to think what other people eat In the movie Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom, there are two scenes in which the two characters are offered meals from a different culture.

One meal, meant to break the ice, consisted of insects. The second meal was a lavish banquet that featured such delicacies as roasted beetles, live snakes, eyeball soup, and chilled monkey brains for dessert. Some cultures eat such things as vipers and rattlesnakes, bush rats, dog meat, horsemeat, bats, animal heart, liver, eyes, and insects of all sorts. Often the differences among cultures in the foods they eat are related to the differences in geography and local resources.

People who live near water the sea, lakes, and rivers tend to eat more fish and crustaceans. People who live in colder climates tend to eat heavier, fatty foods. However, with the development of a global economy, food boundaries and differences are beginning to dissipate McDonalds is now on every continent expect Antarctica, and tofu and yogurt are served all over the world. Mexico Beans and rice From the magazine Forum. Corn tortillas 2 servings Black beans 2 servings Rice 2 servings Salsa Morocco Couscous4 India Sag paneer4 Indian cheese 2 servings Spinach Peppers Oil Onion Rice 2 servings Chapati wheat bread Italy Spaghetti From the magazine Forum. Spaghetti 2 servings Tomato sauce 2 servings Parmesan cheese Chicken breasts, baked Japan Tempura5 Shrimp Eggplant Peppers Mushrooms Flour Oil Egg white Rice 2 servings USA Barbecue chicken and potato salad5 Chicken breast, barbecue Potatoes Mayonnaise Onion Peppers Corn 1 ear What do people eat Many factors determine the foods that people eat. Geography and climate, tradition and history They all go into our meals.

In European country of Spain and the Asian country of Nepal, different cultures and customs affect what people eat. From Land and Sea. From the magazine Forum. Spain occupies most of the Iberian Peninsula, on the western edge of Europe.

It is nearly surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Spain s dry climate and poor soil make farming difficult.

Extensive irrigation allows farmers to raise strawberries and rice in dry areas. Vegetables and citrus trees grow on the coastal plains, and olives and grapes grow in the river valleys. The grasslands of the large dry central plateau are used for grazing sheep, goats, and cattle. People in this region eat roasted and boiled meats. They also raise pigs for ham and spicy sausage called chorizo.

And people all over the country eat lots of seafood from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. One classic Spanish dish, paella, includes sausage, mussels, lobster, or chicken, plus red pepper, peas, tomatoes, and saffron rice. Peasants were the first to make paella, using whatever food was available. But this dish and others also reflect Spain s history of traders, conquerors, and explorers who brought a variety of food by land and by sea. Phoenicians from the Middle East introduced grapes to Spain in about 1100B. C. Hundreds of years later, Romans brought olives from what is now Italy. In the 8th century A.D Moors Muslim Arabs and Berbers from Africa introduced shortgrain rice and za faran, or saffron the spice that colors rice yellow.

And in the 1400s, 1500s, and 1600s, Spanish explorers and traders returned home with nutmeg and cloves from the East Indies and peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, and chocolate from the Americas. From High in the Mountains. From the magazine English.

Nepal is a landlocked country in the Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world. Nepal has three distinct geographical zones lowlands hills, mountains, and valleys and the Great Himalayan Range with subtropical to alpine-arctic temperatures and wide variations in vegetation and animal life. Most people in Nepal are farmers. They grow fruits, fruits, and other crops in the lowlands, where temperatures are the warmest. Rice and corn grow in terraced, or stairlike, fields in the cooler hill regions.

And potatoes and barley are the staple, or chief, crops at higher elevations, where temperatures are the coolest. The Nepal raise goats, cattle, and yaks for dairy products. Meat is eaten mostly on special occasions. Religious rules affect which meats people in Nepal eat Hindus, who make up almost 90 percent of the population, do not eat beef, and Muslims do not eat pork. The Buddhist religion prohibits the killing of any animals but allows the eating of meat, so Buddhists hire butchers to slaughter animals for food. A typical family meal in Nepal might include daal bhat rice with lentil gravy or chapati a flatbread, steamed vegetables, and achaar a paste of spiced pickled fruits. About 90 percent of the Nepalese people live in rural areas.

They often lack electricity for refrigerators or for cooking, so they rely on dried foods such as grains, lentils, and beans. People carry traditions and foods with them when they move from one place to another.

You might recognize examples when you look at your classmates special family foods or at specialty restaurants in your community. Meals in Great Britain. From the book Brush up your English E. D. Mihailova and A. Y. Romanovich The two features of life in England that possibly give visitors their worst impressions are the English weather and English cooking. A traditional English breakfast is a very big meal sausages, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, and mushrooms. People who do have a full breakfast say that it is quite good. The writer Somerset Maugham once gave the following advice If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts daily.

But nowadays it is often a rather hurried and informal meal. Many people just have cereal with milk and sugar, or toast with marmalade, jam, or honey. Marmalade and jam are not the same Marmalade is made from oranges and jam is made from other fruits. The traditional breakfast drink is tea, which people have with cold milk. Some people have coffee, often instant coffee, which is made with just hot water.

Many visitors to Britain find this coffee disgusting For many people lunch is a quite meal. In cities there are lot of sandwich bars, where office workers can choose the kind of bread they want brown, white, or a roll and then all sorts of salad and meat or fish to go in the sandwich. Pubs often serve good, cheap food both hot and cold. School-children can have a hot meal at school, but many just take a snack from home a sandwich, a drink, some fruit and perhaps some crisps.

British kids eat more sweets than any other nationality. Tea means two things. It is a drink and a meal Some people have afternoon tea, with sandwiches, cakes, and, of course, a cup of tea. Cream teas are popular. You have scones a kind of cake with cream and jam. The evening meal is the main meal of the day for many people. They usually have it quite early, between 6.00 and 8.00, and often the whole family eats together.

On Sundays many families have a traditional lunch. They have roast meat, either beef, lamb, chicken, or pork, with potatoes, vegetables, and gravy. Gravy is a sauce made from the meat juice. The British like food from other countries, too, especially Italian, French, Chinese, and Indian. The British have in fact always imported food from abroad. From the time of the Roman invasion foreign trade was a major influence on British cooking. Another important influence on British cooking was of course the weather.

The good old British rain gives us rich soil and green grass, and means that we are able to produce some of the finest varieties of meat, fruit and vegetables, which don t need fancy sauces or complicated recipes to disguise their taste. People often get take-away meals you buy the food at the restaurant and than bring it home to eat. Eating in Britain is quite international British Cuisine. From the book 100 English topics Kaverina V. And Boiko V. Some people criticize English food. They say it s unimaginable, boring, tasteless, it s chips with everything and totally overcooked vegetables.

The basic ingredients, when fresh, are so full of flavour that British haven t had to invent sauces to disguise their natural taste. What can compare with fresh pees or new potatoes just boiled and served with butter Why drown spring lamb in wine or cream and spices, when with just one or two herbs it is absolutely delicious If you ask foreigners to name some typically English dishes, they will probably say Fish and chips then stop. It is disappointing, but true that, there is no tradition in England of eating in restaurants, because the food doesn t lend itself to such preparations.

English cooking is found at home so it is difficult to find a good English restaurant with a reasonable prices. In most cities in Britain you ll find Indian, Chinese, French and Italian restaurants. in London you ll also find Indonesian, Mexican, Greek Cynics will say that this is because English have no cuisine themselves, but this is not quite the true. English breakfast.

From the site www. English for everyone.ru All people in the world have breakfast, and most people eat and drink the same things for breakfast. They may eat different things for all the other meals in the day, but at breakfast time, most people have the same things to eat and drink Tea or Coffee, Bread and butter, Fruit. Some people eat meat for breakfast. English people usually eat meat at breakfast time, but England is a cold country.

It is bad to eat meat for breakfast in hot country. It is bad to eat too much meat if you eat meat for breakfast, you eat meat three times a day and that is bad in a hot country. It is also bad to eat meat and drink tea at the same time, for tea makes meat hard so that the stomach cannot deal with it The best breakfast is Tea or Coffee, bread and Butter, fruit. That is the usual breakfast of most people in the world. How tea was first drunk in Britain.111 From the book Happy English reader 1 By the time tea was first introduced into this country 1660, coffee had already been drunk for several years.

By 1750 tea had become the most popular beverage for all types and classes of people even though a pound of tea cost a skilled worker perhaps a third of his weekly wage Tea ware. Early tea cups had no handles, because they were originally imported from China. Chinese cups didn t and still don t have handles.

As tea drinking grew in popularity, it led to a demand for more and more tea ware. This resulted in the rapid growth of the English pottery and porcelain industry, which not long after became world famous for its products. The tea break. Nowadays, tea drinking is no longer a proper, formal, social occasion. We dont dress up to go out to tea anymore. But one tea ceremony is still very important in Britain the Tea Break Millions of people in factories and offices look forward to their tea breaks in the morning and afternoon Things to do. 1 Make a display of as many pictures, cut from magazines.

As you can showing different kinds of tea pots and tea cups. 2 Design your own kind of tea pots and tea cups. American food and drink.12 From the book American Studies Pavlotskei V. M St. Petersburg, 1997 The popular view outside the U.S.A. that Americans survive on cheeseburgers, Cokes and French fries is as accurate as the American popular view that the British live on tea and fish n chips, the Germans only on beer, bratwurst, and sauerkraut, and the French on red wine and garlic.

This view comes from the fact that much of what is advertised abroad as American food is a very pretty flat, tasteless imitation. American beef, for example, comes from specially grain-fed cattle, not from cows that are raised mainly for milk production. As a result, American beef is more tender and tasted better than what is usually offered as an American steak in Europe. When sold abroad, the simple baked potato that comes hot and whole in foil often lacks the most important element, the famous Idaho potato.

This has different texture and skin that comes from the climate and soil in Idaho. Even sometimes as basic as barbecue sauces shows difference from many of the types found on supermarket shelves overseas. A fine barbecue sauce from the Southside of Chicago has its own fire and soul. The Texas have a competition each year for the hottest barbecue sauce the recipes are kept secret.

America has two strong advantages when it comes to food. The first is that as the leading agriculture nation, she has always been well supplied with fresh meats, fruits, and vegetables in great variety at relatively low prices. This is one reason why steak or beef roast is probably the most typical American food it has always been more available. But good Southern-fried chicken also has champions, as do hickory-smoked or sugar-cured hams, turkey, fresh lobster, and other seafood such as crabs or clams.

In a country with widely different climates and many fruit and vegetable growing regions, such items as fresh grapefruit, oranges, lemons, melons, cherries, peaches, or broccoli, iceberg lettuce, avocados, and cranberries do not have to be imported. This is one reason why fruit dishes and salads are so common. Family vegetable gardens have been very popular, both as a hobby and as a way to save money, from the days when most Americans were farmers.

They also help to keep fresh food on the table. The second advantage America has enjoyed is that immigrants have brought with them, and continue to bring, the traditional foods of their countries and cultures. The variety of foods and styles is simply amazing. Whether Armenian, Basque, Catalonian, Creole, Danish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, traditional Jewish, Latvian, Mexican, Vietnamese or what have you, these traditions are now also at home in the U.S.A. There seem to be four trends in America at present which are connected with foods and dining.

First, there has been a notable increase in the number of reasonably priced restaurants which offer specialty foods. These include those that specialize in many varieties and types of pancakes, those that offer only fresh, baked breakfast foods, and the many that are buffets or salad bars. Secondly, growing numbers of Americans are more regularly going out to eat in restaurants. One reason is that they are not many American women do not feel that their lives are best spent in the kitchen.

They would rather pay a professional chef and also enjoy a good meal. At the same time, there is an increase in fine cooking as a hobby for both men and women. For some two decades now, these have been popular television series on all types and styles of cooking, and the increasing popularity can easily be seen in the number of best-selling specialty cookbooks and the number of stores that specialize in often exotic cooking devices and spices.

A third is that as a result of nationwide health campaigns, Americans in general are eating a much light diet. Cereals and grain foods, fruit and vegetables, fish and salads are emphasized instead of heavy and sweet foods. Finally, there is the international trend to fast food chains which sell pizza, hamburgers, Mexican foods, chicken, salads and sandwiches, seafoods and various ice creams. While many Americans and many other people resent this trend and while, as many be expected, restaurants also dislike it, many young, middle-aged, and old people, both rich and poor, continue to buy and eat fast foods.

Hot Dogs. From the book The USA history and the present L. Khalilova Tad Dorgan, a sports cartoonist, gave the frankfurter its nickname in 1906. Munching on a frank at a baseball game, he concluded that it resembled a dachshund s body and put that whimsy into a drawing, which he captioned Hot dog. Sausages go all the way back to ancient Babylon, but the hot dog was brought to the U.S.A. shortly before the Civil War by a real Frankfurter Charles Feltman, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, who opened a stand in New York and sold grilled sausages on warmed rolls first for a dime apiece, later, a nickel.

The frank appealed to busy Americans, who as an early 19th century comment put it tend to live by the maxim of gobble, gulp and go. Nowadays Americans consume more than 12 billion frankfurters a year. Hamburgers.12 Modern hamburgers on a bun were first served at the St. Louis Fair in 1904, but Americans really began eating them in quantity in the 1920s, when the White Castle snack bar chain featured a small, square patty at a very low price.

Chopped beef, tasty and easily prepared, quickly caught on as family fare, and today hamburger stands, drive-ins, and burger chains offer Americans their favorite hot sandwich at every turn. The history of the hamburger dates back to medieval Europe. A Tartar dish of shredded raw beef seasoned with salt and onion juice was brought from Russia to Germany by early German sailors.

The lightly broiled German chopped-beef cake, with pickles and pumpernickel on the side, was introduced to America in the early 1800s by German immigrants in the Midwest. Doughnuts.12 It was early Dutch settlers and the Pennsylvania Germans who introduced the yeasty, deep-fried doughnut to America. To the Dutch it was a festive food, eaten for breakfast on Shrove Sunday.

Legend has it that doughnut got its hole in 1847 when Hanson Gregory, a lad later to become a sea captain, complained to his mother that her fried cakes were raw in the center and poked hole4s in the next batch before they were cooked. During World War I, when the Salvation Army served them to the troops, doughnuts really took off as popular fare. Since then, coffee and doughnuts become a national institution. Stores sell them plain, sugared, frosted, honey-dipped, or jam-filled. Apple pie From the book The USA history and the present L. Khalilova At its best, with a savory filling and crisp, light-brown crust, apple pie has long been favorite on American tables.

Apples and apple seems were among the precious supplies the early colonists brought to the New World. The first large apple orchards were planted near Boston by William Blaxton in the 1600s. When he moved to Rhode Island in 1635, he developed the tart Rhode Island Greening, still considered one of America s finest apple pies. As the fruit became abundant, many settlers ate apple pie at every meal. Garnished with a chunk of cheese, it was a favorite colonial breakfast dish. By the 18th century apple pie became so popular that Yale College in New Haven served it every night at supper for more than 100 years.

America s love affair with apple pie has remained constant. Today s housewives, pressed for time, can shortcut the tradition by buying the pastry ready-made at bakeries and supermarkets.

Many variation on the good old original are available, but the classical apple pie, irresistible when topped with a slice of rat-trap cheese or slathered with vanilla ice cream, is still America s favorite. Potato chips.13 George Crumb, an American Indian who was the chef at Moon s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the mid-19th century, was irked when a finicky dinner guest kept sending back his French fried potatoes, complaining they were too thick. In exasperation, Crumb shaved the potatoes into tissue-thin slice and deep-fried them in oil. He had a dishful of crisp Saratoga chips presented to the guest, who was delighted with the new treat.

Potato chips became the specialty of Moon s Lake House and, later, America s crunchiest between-meal snack. Coca-Cola.114 From the book The USA history and the present L. Khalilova. 4 America s best known soft drink was first concocted by an Atlanta pharmacist in 1886. The syrup was cooked up by John S. Pemberton from extracts of coca leaves and the kola nut. He then organized the Pemberton Chemical Company, and Coca-Cola syrup mixed with plain water was sold in a local drug-store for 5 cents a glass.

Sales were slow until in 1887 a prosperous Atlanta druggist, Asa G. Candler, bought the Coca-Cola formula then as now a carefully guarded secret and added carbonate water to the syrup instead of plain water. Advertisement stressing the words delicious and refreshing and carry coupons for free Coca-Cola added to the increase in consumption.

A system of independent local bottling companies was developed, and the flared bottle, familiar worldwide and said to resemble the hobble skirt, was designed in 1916. In 1919 the company was sold out for 25 million to a group headed by Ernest Woodruff. Under his son, Robert W. Woodruff, Coca-Cola rapidly expanded its market. By the mid-1970s more than 150 million Cokes a day were sold in country all over the world. Today Coca-Cola has to compete with many other soft drinks, but it is still one of the symbols of the United States.

Kazakh traditional dishes.115 From the book Kazakhstan in brief G. H. Molkha, Astana, 2002.5 The mode of life of people, traditional craft, interrelations. Customs and traditions are, perhaps, well comprehended through traditional dishes. The methods of cooking, which the Kazakh people used were closely linked with the culture and mode of life. The table manners of nomads, filled with so many customs, rituals, special behavior find its place in our time. The strict nomadic life laws have created moral and ethic norm. The whole clan and tribe shared the joys and sorrows of life, any unexpected traveler was an honored guest.

Any steppe inhabitant knew, that he was a welcome guest and had a right to his share. This steppe tradition was strictly observed and is still observed today by the host. Some time later this violation merited a sort of punishment. That explains why every host regarded the ritual of hospitality as sacred rule and welcomed guests warmly and with all attention and kindly saw them off with good wishes.

The main traditional dish of Kazakh is besbarmak. It is mostly served for the guests and eaten by hands bes barmak means five finger. Besbarmak is usually cooked of fat mutton and parts of smoked horse meat and horse delicacies like kazy and shyzhyk. The meat is boiled and separately is boiled thin paste. Boiled parts of meat are put on the paste and spiced with a special flavoring called tuzduk.

As the custom demands the host serves the meal in special crockey tabak. The bas-tabak, which is placed before the most honourable guests is used to serve the mutton head, zhambas, horse meat delicacy and other fatty parts. The esteemed guest usually the oldest one cuts bit and part from the head and offers them to the other guests at the table. The secret of distribution of parts of the meat from the head lies in traditional wishes. When given the palate, it expresses the wish be wise and eloquent, the larynx a gift to sing, skin of forehead be the first among equals.

Meanwhile one or two dzhigits young man, sitting next to the esteemed guest start cutting the boiled parts of meat to pieces and the dish is again spiced with tuzdyk. The guests are offered to help themselves to the dish. The youth and children usually sit at sides of the table dastarkhan. They receive meat directly from the elders. The custom is called asatu and symbolized the desire of the youth to experience the long and good life the elders have experienced.

When all the meat and sorpa soup with large fat content have been eaten and drank, the most respected guest thanks the hostess on behalf of all the guests and blesses the hosts of that house. In our days the main features of this old ritual and table etiquette exist, are carefully kept, followed and passes to their traditions.