Cuisine

Uyghur Polu, kind of rice pilaf, a traditional dish and staple food in the cuisines of many Asian countries.

Cuisine refers to any style of cooking, including its practices, traditions and recipes. A cuisine is usually associated with a specific culture. It is mainly influenced by the ingredients that are available to that culture. Cooking methods, customs and ingredients together form meals that are unique to a particular region. When people talk about Italian cuisine, they are referring to the food that Italians are famous for. Cuisine is a French word that means "kitchen", but it originally comes from the Latin word coquere, which means "to cook".

Traditionally, cuisines are shaped by a number of things. In some religious traditions, certain foods are forbidden by law (an example is pork in Islam). Climate and trade affect the what ingredients are available. Climate may also affect the methods by which food is prepared. Before the exploration of Asia and America by Europeans, certain foods were not known to European cuisine. Tomatoes, maize, avocados and cacao, for example, did not enter European diets until merchants brought these ingredients back from the New World. In modern times, cuisines are becoming more and more multicultural. New cuisines continue to develop even today.

Cuisine Media

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  An example of nouvelle cuisine presentation. This dish consists of marinated crayfish on gazpacho asparagus and watercress.

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  World map depicting Africa

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  World map depicting Asia

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  World map depicting Europe

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  World map depicting Oceania

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  Americas (orthographic projection)

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  Typical Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine: Injera (thin pancake-like bread) and several types of wat (stew)

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  A Ramadan dinner in Tanzania

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  Yassa is a popular dish throughout West Africa prepared with chicken or fish. Chicken yassa is pictured.

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  Spices at central market in Agadir, Morocco

Related pages

• Category:Foods by nationality
• Diet
• Food