research 3

People can survive without many things but air, water and foods. Foods are incredibly important for people`s life. But different culture had different eating habits and different prefer. Some of the reason is because of the weather, some of them is because of religion. Moreover, the eating habit cause also cause by special festivals peoples have.  

  Firstly, for those places like India and Thailand, weathers are hot and humid. For those places, spicy things like peppers and garlic are the major way for seasoning. Have you been to the India or Thailand restaurant? Did you remember the taste of curry? The feeling of special seasoning and pepper. After you eat the these cuisine, even in winter, you may sweat. If you always stay in a hot atmosphere, a relaxing sweating will be great. Also, the food is easy to be spoil in the humid weather. The spicy food can kill most kind of malicious bacteria , also the smell of those food can keep those insects away. Study shows nature odor of the pepper will keep insects like flies away. So the people who lives in India and Thailand may use those spicy food to keep food edible. And with the generations change, people gets used to the taste of spicy. For most of Indian and Thailand people, spicy taste has already become a childhood memory of them. The prefer of this taste will least for the rest of their life; Not only because of the habit from childhood, but also because the people will get addicted to peppers. Spicy food is kind of ordinary among the world, but some of the food from certain region is not as nice as tacos or curry. A Korean dish is made by living octopus. Even when you eating it, you still can feel the sucker on the octopus tentacle is trying to suck your tone. It is strange food for most of us, but it is delicious for some people in Korean. An other example named Kiviak. Kiviak is made by Eskimo people, is a way for them to get vitamin. Kiviak is a kind of raw meat, literally, a kind of bird meat. Eskimo people first hunt a seal, and than put “Appaliarsuk”, a kind of bird into the stomach of the seal body. Than they bury the body of seal into the frozen soil. After 2 to 3 years fermentation, Kiviak finally edible. But believe me you do not want eat a kind of decaying meat sauce with strange odor. But this is the culture of Eskimo people. They can not get enough vitamin from vegetable in that frozen land, they need to have this kind of things to ensure their health.

 Secondly, religions is another vital part of food culture. The culture of Islam did not allow people of them to eat pork.It may cause trouble if you eat pork or force some Muslim believers to eat pork. The Qur'an ban them eat pork, because from that book, pork is not clean. So those believers created menus contains lamb meat, beef etc. Similarly believers of Buddhism in china thinks monk can not eat meat. Chinese monk think that, it is cruel to take other creature`s life away just for one`s appetite. But without meat, people still can make cuisine taste like meat. Research shows “textured soy protein”, the protein of soybean, will give people a feeling of eating meat. Chinese people are smart in food, they use tofu and special seasoning to make dishes. Some of them even get a name as “Dongpo meat” or “sweet and sour pork” something. But in fact, this kind of food is made of soy and dry bean curd. This kind of food is good for peoples health and also is allowed for believers of Buddhism. So we can see that people in certain religion may develop special kind of food.

  Food not only develop by religion, but also tradition, different culture had different traditions, some of food is not offering for all years. During spring festivals --- a kind festival of like thanks giving day in the US, people usually eat sweet dumplings. They set in a round table, talk about things happened during the last year and their plan for the next year. People eat the sweet dumpling is not because it delicious or it is cheap, but the food is meaning together of the whole family. They eat it for entertainment and almost every family will eat it for that day. Like turkey in thanksgiving day of the America, people usually do not eat this kind of food for daily life. Also for “Mid-Autumn Festival” ,people eat moon cake for that day. This kind of cake is sweet and greasy, the price of most of them are cheap. Some of people hate to eat it, but they will still have it for that day. So this kind of traditional food is not famous only because it is delicious or cheap, they may have some special meaning or have some metaphor. For example, moon cake is means moon in the traditional Chinese culture. The sweet dumpling is means reunion of the whole family.

  In all, people will have different kind of food by various reason, weather, region, religions, even festivals. The food for them is quite different, people in other culture may not accept the taste of dishes you like the most. Because they had their own food culture and yours may not suitable for them. So eating habit is a major way to differ a people, food has already become a kind of culture awareness. Even the people from certain areas grows up and live in a different country from homeland are likely to prefer the food from their homeland. But recently, with the mixture of multiple culture, people seems to adapt different culture`s food. Chinese food had already opened in many places such as the US. But i can tell the difference between the original Chinese dishes and the Chinese food in the US, because for the prefer of American people is still different with Chinese people. So with the change and negotiation in the flavor, people`s taste gradually become international, maybe this is an other meaning of culture mixture. 

second post of food culture

 About the food research , i do think i can go on with the different kind of dishes among different regions. It is important for people who live in certain area to have different prefer in taste. For example: people who lives in cold places like Tibet loves meat and high calories containing foods, they even drink tea named “buttered tea” which contains salt ,animal oil, and some sugar. People who lives around moist places are much likely having traditional food with spicy seasoning like peppers and chilies. But places near the coast like Guangzhou are willing to keep the food`s original taste. Japanese people are even eat those seafood uncooked, because they thinks it is delicious to have their original flavor. Also not only region cause different eating habit, culture and even some accident are also important part.

 People who lives in India loves spicy food, according to this survey(ref: Food bacteria-spice survey shows why some cultures like it hot ) some of the places use spicy seasoning as a way to protect foods from being spoilage. Places like Chongqing china have similar situations as most part of India, peoples there using peppers for keeping food away from bacteria and insects. Research from “Food bacteria-spice survey shows why some cultures like it hot” shows that 30 kinds of hot and spicy food that can kill bacteria. Those spicy ingredient keeps the food edible for a long time. And with generations and generations, people in those areas are accustomed with the taste of pepper, even become addicted to that slightly pain when pepper comes into their mouth. Times goes on, those places developed a lots of different spicy foods in their recipe. Young people grow up with the memory of the spicy taste. They accustomed to those taste and they will love this taste, even if they are far away from their homeland. Such as me, a Chinese student from Chongqing province. I born in that place , a humid,extremely hot place. 40°C is the average temperature in there. There are a kind of food named “hotpot” , a huge pot with boiled spicy oil soup. People set around and put raw food in to the hot pot,than take them out after few minutes boiling. Foods not only keeps it own great taste, but also contains the flavor of spicy and hot. After eating a “hot pot” people can feel hot in few minutes. With the sweat streaming, people will soon feel cool. That will be the third reason why people who lives in hot area prefer spicy food. I am good at eating spicy food, every time i eat spicy food, i will get a satisfactions in my mind, that makes me addicted to the pepper.

  People who lives in Shanghai and Hangzhou province loves sweet food and their food need to keep the food`s original taste. Unlike the Sicilian and Chongqing food, with spicy and salt, their food is more depend on the food`s quality and the chef`s skill. For those people who lives in place which both have coast and lake, food materials could be easy to found. For them, it is important to eat quality food than using spicy ingredient to keep them not spoiled, and they do not have reason to eat spicy food for cooling them self because the weather is cozy and cool. So their food are unique, mostly sweet and fresh. Here is some thing i found in website , shanghai`s development involves three nations by the British, France, and America. So this city was a mixture of multiple culture ( Kristin Baird Rattini n.d). So spicy flavor is not what they want if they need more delicate food. Although spicy food are delicious, it still cover the food`s original taste. As a national city, shanghai food need to be controversial,and most of people loves sweet food. That is the reason the famous food in shanghai are mostly sweet and fresh. This is the culture reason effected the taste of food in some place.

  Some kind of food are unique, because they appears by accident. Changsha famous food, “fried strong-smelling preserved bean curd(tofu)” is a kind of bad smelling food. It made by spoiled tofu. Long times ago, a people in a poor village bought some tofu for meal. But he forget to cook and eat it. After few days decaying, his tofu became a black, smelling bean curd. But that person was so poor and he did not willing to though away it. He decided to fry and eat them all. But to his surprise , it is taste like meat and delicious. after he teach his friend the way to produce this kind of food, “fried strong-smelling preserved bean curd” became famous among the village and the whole province. This kind of food is interesting, it not because the region or the culture. It is only occurs because of an accident. But these accident are usually had some reasons, if everyone are rich in that period of time, nobody will try to eat the spoiled food and that kind of tofu will never be invented. “Mapo tofu” a mixture of tofu, goat meat and black pepper, chinese prickly ash , is because a girl named mapo, she was a orphan, people around her wants to help her by giving her different kind of food like meat and tofu. The girl was smart and she was good at cooking. She made a mixture dish by using these materials. After this dish become famous, she runs a restaurant and led everyone who helped her become rich.

  Yes there are much things to find about the food of china, it is even a huge series in china named “a bite of china” tells many different dishes in china, the story behind and the taste itself. China culture are mostly related to food, from ancient times to nowadays, food is one of most important thing in my homeland.

Work cite

Kristin Baird Rattini ，A Short History of Shanghai，Retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/fodors/top/features/travel/destinations/asia/china/shanghai/fdrs_feat_145_5.html?n=Top/Features/Travel/Destinations/Asia/China/Shanghai

Survey : Food bacteria-spice survey shows why some cultures like it hot

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/1998/03/food-bacteria-spice-survey-shows-why-some-cultures-it-hot

Source: "Antimicrobial Functions of Spices: Why Some Like It Hot," Jennifer Billing and Paul W. Sherman, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 73, No.1, March 1998

leon 's food culture

The culture and the food
comparing with Chinese eating culture,American food culture are kind of raw. People usually have raw vegetable and some fast food instead of delicate cooked foods. But as a Chinese student, I should say one cannot gain
the pleasure from food by this way. Chinese cook have a lot of things to learn，the appearance of dishes,the smell of the food, even some of the color need to be matched. Comparing with Chinese ,a nation with thousands of years food culture, American food culture are kind of boring. Also Chinese people believe that food can cure disease and make injured people restore faster. So many Chinese cuisine contains multiple kind of herbs like Huangqi and Dangshen. Because some of the herbs taste strange, it is even harder for cooks to product a table of delicious foods.
 In fact i found that the food people prefer is mostly depends on the region they live in. Mexican people usually prefer spicy foods like tacos or something but Japanese people choose to eat rather light diet though. One of my American friend tells me he hates salads and broccoli, but he still take them as "medicine " instead of food. He also points out that raw vegetables contains more nutritional than cooked one. He suggested me to eat like American for one day, and i did tried, for 2 meals , and i gives up. Because i can not stand the feeling of the uncooked vegetables like onions and letters mixed with tomato and strange tasted sauce. Over fried pork and chicken makes people over weight. But since many American family did not have enough time to cook a delicate breakfast or even dinner, it seems good for them to have a simple meal like this. Chinese families was different, wife or mom usually get up early to make a table of cuisines for her husband and child. Because she knows they may have no launch or dinner, so breakfast are also diverse and delicious. After a great breakfast, with happiness and wormed hart , people get to work and study in hurry, hopefully they will get a nice day with this great begging.
 Thanks to the long history of china and the huge territory domain. Chinese dishes are diverse, 12 styles of dishes with huge different in taste but all of them are delicious. Traditional Chinese palace chef can handle thousands dishes and cook them with other chef in one night , for the state banquet. It contains almost every meat and vegetables you have been seen and most of them you may never heard of , because they are using rare materials like tiger bone and cobra eggs. Some of these foods are now forbidden because the animal or the plant are now been protected by the nation. But still there are some of those dishes which contains regular materials are now still in the menu of most Chinese restaurant, and that is what history brings us. Because of the huge territory domain , China contains multiple kind of areas , desert , plain, seashore, mountain. Those place developed there own way of cooking and unique food resource. But these foods are hard to reach; some of them are only can be make in certain season and certain place. Chef also is a major problem. Some of the old chef in rural area can not find the people to study his skills , and than this kind of dish will disappear. As i know , in my home town ,some of glutton are willing to wait for 1 or 2 year to just get a bite of a certain kind of bamboo shoot. To my surprise, that kind of bamboo shoot not only bitter but also strange. Why they are purchasing this for a high price? They told me that they already tried almost every bamboo shoots they can reach without this one, they are going to try all of them.
 Chinese food are also shows in festivals, every tradition festivals are related to a big meal.i was curious about this. From elders in my hometown, i learned that in old days, people are poor and lack of food. They always feeding some stocks like chickens and pigs. Every festival they will have a meal different with regular days, with some meat and special foods. As for those “banquet” among the villages and families to celebrate festivals will give people hope for the next days until next festival. People who work as chef or good at cooking will be the chef of the banquet . those who are strong or work as butcher will kill those live stocks. Woman and kids are working as an assistant of cook. Everyone got there own positions. And the meal will be huge and full of happiness and laughter. People forget to worry their life so that they can have fun on this meal. Everyone will get satisfy in both their body and their mind. After this meal , people will keep gonging and fighting for their home until next festival.
 As for festival, i can not forget to mention those special festival foods. Chinese people created foods for every tradition festival. And there are usually story behind these foods. Such as moon cake, nowadays people use it to blessing each other, but from the origin story, moon cake is a man using to memory his wife who went to moon as a god. Also a famous Chinese rice dumplings, this is a food used to be toughen into the river. Because there was a good officer named “Qu Yuan” kills him self in a river because of a fatuous and self-indulgent ruler. People want his body to be protect from those fish, they use plant leaves to wrap rice and though into river to feed those fish. They think if fish are satisfied by this food ,they would not eat the Qu Yuan`s body.
 For me , i think it is interesting to find out the food around nations and compare those back ground . Or ,may be i am just want to eat great cuisines around the world , who knows.