East. Ancient, charming, mysterious… Scheherazade tales… Smiling Buddhas on lotus flowers… Marble castles… Sparkling heaps of treasures… Multicolored kimonos and embroidered in gold skull-caps… And, of course, fantastic feasts!
Turks prefer eggplants and kebabs
The idea of “Eastern cuisine” refers to a great variety of dishes. Turkish cuisine is abundant in meat and vegetable dishes, as well as in various sweets — there are dozens of pahlava kinds in Turkey. Eggplants enjoy wide popularity, and they are even called “poor people’s meat”: they take them boiled, stewed, marinated and even smoked.
Another extremely popular food is kebab, i.e. skewered chunks of meat grilled over coals.
Herbs and spices are used sparingly over here, because according to the Turkish belief spices shouldn’t suppress natural flavor.
Indian heat and pungency
Indian cuisine is perfect adapted to hot climate, so you always leave the table fed-up but not overfulled. It is love and respect to all living beings that made Indians to invent a great deal of delicious vegetarian dishes. Nevertheless, sometimes Indians do eat meat, especially poultry and fish. Pork is considered to be lower caste food. Among “prestigious” meats are chicken and goat meat. Of rice and white lentil Indians fry “hidly” — flat bread, they also make “dosa” — thin crispy pancakes replacing white bread. Indian meal is hard to imagine without rice and exotic spice exuberance.
Thai girls cut out birds to eat them
While tasting Thai dishes — first of all of course pungent, but tender curry that rests in legends —refined pleasure accompanies you all the time. One of the most important places in Thai cuisine belongs to fish. In Thai restaurants clients are allowed to choose any live fish they wish, in case to get it cooked on their table in a blink of an eye. Thai girls are taught the art of cutting out fruits and vegetables from very childhood, and their skillful hands transform ordinary fruits into fabulous butterflies, flowers and birds.
Everything is assimilated in Indonesia except milk
Previously Hinduism and Buddhism used to prevail in Indonesia, but later Islam firmed its influence, and old religions gave up their positions. In Middle Ages Portuguese and English merchants found their trading posts over here, but they couldn’t resist Holland pressure, so the last has been occupying the islands for 250 years. During some hundreds of years many cooking customs and traditions have been developing mutual influence and merging one into another. As a result such masterpieces of culinary art as nasi-goreng, gado-gado and Rendang Beef have appeared. It is a curious fact about Indonesian cuisine that dairy products are totally absent in Indonesian menu.
Three elements of Chinese food: rice, noodles and soy
At least a quarter of all people in the world cook Chinese stuff and believe that cooking and eating is quite an important and worthy business. The question that could be interpreted like “Have you had a meal?” serves for greeting in China. In this vast territory several types of cuisines found their life and followers —Szechuan, Cantonese and Pekinese cuisines… China culinary traditions are highly honored throughout the country. From old times traditional China house — fansa – was built around hearth, and domestic fire god was the first who got to know about every important event in the family life like birth, death, or wedding.
An A product in China cuisine, beyond all doubts, is rice, and there are more than forty thousand rice varieties in China.
Noodles are another main basis of Chinese cuisine. Wheat noodle appeared in China in the first century BC, in Roman times. Some kinds of noodles, e.g. “drawn noodles”, are still hand-processed. It usually takes dozens of years to become a real master of noodle cooking
The last but not the least ground are soy products — such as tofu, or soy curd.
Fish like pork and cook like chemist
They range two large food groups in China — chzu-shi, that means main courses, and fu-shi — additional courses. Rice, noodles and wrapped foods come for chzu-shi and any other food like meat, poultry, fish or vegetables come for fu-shi. Chzu-shi are not a kind of garnish, it is always separate dish.
It is point of honor for Chinese chef to make food so that its natural taste and flavor turn into their polar opposites. They see no point in cooking fish in a way that it would finally be the fish again. The ultimate aim in processing product is to transform it to the stage where pork would taste like fish, beef like cherry, fish like mutton and soy paste like ham, cheese or eggs…
They believe in China that food should be not only tasty, but it also should feast one’s eyes. Besides, it should match a person, keep up with his or her physical state and spirit, satisfy inner unconscious needs, and, therefore, be health supporting and friendly. In old times China cook was justly both a chemist and a doctor!
Chinese Korean cuisine
Korean cuisine in many aspects resembles Chinese one. The main role belongs to ttok — pound rice, cucsu — thin noodles, kimchi — sour cabbage and other vegetables and variety of dishes made of marinated meat — pork or beef.
In Japan a fish’s a fish. Even better uncooked!
Throughout ages — since 1640 – foreigners were not allowed to come to Japan. Due to this fact Japan managed to preserve her originality. The main secret of cooks’ craft, they think, is not perfect knowledge of sophisticated culinary techniques. Actually, it is ability to preserve natural aroma and taste of fish or fruitson the one hand, and, on the other hand, to combine dishes in a menu in a proper way, according to season or occasion. The thing is that one could be happy and healthy only if he or she is in harmony with nature!
Japan cooks try to minimize time for processing food, considering this to be the best, or even the only way of preserving the natural taste and flavor of products. For example, sea fish and seafood is often eaten uncooked, or just seasoned slightly with salt and vinegar.
The majority of Japan dishes are made of fish and vegetables, and the skill of Japan cooks in fish cooking became a part of legends!
Like other Asian people Japans can’t imagine their life without rice. To lose a cup thus scattering rice is a bad sign for Japanese, and if it is done deliberately on somebody’s table — it is a mortal offence.
Cooked cucumbers and tomatoes with sugar
“East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”, — wrote Kipling. There is a grain of truth in these words. The further to the East the more incredible, in European’s view, is the food. If Turkish cuisine is more or less friendly for Europeans, then Indian or Thai dishes taste too hot. The food admitted by China people for delicacies — chicken leg tips, rabbit heads — we feel like to discard eagerly.
We believe that eating pilaf with hands is a barbarian tradition. But Asians, on the contrary, think that eating with a fork is like loving through an interpreter. For Asian people knife is a kind of weapon and it should never be present on the table during a friendly meal. Europeans would serve soups for the first course, then would come roasted meat, and, finally, a desert. In Asia all the dishes for the meal would be put on a table at a time. We feel like to use cucumbers for salad, and China cook would stuff, boil or even fry them. We eat tomatoes with mayonnaise, in China they take them seasoning with sugar.
“How could it be eaten?” — one would ask, but just have a try and you will be surprised, that rumors about complexity of Eastern cuisine are unjustified. Probably taking a Japan or China dish for the first time you would feel uneasy, but as time go on you will appreciate it. Just imagine what exactly meant the fact of acquaintance Russians with potato: in the old days it was an odd stranger on the Russian table!
