Cooking World

Traditionally Italy has been divided into Southern and Northern regions with their specific climate peculiarities and consequently, farming, which has left an imprint on its cuisine. Think only about Tuscan, or Friulano, or Piemontese cooking, the variations are actually local.

Celebrating Christmas, the residents of the Tuscan city of Siena cook Panforte, a nutty fruitcake sweetened with honey, and Ricciarelli. With the approach of the holiday, every pastry shop makes these dishes and puts them on display. In Florence, which is very close to Siena, you will not find either.

Friuli Venzia Giulia has many ties with central Europe, and so the cuisine contains ingredients which can not be found in the rest of Italy. Some widely-spread dishes in one regions can be considered to be foreign in others, as has happened with Sauerkraut, Jota (pronounced Yota), an unusual but tasty bean soup.

Though now extra-virgin olive oil is popular throughout Italy, this has not always been like that. With the exception of a few areas near lakes, Northern Italy is too cold for growing of olive trees, and as a result many people got used butter for cooking. In the wormer Central and Southern Italy, and the Islands, on the other hand, people cooked with olive oil.

Well known Italian dry pasta is made from durum wheat, water, and a pinch of salt: it is very easy to make, so very popular, especially in the South regions, where warmer climate and sufficient sunlight create nice opportunities for drying of the pasta. And now in spite of dry pasta factories everywhere, Italians generally beleive that southerners still make the best dry pasta.
Central and Northern parts of Italy (especially Emilia Romagna and Piemonte) are on the contrary known for fresh pasta, which is made with eggs, flour, and salt, for example tagliatelle, tajarin, or pappardelle, all of which are made in flat forms. The center and north are also world-wide known for their stuffed pasta, for instance, ravioli or tortellini: these kinds of pasta can be found in areas where people have not used to eat much flat or dry pasta until, for example in Lombardia.

The South of Italy has much warmer climate and consequently, much longer growing season than then in the North. It is obvious, that vegetables that thrive under hot sun, especially tomatoes, are more popular in these warm regions, which also has more dishes with tomato sauces than in the North. In the North, depending on the climate there are plants better adapted to cooler temperatures and less sunlight, for example head cabbages, black leaf kale, cardoons, and radicchio.

Italy is located in the middle of the Mediterranean, thus being historically a crossroads, which has led to a significant influence from outside, so here you may see various foreign signs. Quite obvious and expected in this region is French influence (regional French, but not haute cuisine) in the close to the French border areas of Liguria, Piemonte, and the Valle D’Aosta, and Austro-Hungarian influences in the Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Spanish influence is also present, and especially in Milano, which was under the Spaniards for some time; Spanish influence is evident in the South, which historically was ruled by the Bourbons until the unification of Italy in 1850s, and in Sardinia, which was under the Spaniards for a time. Signs of the English cuisine can be seen in Tuscany with the classic bistecca alla Fiorentina and zuppa Inglese, English steak and English trifle, respectively, which were cooked for the representatives of the English colony that settled Tuscany in the 1800s. Jewish influences can be found in Rome that also has historical explanation. Finally, in Sicily you can enjoy a tasty mixture of Roman and Arab dishes, which came from that time when it was an Arab province.
In brief, Italian cuisine is many-sided and diverse, and this means that there are a lot of surprises to experience.

Known all over the world Japanese cuisine has great variety of dishes and its regional specialties. Some of the most popular Japanese dishes are native, but many of them have long ago penetrated in the eating culture and became Japanized.
These dishes are categorized into rice dishes, seafood dishes, noodle dishes, nabe dishes, soya bean dishes, yoshoku dishes and some other dishes.
Nevertheless, the typical Japanese meal consists of so called bowl of rice or gohan, a bowl of miso soup or miso shiru, pickled vegetables and of course, fish or meat. While rice is the main dish, several kinds of noodles are cheap and very popular for light meals. Being island inhabitants, the Japanese are very proud of their seafood. The wide range of fish, squid, octopus, eel, and shellfish can be met all kinds of dishes from sushi to tempura.

Seafood Dishes

Seafood dishes are prepared and eaten in many different ways: raw, dried, boiled, grilled, deep fried or steamed.

Sashimi is typical raw seafood. Many fish can be enjoyed raw if they are fresh and prepared in the right way. Most types of sashimi are served with soya sauce and wasabi.
Yakizakana is grilled fish. Many varieties of fish are cooked this way.

As a side dish for lunch and dinner Japanese often serve a bowl of rice. This dish is also a part of the traditional breakfast in Japan. It is eaten plain, just mixed with a raw egg and soya sauce or with natto or other fillings.
Sushi can be described as a dish from sushi rice, cooked rice that is prepared with sushi vinegar. Sushi dishes can be cooked in many different ways and there are various kinds of them.
Some of the most popular toppings for most rice dishes are tempura, egg and chicken, tonkatsu and beef.
Curry Rice is cooked rice with a curry sauce. Curry Rice or Kare Raisu is a very popular and inexpensive dish.
Fried rice or chahan has come to Japan from China. A many various additional ingredients such as peas, egg, Japanese leek and small pieces of carrot and pork are mixed with the rice when fried.
Chazuke is a bowl of cooked rice with green tea and other ingredients, such as salmon or cod roe added to it.

For the long Japanese history rice has been the most important food stuff in the national cuisine. Though in recent years rice eating patterns has changed and rice consumption decreased, all the same it remains one of the most important ingredients and can be met in many dishes.
Sticky, short-grained rice is actually the main food in Japan. Raw rice is called kome. There are several thousand varieties of rice grown in Japan, and Koshihikari and Akita Komachi are the most popular. This cereal also is used to make Japanese rice cakes mochi, rice crackers senbei and rice wine, known in the world as sake. Rice can also be cooked with sekihan, which is red beans, seafood and vegetables or as a kind of watery porridge with kayu salt which is also well-known, as a cold remedy.
Onigiri are rice balls made of cooked rice and usually wrapped with nori seaweed. They are a little salted and often contain some additional fillings in the center: it may be pickled Japanese apricot, dried bonito shavings, or seafood as tuna or salmon. This dish is popular and inexpensive snack, which can be bought almost in any convenience store.

Noodle dishes are very popular in Japan. But besides many traditional Japanese dishes, there are a lot of dishes which came from different world cuisines.
Among traditionally native dishes from noodles Soba noodles are one of the most popular. This dish is made of buckwheat and wheat flour. Soba are almost as thick as spaghetti. This tasty noodles can be served both cold and hot and with various toppings.
Udon noodles are also popular native Japanese noodles cooked from wheat flour. These ones are thicker than the first ones and can also be served either hot or cold and with various toppings.
Ramen noodles came from China and are cooked in a soup with various toppings. These noodles are one of that many popular dishes that came once from China but have become completely Japanized in the course of time.
Somen are very similar to Udon noodles, they are also cooked from wheat flour, but are much thinner than Udon and Soba. This dish is, as a rule, served cold.
Some noodles, as for example, Chinese style Yakisoba, are fried or deep fried and served with vegetables, meat and ginger.

Japanese hot pot dishes, also known as Nabe dishes. The common ingredients are vegetables: Japanese leek and Chinese cabbage, various mushrooms, and seafood or meat according to preferences. There is a great deal of varieties, depending on the region. Besides, this dish is mostly popular during the cold months in winter.
The most popular among hot pot dishes are the fallowing:

- A dish created from various fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, seaweed. These ingredients are boiled for many hours in a soya sauce based soup.
- A hot pot dish prepared with thinly chopped meat, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and konyaku noodles. Before serving the pieces of food are dropped into a raw egg.
- Shabu-shabu is Japanese made variety of meat fondue. Thinly sliced pieces of meat, vegetables, mushrooms and tofu are dropped into a hot soup and after that into ponzu vinegar or a sesame sauce.
- Chanko nabe is the main food of sumo wrestlers. This dish has many varieties. A few restaurants which offer chanko nabe can be found in Ryogoku, the sumo district in Tokyo.

Meat was not typical for Japanese cuisine and became common only since the second half of the 19th century. Today there are great many varieties of Japanese meat dishes.

Yakitori are grilled chicken pieces on spits. Most parts of the chicken can be used for this dish.
Tonkatsu are well fried pork cutlets. This dish is usually served with shredded cabbage or together with cooked rice.
One more popular home made dish made of meat and potatoes is called Nikujaga.

Well-known Japanese dishes tofu, natto, miso and some more important ingredients of national cooking are made of soya beans.
Here are some of the most popular soya bean dishes:

Yudofu are tofu pieces boiled in a clear, mild soup and dipped into a soya based sauce before serving.
Agedashi Tofu is a dish made of deep fried tofu pieces that are dipped into a soya sauce also before serving.
Miso soup is a dish, which is often served as an additional dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is cooked by dissolving miso paste in hot water and adding additional ingredients, for example, wakame seaweed and small pieces of tofu.

The strange world Yoshoku means just western food. A lot of different western dishes have penetrated in Japanese cuisine over the centuries. Some of them have already become completely Japanized, and turned into dishes, which are now known in Japan, as Yoshoku dishes.
The most popular of them are the fallowing:
Korokke - originates from the croquettes which got to Japan in the 19th century. Korokke has many varieties depending on the filling that is coated with bread crumbs and deep fried. The most common Japanese filling is a mixture of minced meat and mashed potatoes.
Omuraisu (which is abbreviation for omelet rice) is cooked rice, which is wrapped in a thin omelet. It is usually served with tomato ketchup.
Hayashi rice is hashed beef cooked in Japanese style. Thinly sliced beef and onions in a sauce prepared from ketchup and soya sauce, and served on cooked rice.
Japanese style hamburger, cooked without the bread, is called Hamubagu.