Food is not merely food. It is part of who we are, what we value, and how we relate to others in sharing a life. Culture, in a global sense, whether it involves simple street-side vendors offering a quick snack or integrated five-star dining experiences, and their unique geo-ecologies, climates, and histories, provide food has substantive meaning and connection. Food speaks to us with a unique narrative that reaches beyond food.
The Cultural Importance of Food
All cultures have food traditions, recipes, and mealtime customs. The tradition in Italy is pasta and pizza. In Japan, it may be a precision meal in layers, like sushi or a bento box.As far as spice blends are concerned, spicy regional curries and breads in India use a large spectrum of spices. In Mexico, tacos, tamales, and mole incorporate corn, beans, and chili pepper as part of everything.
Food is important along with cultural holidays and religious events and helps to form the holidays and occasions. For example, Muslims around the world automatically break their daily fast with dates and have a special meal each evening at sundown during Ramadan while Jews eat challah bread during the Sabbath. In Chinese culture, dumplings are a food of symbolism in the family unit and wealth often eaten in part of a reunion dinner during the Lunar New Year.
Nutritional Value & Healthy Eating
While food is a classic aspect of culture, food is also critical to health.A healthy diet is a critical factor in a person's physical and emotional health and well-being. A healthy diet primarily includes all forms of factors that provide you with energy, contain essential nutrients, and allow your body to perform well. Each of the five food groups (fruit, vegetables, grain, protein and dairy) can produce dietary effects in many ways. For example, leafy green vegetables and other vegetables are full of vitamins and nutrients; whole grain foods will produce fiber; while lean meats and legumes are the best source of protein.
In the last several years more people seem to be more aware of the food they eat, regardless, of whether they regard themselves, generally, as foodies. For example, many individuals appear to be reading food labels, avoiding packaged (processed) food items, and are striving to consume more whole natural foods and and embracing and living the Mediterranean diet (which is scientifically shown to be an excellent healthy diet promoting health, healthy eating and heart health). The Mediterranean diet encourages olive oils, nuts, fish and vegetables.
Development of Plant-Base and Sustainable Food
Our food industry continues to develop and trend regarding sustainable and eco-friendliness. People are more attentive to plant-based diet for multiple reasons: personal well-being, treatment of animals, addressing climate change, and more. Products made from tofu, tempeh, and lens can now be found in grocery stores and restaurants.
Sustainable food could include ways to mitigate food waste, to shop local farmers market or to buy local organic and seasonal food. Farm to Table food movements encourage traceability and freshness and give consumers access to the origin of the food.
Street Food and Global Flavors
Street food is a fun and inexpensive way to taste the food traditions of a city or region. From pad thai and mango sticky rice at night markets in Thailand to hot dogs or halal plates from the food trucks in New York, street food is an expression of the energy and creativity of a city.
Globalization has also led to a merging of culinary traditions. Dishes like Korean tacos, sushi burritos, and butter chicken pizza demonstrate how nations can share and influence each other based on the availability of ingredients, culinary techniques, and customs .
Food as an Art Form
For many chefs and home cooks food is art. The presentation, texture, smell and taste all come together to form an experience that is wonderful for our senses. Modern gastronomy has introduced the world to various alternative cooking techniques, like molecular cooking, birch-ice foams, edible foams, or encapsulated flavors, that have further stretched the traditional idea of gastronomony and gastronomy as an art form.
Baking, however, is both a precision and creative culinary artform. Recipes, or precise amounts of ingredients, and the way you and hopefully the presented dish, presented on an individual scale allows, science and artistry. Food or baking as an art form is being accomplished everyday during a process as refined as elaborate cup cake decorating, as well in a manner as raw as hand molding artisan breads. It's all about using food as a canvas for imagination and creativty from boring ingredients, size, shapes etc.
