Fast Food Multiculturalism: Part #3

In part #3 ,we take a look at some lesser known regional foods which are gaining popularity within restaurant and fast food culture.

Indian Food

Unlike many other countries, Indian food is more of a combination of different foods as opposed to one single dish. Whereas other places serve pizza or burgers as their main foods, Indian food is better as a combination of 3 separate foods. Usually these meals consist of some type of starch, a main dish, and vegetables.

Chicken is a huge specialty in Indian restaurants since Indians consider cows sacred and can’t eat any beef products and Muslims don’t eat any pork products either.Tandoori Chicken is one of the favorite ways of making chicken in India. Tandoori Chicken is made by marinating chicken with special spices and grilling/baking it on a special clay oven.A lot of Indian foods can be eaten with your hands as well compared to other cultures where eating with your hands is less exceptable. The other really noticeable thing about Indian food is that it’s loaded up with different kinds of spices.These spices include ginger, black mustard, chili pepper,coriander and others.Other cultures like the Chinese are known for their sauces and Indian food is known for it’s wide varieties of spices used in their food. This is both delightful and hurtful as the food may taste good at first but later cause digestive problems to the person that just consumed the food. This is why ‘Paan’ can often be served with meals as the dark-green leaf of the betel-pepper plant is an astringent and is believed to help in clearing the system.Indian food also involves Chutney which is a sweet-and-spicy condiment, originally from eastern India. Curry is also used and refer to almost any spiced, sauce-based dishes cooked in various south and southeast Asian styles.Samosas are also very popular appetizers. It generally consists of a fried triangular / pyramid shaped pastry shell with potato, onion and pea stuffing, but other stuffings like minced meat are also used.Here are some well known Indian foods:

Tandoori Chicken

Chicken Tikka

Paan

Coconut Chutney

Butter Chicken

Samosa

Japanese Food

This type of food has white rice as a cultural favorite. Almost everything to do with Japanese food has white rice or soup as part of its meal. Much like Indian food, Japanese food has combination system which is numbered and usually involves soup, rice and 1 side dish consisting of something broiled, steamed or deep fried. A popular type of Japanese soup is called miso soup.It’s a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a stock called “dashi”. Various solid ingredients like wakame seaweed, tofu, and mushrooms are then added to make the finished soup. Sometimes spoons are given , otherwise you drink the soup like a drink and use chopsticks for any solid ingredients inside the soup.Because Japan is an island, seafood became very popular with such foods as fish, seaweed, octopus, squid, crabs, lobsters and shrimp being eaten. In fast food culture, sushi has become the #1 transformation from Japanese cuisine to daily take-out places. Sushi is a food made of vinegared rice combined with a topping or filling of fish, seafood, vegetables, or egg. and may be raw, cooked, or marinated.Usual toppings and fillings include fish such as tuna, yellowtail, salmon, snapper, bonito and mackerel along with vegetables such as fermented soybeans,cucumbers, pickled daikon radishes or avocados in california rolls. You can usually dip sushi in condiments such as soy sauce or wasabi which has a horseradish type of taste to it. Another popular dish is teriyaki which is where fish or meat that has been cut or sliced is broiled or grilled in a sweet soy sauce marinade. Another favorite is tempura which is a deep fried batter that is dipped with seafood and vegetables.

Here are some common Japanese dishes that were just mentioned :

White Rice

Teriyaki

Tempura

Sushi

In Part #4 we continue along with Arabic food and Carribean food and hopefully finish off with #5 American food.

Informational resources courtesy of http://www.wikipedia.org

Some images are copyrighted to their respective sites so use only for fair use,thanks.

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