And continuing upon my line of thought of how food has evolved, I am taking you across the world from Italy to Canada to Vancouver, the Caribbean and then back over to Turkey.
Why? Well, here is a list of some the ethnic communities who have settled and made their homes in this lovely city and where their food comes from, it's an exciting trip through the history of food.. you don't need your passport, just sit back and read.
The nationality of settlers in this wonderful city of Canada included: British (English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh), Scandinavian (too many to list, they know who they are!), German, French, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian, East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, people from the Caribbean and people from the Pacific Islands. This list in not inclusive!
So the food that is eaten in Vancouver homes comes from all over the word and, of course, each country represented in the above list has its' own regional cookery which 'travelled' to the west coast of Canada along with the immigrants.
For example, let's take Chinese food.. oh, yes, please let's take Chinese yumyum.
Everyone around the world is familiar with Cantonese and Pekinese cooking but actually, there are four other regions of Chinese cooking.
The six regions are: Peking & Northern China. Shanghai and Lower Yangtze. Szechuan and Upper Yangtze. Canton and South China. Fukien and Coastal China and Chinese Moslem or Mongolian.
Whoosh.. we're now crossing the Americas and sliding down into the Atlantic and Caribbean seas, here we go.. hang onto your mice and iPads as we go over and down into the Caribbean.. splosh!
The Caribbean was a melting pot of different nationalities and their cuisine a truely mixed pot of different foods and it is still evolving. The area is vast and, of course, was already inhabited by Arawak and the Carib Indians before they were almost wiped out by the dastardly fortune hunters of Spain, Holland, Britain, France and other european countries.
Huge rivalry existed amongst these 'superpowers' of the 15th century and each country that fought and won supremacy for a while, left its' mark on the cuisine but this changed with the importation of millions of African slaves, mostly from the north-western coastal areas of North Western Africa, to work on the sugar plantations.
After the abolition of slavery in 1850, the ex-slaves refused to work on the land and people from China and India came to take their place as a workforce. All of these different nationaities brought something of their own food culture and it is this that gives us today what we call 'Caribbean' food.
But do NOT let us forget the original, Caribbean inhabitants, the Caribs, Arawak, Warrau and WaiWai tribes all hunted, fished and grew their food. Cassava was grown and ground for bread, Maize (Sweetcorn) was made into bread or a porridge called Loblolly (did kids chuck it at each other?)
Sweet potatoes were grown, game was hunted and fish was plentiful. The Arawak tribe gave us the 'Barbacoa', their favourite meat being wild hogs and a local rabbit called Labba.
Did you know that the disgusting habit of smoking Tobacco was introduced to the Europeans by the Carib Indians? Well, they centainly took a 'long view' of not getting mad but even, didn't they?
From the Caribbean.. we are whooshing across the oceans to Turkey.
Turkey bridges the space on the globe between Europe and Asia. Its' food combine spicy foods from the east and milder foods from the west. And, yoghurt used with both sweet and savoury, diluted with water and a little salt, makes Ayran, a wonderfully refreshing drink.. and yughurt is eaten and drunk all over the world.
We love books, you know this for she's in and out of that library on the King's Road every week and History, with a capital H, is a favourite subject of hers and each recipe carries its' own history. Think about the food you cook at home and eat or the food at a restaurant that you particularly like to eat at.
'Faraway Food' was how Constance described 'foreign muck', go back several posts and read how the title of foreign food gained its' rather 'strange' name.
Whoops, is that rally the time? She has got to get her 'skates' on and get down the King's Road to show Elena and her husband a book.. pippip folks.
GeeGee Parrot.
February 7th, 2016.
PostScript: Weather has changed. Thank God,we have a sunny day, I'll sit on my pole by front door in the sunlight.
Why? Well, here is a list of some the ethnic communities who have settled and made their homes in this lovely city and where their food comes from, it's an exciting trip through the history of food.. you don't need your passport, just sit back and read.
The nationality of settlers in this wonderful city of Canada included: British (English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh), Scandinavian (too many to list, they know who they are!), German, French, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian, East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, people from the Caribbean and people from the Pacific Islands. This list in not inclusive!
So the food that is eaten in Vancouver homes comes from all over the word and, of course, each country represented in the above list has its' own regional cookery which 'travelled' to the west coast of Canada along with the immigrants.
For example, let's take Chinese food.. oh, yes, please let's take Chinese yumyum.
Everyone around the world is familiar with Cantonese and Pekinese cooking but actually, there are four other regions of Chinese cooking.
The six regions are: Peking & Northern China. Shanghai and Lower Yangtze. Szechuan and Upper Yangtze. Canton and South China. Fukien and Coastal China and Chinese Moslem or Mongolian.
Whoosh.. we're now crossing the Americas and sliding down into the Atlantic and Caribbean seas, here we go.. hang onto your mice and iPads as we go over and down into the Caribbean.. splosh!
The Caribbean was a melting pot of different nationalities and their cuisine a truely mixed pot of different foods and it is still evolving. The area is vast and, of course, was already inhabited by Arawak and the Carib Indians before they were almost wiped out by the dastardly fortune hunters of Spain, Holland, Britain, France and other european countries.
Huge rivalry existed amongst these 'superpowers' of the 15th century and each country that fought and won supremacy for a while, left its' mark on the cuisine but this changed with the importation of millions of African slaves, mostly from the north-western coastal areas of North Western Africa, to work on the sugar plantations.
After the abolition of slavery in 1850, the ex-slaves refused to work on the land and people from China and India came to take their place as a workforce. All of these different nationaities brought something of their own food culture and it is this that gives us today what we call 'Caribbean' food.
But do NOT let us forget the original, Caribbean inhabitants, the Caribs, Arawak, Warrau and WaiWai tribes all hunted, fished and grew their food. Cassava was grown and ground for bread, Maize (Sweetcorn) was made into bread or a porridge called Loblolly (did kids chuck it at each other?)
Sweet potatoes were grown, game was hunted and fish was plentiful. The Arawak tribe gave us the 'Barbacoa', their favourite meat being wild hogs and a local rabbit called Labba.
Did you know that the disgusting habit of smoking Tobacco was introduced to the Europeans by the Carib Indians? Well, they centainly took a 'long view' of not getting mad but even, didn't they?
From the Caribbean.. we are whooshing across the oceans to Turkey.
Turkey bridges the space on the globe between Europe and Asia. Its' food combine spicy foods from the east and milder foods from the west. And, yoghurt used with both sweet and savoury, diluted with water and a little salt, makes Ayran, a wonderfully refreshing drink.. and yughurt is eaten and drunk all over the world.
We love books, you know this for she's in and out of that library on the King's Road every week and History, with a capital H, is a favourite subject of hers and each recipe carries its' own history. Think about the food you cook at home and eat or the food at a restaurant that you particularly like to eat at.
'Faraway Food' was how Constance described 'foreign muck', go back several posts and read how the title of foreign food gained its' rather 'strange' name.
Whoops, is that rally the time? She has got to get her 'skates' on and get down the King's Road to show Elena and her husband a book.. pippip folks.
GeeGee Parrot.
February 7th, 2016.
PostScript: Weather has changed. Thank God,we have a sunny day, I'll sit on my pole by front door in the sunlight.
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