Food

Food!

   Needless to say food can be considered somewhat important in the general life goal knows as 'living.' It is one of the primary elements and inn the case of most living creatures, a process called eating is required to get the food into the body to be burned and used for energy and nutrition. This process could be seen as exceptionally boring if all food was the same, but fortunately for us food is incredibly varied!

   There are, from memory, 4 main overarching food-types from various cultures. To the bet of my knowledge these are; Westernized (Burger and Fries, etc.), East-Asian (Sushi, Various Chinese Dishes,) Middle-Eastern (Curries, Bhajis) and European (Paella, Pasta Dishes). Each of these are also home to other sub-categories of food. These cultures are not self-exclusive either, for example, most curries sold here in Ireland, like Tikka Masala, are actually not from the middle-east, they took the basis of curries from that region and adjusted them to the taste of our audience. In fact, most of the people in that region are often vegetarian and so most of the meat dishes are made up.

   Another such type of food that is rather popular now is Mexican-Style. Mexican food is often to be considered spiced mince put into a sauce and then put into various types of shells. A circle folded half way over and let to hard is a taco shell. Chicken cooked in sauce, then wrapped in cheese and tortilla bread then further cooked is an enchilada. If you don't cook it afterwards and leave the cheese and tortilla cold, It can be a Fajita or Burrito depending on certain things. I reckon the appeal here is that they are very customizable, which seems to be very popular at the moment, Everything is interchangeable depending on your likes and dislikes. If you don't like a certain sauce, you can get a different one. You can choose your toppings as you go as well. It could also be seen as a broad coverage of the food pyramid as it contains meat, sauce, bread and vegetables, depending on your tastes.

   Another popular type of food in the modern world comes from the opposite sit of the world map. Westernized Chinese dishes have been a staple take-out/restaurant for some time now. If I think to my home town, In <5 seconds I can think of 5 different Chinese restaurants. 8 if I am given a few more seconds. This food generally offers sweet dishes, like the ever so popular Sweet and Sour Chicken. Crispy Chilli Beef and Chicken Kung Po are two common spicy dishes as well, the latter is sweet also. Unlike Mexican food, this style is often a lot more structured in it's meals. They generally give you Prawn Crackers at the start; into whatever starter you chose, like wantons for example; then they give you whatever main you chose. Water Chestnut and Bamboo is a very common ingredient for this style of food, because it adds texture to the dish, being very crunchy, while not changing the flavour of the dish all too much. Carrots also feature, but in a different manner. When these dishes are served it is not uncommon to see a carrot cut into a flower and served on the side.
       Sushi is another popular Asain style of food. This is primarily from Japan and comes in many varieties, my personal favourite is Prawn Nigiri. I have often heard that people refer to chicken sushi as 'not sushi' but this is only due to a misunderstanding. Often people believe that the fish is what makes the meal sushi. This is not true, Fish on it's own is referred to as sashimi, the thing known as sushi is just the rice. Unfortunately, sushi is somewhat rarer to come across here and when you do find it, it is often times very expensive.


TLDR; Food is awesome and tastes great. It is required for living and comes in many varieties.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!