The Geography of Food

Monday, 28 September 2015

Mexico

Mexico is located just south of the USA. It has a very warm climate with some of the coastal areas becoming almost unbearably hot during the summer months. There are approximately 122 million people living in Mexico with just under nine million of them living in the capital, Mexico City. Mexican Cuisine is largely influenced by Spainish and European cuisines.

Enchiladas

Enchiladas are actually a very old dish that can be dated back to the Mayan times when people would wrap small fish in corn tortillas and cook them. Nowadays they can be stuffed with almost anything, meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, beans and loads more. Other ways in which Enchiladas have changed are that now both corn and flour tortillas can be used and before being cooked the top side of the tortilla is covered with cheese. Here is a recipe for vegetarian enchiladas:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/veggie-enchiladas/#uYQVDKqM6wVOkQKe.97

Baked Flan

Flan is another one of those traditional mexican desserts. It is unlike more European flans where you would have a thin cake covered in cream and fruit. The Baked Flan in Mexico is more like a baked custard. The Flan was origninally created by the Ancient Romans as a savoury dish that was considered very benefilcal to you health. The mexiacns however took the recipe and improved it by adding sweet flavours such as honey, coffee, coconut etc. Here is a recipe for a flan:

http://www.food.com/recipe/mexican-flan-baked-caramel-custard-12354

here is a list of the websites I used:

http://mamiverse.com/celebrating-flan-a-history-of-the-beloved-latin-dessert-plus-4-great-flan-recipes-3950/

http://www.recipe.com/beef-enchiladas-rancheras/

http://www.thewinebuzz.com/2235/mexican-flan/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchilada

Friday, 18 September 2015

Greece

Greece is located in the Mediterranean and is made up of a peninsula and lots of different smaller islands. Greece has been in the news recently because of its economic difficulties. It has a Mediterranean climate which means rainy winters and warm dry summer. This allows farmers to grow lots of fresh produce.

Greek salad

As the name would suggest this is a salad that is from Greece. It is typically made with tomatoes, cucumber, onion, feta cheese and olives. it is dressed with olive oil, salt and oregano. It can also contain

green peppers and capers. You could also use lettuce, although this isn't a traditional ingredient it is often added to give more texture and add more to the salad. Here is a recipe for a Greek salad: http://greek.food.com/recipe/the-ultimate-greek-salad-90975

Finikia/Melomakarona

Finikia are a traditional Greek biscuit that is usually flavoured with almonds, cinnamon and orange juice and/or zest. They are shaped like little eggs. If you roll the Finikia in syrup of sugar, honey, water, cloves and orange zest when you take them out of the oven they become Melomakarona. Both biscuits are topped with either ground or chopped walnuts but you can replace this with any other nuts you like. Melomakarona are traditionally baked and eaten at Christmas. They are easy to cook and taste delicious.