National features of cuisine and table manners
National features of cuisine and table manners
Contents
Introduction
1. Chapter I. Various American cuisine
1.1 Hot dogs
1.2 Hamburgers
1.3 Doughnuts
1.4 Apple pie
1.5 Potato chips
1.6 Coca-Cola
1.7 Pop- Corn
2. Chapter II. Hospitality of Ukrainian
cuisine
2.1 Overview of Ukrainian cuisine history
2.2 Cuisines of Ukraine
2.3 Preparation methods of Ukrainian
cooking
2.4 Special equipment of
Ukrainian cooking
2.5 Ukrainian food traditions and
festivals
3. Chapter III. Table manners
Conclusion
References
Resume
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever stopped to really think about what you and your family eat
every day and why? Have you ever stopped to think what other people eat? In the
movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, there are two scenes in which the
two lead characters are offered meals from a different culture. One meal, meant
to break the ice, consisted of insects. The second meal was a lavish banquet
that featured such delicacies as roasted beetles, live snakes, eyeball soup,
and chilled monkey brains for dessert. Some cultures eat such things as vipers
and rattlesnakes, bush rats, dog meat, horsemeat, bats, animal heart, liver,
eyes, and insects of all sorts.
The manner in which food is selected, prepared, presented, and eaten
often differs by culture. Americans love beef, yet it is forbidden to Hindus,
while the forbidden food in the Moslem and Jewish cultures is normally pork,
eaten extensively by the Chinese and others. In large cosmopolitan cities,
restaurants often carter to diverse diets and offer “national” dishes to meet
varying cultural tastes. Feeding habits also differ, and the range goes from
hands to chopsticks to full sets of cutlery. Even when cultures use a utensil
such as fork, one can distinguish a European from an American by which hand
holds the implement. Subcultures, too, can be analyzed from this perspective,
such as the executive’s dining room, the soldier’s mess… or the ladies’ tea
room, and the vegetarian’s restaurant.
Often the differences among cultures in the foods they eat are related to
the differences in geography and local resources. People who live near water
(seas, lakes, and rivers) tend to eat more fish and crustaceans. People who
live in colder climates tend to eat heavier, fatty foods. However, with the
development of a global economy, food boundaries and differences are beginning
to dissipate: McDonalds is now on every continent except Antarctica, and tofu
and yoghurt are served all over the world. [5., 324]
The aim of the course paper is to identify two absolutely
different types of cuisines and to analyze the right behavior during the meal.
The subjects of the work are features of national cuisine and
table manners.
The object of the course paper is the wide range of dishes, the
comparison of Ukrainian and American cuisine and table manners.
The objectives of the course paper are as follows:
·
to compare the Ukrainian and American cuisine;
·
to study the wide range of dishes which were mentioned in the
course paper;
·
to review table manners;
·
to analyze recipes of different dishes;
·
to identify the origin of some meals.
While researching there
were used the following methods of investigation: analysis of books, magazines,
descriptive method and comparative analysis.
The structure of the
course paper is caused by the consistency of research. The course paper
consists of introduction, chapter I, chapter II, chapter III, conclusion,
references and resume.
Chapter I. Various
American cuisine
The popular view outside
the U.S.A. that Americans survive on cheeseburgers, Cokes and French fries is
as accurate as the American popular view that the British live on tea and
fish’n’chips, the Germans only on beer, bratwurst, and sauerkraut, and the French
on red wine and garlic.
This view comes from the
fact that much of what is advertised abroad as “American food” is a very pretty
flat, tasteless imitation. American beef, for example, comes from specially
grain-fed cattle, not from cows that are raised mainly for milk production. As
a result, American beef is tenderer and tastes better than what is usually
offered as an “American steak” in Europe. When sold abroad, the simple baked
potato that comes hot and whole in foil often lacks the most important element,
the famous Idaho potato. This has different texture and skin that comes from
the climate and soil in Idaho.
Even sometimes as basic
as barbecue sauces shows difference from many of the types found on supermarket
shelves overseas. A fine barbecue sauce from the Southside of Chicago has its
own fire and soul. The Texas has a competition each year for the hottest
barbecue sauce (the recipes are kept secret).
America has two strong
advantages when it comes to food. The first is that as the leading agriculture
nation, she has always been well supplied with fresh meats, fruits, and
vegetables in great variety at relatively low prices. This is one reason why
steak or beef roast is probably the most “typical” American food; it has always
been more available. But good Southern-fried chicken also has champions, as do
hickory-smoked or sugar-cured hams, turkey, fresh lobster, and other seafood
such as crabs or clams.
In a country with
widely different climates and many fruit and vegetable growing regions, such
items as fresh grapefruit, oranges, lemons, melons, cherries, peaches, or
broccoli, iceberg lettuce, avocados, and cranberries do not have to be
imported. This is one reason why fruit dishes and salads are so common. Family
vegetable gardens have been very popular, both as a hobby and as a way to save
money, from the days when most Americans were farmers. They also help to keep
fresh food on the table.
The second advantage
America has enjoyed is that immigrants have brought with them, and continue to
bring, the traditional foods of their countries and cultures. The variety of
foods and styles is simply amazing. Whether Armenian, Basque, Catalonian,
Creole, Danish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, traditional Jewish,
Latvian, Mexican, Vietnamese or what have you, these traditions are now also at
home in the U.S.A.
There seem to be four
trends in America at present, which are connected with foods and dining. First,
there has been a notable increase in the number of reasonably priced restaurants,
which offer specialty foods. These include those that specialize in many
varieties and types of pancakes, those that offer only fresh, baked breakfast
foods, and the many that are buffets or salad bars. Secondly, growing numbers
of Americans are more regularly going out to eat in restaurants. One reason is
that they are not many American women do not feel that their lives are best
spent in the kitchen. They would rather pay a professional chef and also enjoy
a good meal. At the same time, there is an increase in fine cooking as a hobby
for both men and women. For some two decades now, these have been popular
television series on all types and styles of cooking, and the increasing
popularity can easily be seen in the number of best-selling specialty cookbooks
and the number of stores that specialize in often-exotic cooking devices and
spices. [2., 52]
A third is that as a
result of nationwide health campaigns, Americans in general are eating a much
light diet. Cereals and grain foods, fruit and vegetables, fish and salads are
emphasized instead of heavy and sweet foods. Finally, there is the
international trend to “fast food” chains, which sell pizza, hamburgers,
Mexican foods, chicken, salads and sandwiches, seafoods and various ice creams.
While many Americans and many other people resent this trend and while, as many
are expected, restaurants also dislike it, many young, middle-aged, and old
people, both rich and poor, continue to buy and eat fast foods.
Hot Dogs
Tad Dorgan, a sports
cartoonist, gave the frankfurter its nickname in 1906. Munching on a frank at a
baseball game, he concluded that it resembled a dachshund’s body and put that
whimsy into a drawing, which he captioned “Hot dog”.
Sausages go all the way
back to ancient Babylon, but the hot dog was brought to the U.S.A. shortly
before the Civil War by a real Frankfurter – Charles Feltman, a native of
Frankfurt, Germany, who opened a stand in New York and sold grilled sausages on
warmed rolls – first for a dime apiece, later, a nickel.
The frank appealed to
busy Americans, who – as an early 19th century comment put it – tend
to live by the maxim of “gobble, gulp and go”. Nowadays Americans consume more
than 12 billion frankfurters a year.
Hamburgers
Modern hamburgers on a
bun were first served at the St. Louis Fair in 1904, but Americans really began
eating them in quantity in the 1920s, when the White Castle snack bar chain
featured a small, square patty at a very low price. Chopped beef, tasty and
easily prepared, quickly caught on as family fare, and today hamburger stands,
drive-ins, and burger chains offer Americans their favorite hot sandwich at
every turn.
The history of the
hamburger dates back to medieval Europe. Early German sailors brought a Tartar
dish of shredded raw beef seasoned with salt and onion juice from Russia to
Germany. The lightly broiled German chopped-beef cake, with pickles and
pumpernickel on the side, was introduced to America in the early 1800s by
German immigrants in the Midwest. [4., 67]
Doughnuts
It was early Dutch
settlers and the Pennsylvania Germans who introduced the yeasty, deep-fried
doughnut to America. To the Dutch it was a festive food, eaten for breakfast on
Shrove Sunday.
Legend has it that
doughnut got its hole in 1847 when Hanson Gregory, a lad later to become a sea
captain, complained to his mother that her fried cakes were raw in the center
and poked hole4s in the next batch before they were cooked.
During World War I, when
the Salvation Army served them to the troops, doughnuts really took off as
popular fare. Since then, coffee and doughnuts become a national institution.
Stores sell them plain, sugared, frosted, honey-dipped, or jam-filled.
Apple pie
At its best, with a
savory filling and crisp, light-brown crust, apple pie has long been favorite
on American tables.
Apples and apple seems
were among the precious supplies the early colonists brought to the New World.
The first large apple orchards were planted near Boston by William Blaxton in
the 1600s. When he moved to Rhode Island in 1635, he developed the tart Rhode
Island Greening, still considered one of America’s finest apple pies.
As the fruit became
abundant, many settlers ate apple pie at every meal. Garnished with a chunk of
cheese, it was a favorite colonial breakfast dish. By the 18th
century apple pie became so popular that Yale College in New Haven served it
every night at supper for more than 100 years.
America’s love affair
with apple pie has remained constant. Today’s housewives, pressed for time, can
shortcut the tradition by buying the pastry ready-made at bakeries and
supermarkets. Many variations on the good old original are available, but the
classical apple pie, irresistible when topped with a slice of rat-trap cheese
or slathered with vanilla ice cream, is still America’s favorite. [4., 68-69]
Potato chips
George Crumb, an American
Indian who was the chef at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, in
the mid-19th century, was irked when a finicky dinner guest kept
sending back his French fried potatoes, complaining they were too thick. In
exasperation, Crumb shaved the potatoes into tissue-thin slice and deep-fried
them in oil. He had a dishful of crisp “Saratoga chips” presented to the guest,
who was delighted with the new treat.
Potato chips became the
specialty of Moon’s Lake House and, later, America’s crunchiest between-meal
snack.
Coca-Cola
America’s best-known
soft drink was first concocted by an Atlanta pharmacist in 1886. The syrup was
cooked up by John S. Pemberton from extracts of coca leaves and the kola nut.
He then organized the Pemberton Chemical Company, and Coca-Cola syrup mixed
with plain water was sold in a local drug store for 5 cents a glass.
Sales were slow until
in 1887 a prosperous Atlanta druggist, Asa G. Candler, bought the Coca-Cola
formula – then as now a carefully guarded secret – and added carbonate water to
the syrup instead of plain water.
Advertisement stressing
the words “delicious” and “refreshing” and carry coupons for free Coca-Cola
added to the increase in consumption. A system of independent local bottling
companies was developed, and the flared bottle, familiar worldwide and said to
resemble the hobble skirt, was designed in 1916.
In 1919 the company was
sold out for $25 million to a group headed by Ernest Woodruff. Under his son,
Robert W. Woodruff, Coca-Cola rapidly expanded its market. By the mid-1970s
more than 150 million Cokes a day were sold in country all over the world.
Today Coca-Cola has to
compete with many other soft drinks, but it is still one of the symbols of the
United States.
Pop- Corn
It’s impossible to
imagine American take-away food or snacks without popcorn. Clear as a day, it
is made from corn. But what about the first part of the word “pop”. Actually,
when you put a kernel of corn on a fire, the water inside makes the corn
explode. This makes a “pop” noise. That is why we call it popcorn. It’s an
interesting thing to know that not all corn pops. A seed of corn must contain
14% water in it. Other kinds of corn have less water and do not pop. The
American Indians, who popped corn a long time ago, knew that special sort. They
introduced corn to the first settlers. In 1620 when Pilgrims had a Thanksgiving
dinner they invited the Indians, who brought popcorn with them. Since that time
Americans continued to pop corn at home. But in 1945 a new machine was invented
that changed the history of the product. The electric machine enabled to pop
corn outside the home. And soon movies started selling popcorn to make more
money. The famous American habit of eating popcorn at the movies is well-
known. Many people like to put salt or melted butter in their popcorn, some
prepare to have it without. Either way Americans love their popcorn. [4., 69]
Restaurant “Friday’s”
There are a lot of places
in Kiev and in Ukraine where you can taste American cuisine. But the best and
the most popular is Restaurant “Friday’s”.
Friday's is an international chain of
American cuisine restaurants. To date, there are more than 700 Friday's
restaurants located in 55 countries throughout the world.
Friday's is also famous for its
collection of bric-a-brac, which can tell many an intriguing story. Friday's
rare objects come from all over the world, and the restaurants act as
custodians of their stories.
Friday's success formula is
simplicity itself. The guest's wishes are commands for the staff; that's why
restaurants make every visitor feel at home. Friday's personnel are young,
energetic, friendly young men and women who have received their professional
education at the company's training center. The restaurants maintain at all
times a happy, friendly atmosphere beloved by guests.
But the main attraction here is
genuine American cuisine. It was Friday's that invented the recipe for loaded
potato skins, which has gone on to become not only the restaurant's hit, but
also a signature American dish. All drinks at Friday's are mixed according to
the most exacting recipes. The dishes startle with the size of servings. When
reading the menu, Friday's visitors quite often face the problem of what to
choose. The job is indeed far from an easy one. Judge for yourselves: Friday's
sauced mushrooms, coated and fried till crisp and crunchy; Friday's quesadilla,
a tortilla pancake with beef or chicken fillet; Fettuccine Alfredo, pasta
served with Cajun sauce; and Jack Daniel's glazed ribs, are just a few of the
most popular dishes. And there are also salads, sandwiches, Friday's signature
hamburgers, juicy steaks, Cajun recipes and chef's specials. To say nothing of
desserts and beverages! But truth be told, at Friday's you'll get help in
making your choice: the waiter will be only too happy to explain what this or
that dish is like. All you'll have to do is place your order.
At Friday's you'll always be
comfortable, well fed, and happy! [14.]
Sam’s Steak House
If you want to taste a real American
steak, you have to go to the Sam’s Steak House. The best selection of
steaks is there. You may peak your own steak and watch them cooked to
perfection by the frill chef.
Also there is an excellent choice of
Californian and European dishes,
exquisitely cooked seafood and classical desserts: Cheese cake, hot Apple pie.
This restaurant, arguably serving the best selection of steaks in the Ukraine,
is situated on the cross road at 37 Zhilyanskaya Str. Decorated in the
"New colonial" style, the light maple wood interior with green
highlights and red brick walls sets off the wooden American colonial period
furniture. The shelves holding period china, cupboards wherein are displayed
the restaurant's wines, matching green curtains and plethora of large
comfortable cushions completes the homely atmosphere. Situated in the main
dining hall is the impressive open grill flanked by the chilled meat display
cabinets. While you eat your meal watch sports events or fashion shows on the
TV's, or look for the numerous Kiev personalities such as Sports stars, DJ's
and pop singers who always go where the action is and the steak action is most
definitely right here in Sam's Steak House.
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