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What's Cooking? Show us Your Plated Food Photos!

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Korean beef on rice and veggies
 
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The whole world has plenty to thank Mexico for when it comes to the culinary scene. EVERY cuisine in the world I can think of has been influenced by ingredients from Mexico. Examples:

- it is impossible to think of Irish food without potatoes
- Maybe 1/2 - 1/3 of Italian cuisine is tomato based
- Sichuanese food wouldn't be Sichuanese if it wasn't for chillies
- It is the same with sub-Saharan African food, totally reliant on chillies. Even though I thought I was tolerant to chillies, some of their cuisines are crazy spicy!

And then of course I can not think of a single country that does not consume chocolate.

I have only visited Mexico once and I was amazed by the variety of food over there. In Australia there is only ONE variety of dried chilli, maybe more if you look around specialty shops. In Mexico there are at least a dozen, some of them are sweet, some are smoky, some are spicier, some less so.
 
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Keith_W said:
The whole world has plenty to thank Mexico for when it comes to the culinary scene. EVERY cuisine in the world I can think of has been influenced by ingredients from Mexico. Examples:
Click to expand...
Having moved to SoCal some 40+ years ago - from the EastCoast - I did not know the difference between a tortilla and a taco.
At my first attempt at Mexican restaurant food, I had no idea what all that stuff on the menu were.
So, I threw a dart on the menu and ordered "fajitas" not even knowing what it was that I was about to eat.
I consider Mexican food to be the most 'honest' of all cuisines. Simple ingredients, with simple tastes... for simple people!:)
 
pseudoid said:
Having moved to SoCal some 40+ years ago - from the EastCoast - I did not know the difference between a tortilla and a taco.
At my first attempt at Mexican restaurant food, I had no idea what all that stuff on the menu were.
So, I threw a dart on the menu and ordered "fajitas" not even knowing what it was that I was about to eat.
I consider Mexican food to be the most 'honest' of all cuisines. Simple ingredients, with simple tastes... for simple people!:)
Click to expand...

Yes, there are a few cuisines that rely on the quality of the ingredients with little to hide behind - Japanese, Italian, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Mexican come to mind. Cantonese food values freshness so much that many Cantonese restaurants have live fish swimming around. It is served simply steamed with a light soy sauce, scallions, and ginger. Also simple food for simple people, but it tastes amazing.
 
Keith_W said:
The whole world has plenty to thank Mexico for when it comes to the culinary scene. EVERY cuisine in the world I can think of has been influenced by ingredients from Mexico. Examples:

- it is impossible to think of Irish food without potatoes
- Maybe 1/2 - 1/3 of Italian cuisine is tomato based
- Sichuanese food wouldn't be Sichuanese if it wasn't for chillies
- It is the same with sub-Saharan African food, totally reliant on chillies. Even though I thought I was tolerant to chillies, some of their cuisines are crazy spicy!

And then of course I can not think of a single country that does not consume chocolate.

I have only visited Mexico once and I was amazed by the variety of food over there. In Australia there is only ONE variety of dried chilli, maybe more if you look around specialty shops. In Mexico there are at least a dozen, some of them are sweet, some are smoky, some are spicier, some less so.
Click to expand...
I do have a crush on Mexican food as well, but is it accurate really to equate all new world fruits and veggies to Mexican food?
 
IAtaman said:
I do have a crush on Mexican food as well, but is it accurate really to equate all new world fruits and veggies to Mexican food?
Click to expand...

You are right. It isn't. TBH I don't know the provenance of these new world foods, but the Spaniards colonized Mexico and its surrounding areas first, and these were the foods that were brought back to Europe. All new world foods - I don't know. But all the early ones - most likely.

I am reminded of a story of how Spaniards developed pellagra from Niacin deficiency from eating corn, whereas the Aztecs had no such problem. It turns out that corn has Niacin, but it is in bound form and not available for digestion and absorption. The Aztecs nixtamalized their corn by cooking it with ash - this released the Niacin and made it available.
 
Keith_W said:
I don't know the provenance of these new world foods, but the Spaniards colonized Mexico and its surrounding areas first, and these were the foods that were brought back to Europe. All new world foods - I don't know. But all the early ones - most likely.
Click to expand...
Yes, probably Europeans learned these food from the people who lived in what we call Mexico today. I did not know the origins either, so out of curiosity, checked a few. Apparently tomato is from western South America, chilli is from Bolivia and cocoa trees are native to Amazon forest.
 
IAtaman said:
Yes, probably Europeans learned these food from the people who lived in what we call Mexico today. I did not know the origins either, so out of curiosity, checked a few. Apparently tomato is from western South America, chilli is from Bolivia and cocoa trees are native to Amazon forest.
Click to expand...
Maize (aka Corn) is the one human's oldest domesticated food-crops:
en.wikipedia.org

Maize - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Very sophisticated people in Mexico domesticated maize thousands of years ago.
 
Keith_W said:
You are right. It isn't. TBH I don't know the provenance of these new world foods, but the Spaniards colonized Mexico and its surrounding areas first, and these were the foods that were brought back to Europe. All new world foods - I don't know. But all the early ones - most likely.

I am reminded of a story of how Spaniards developed pellagra from Niacin deficiency from eating corn, whereas the Aztecs had no such problem. It turns out that corn has Niacin, but it is in bound form and not available for digestion and absorption. The Aztecs nixtamalized their corn by cooking it with ash - this released the Niacin and made it available.
Click to expand...
And French colonized Mexico after the Spanish. I'm sure there are commingled dishes and styles of cuisine from them too. And then the Texans messed it all up. :D
 
We don't realize how much we are a lot of 'lucky bastards': You all know who you are!:oops:
I just popped-in the simple question and got this simple-ish answer to it:
The number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (1), according to a United Nations report that provides fresh evidence that the world is moving further away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030.
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I don't think the above numbers are current enough; since the starvation now going on in the MiddleEast.
I am gonna go and count my lucky stars, brb.
 
I usually avoid food on plate photography - bit to fb/ig for me. So I'm going to bend the rules. Instead of a "look what I'm about to eat" this a "look what we already finished" photo. I was delighted how the lego lamb turned out and the wine pairing was fortuitous and brag-worthy, the spicy Austrailian lamb with the golden French ram. Also onion, potato and pickled gherkin.

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