世界各地美食介绍

Barbecue SquareBrazilians were the first to raise cattle in South America, imported from Cape Verde to So Paulo in the 1530s. Churrasco (pronounced shoo-RAS-koo) or Brazilian barbecue was the traditional staple food of the gachos or cowboys of Southern Brazil for centuries before it spread to Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo. It has become very fashionable and there are excellent churrascarias (restaurants specializing in Brazilian barbecue) all over Brazil and around the world. These are called churrascaria de rodzio because waiters move from table to table bringing different types of meats on skewers from which they slice portions onto your plate. In Rio de Janeiro, you may want to try Esplanada Grill or Porco, both located in Ipanema and the brand new and very sophisticated Giuseppe Grill in Leblon (for address, check our Little Black Book). If you are a vegetarian, you castill accompany your friends to churrascarias; as a rule, they have fantastic salad buffets too.SchmierkuchenSchmierkuchen is a German-Bohemian cottage cheese cake. Using sugar, flour, shortening, and yeast, a pie crust is created and allowed to rise. The dough is then rolled flat and placed inside a pie plate, again being left to rise. When the crust is double in size, a mixture of cottage cheese and butter is placed in the crust and a garnish of fruit is smeared on top. Most often the fruit of choice is prunes that have been pitted, mashed, and sweetened to taste. The cheesecake is then baked until it is golden brown and served with many summer meals.SauerkrautA dish known as sour cabbage probably does not sound appetizing, but many Germans and German-Americans find it rather enjoyable. To make sauerkraut, one thinly shreds cabbage which is then mixed with salt and placed into a large container (barrels were used originally). The container is covered with cheesecloth or muslin, then with a heavy lid to ensure that the cabbage is not exposed to the air. The cabbage should be left to ferment in its own juices for 3 to 6 weeks, although brine may need to be added if it is starting to dry out. After it has fermented for several weeks, the sauerkraut is then ready to be eaten. It is simmered on the stove and is often prepared with sausage or pork and accompanied by dumplings. History of PastaNothing says Italy like its food, and nothing says Italian food like pasta. Wherever Italians have immigrated they have brought their pasta and so today it is basically an international staple. Unlike other ubiquitous Italian foods like Pizza and tomato sauce, which have a fairly recent history pasta may indeed have a much older pedigree going back hundreds if not thousands of years. To begin to unravel the long an often complex world of pasta we have to look at its origins and some of the myths surrounding this now worldwide food.Many schoolchildren were taught that the Venetian merchant Marco Polo brought back pasta from his journeys in China. Another version states that Polo discovery was actually a rediscovery of a foodstuff that was once popular in Italy in Etruscan and Roman times. Well Marco Polo might have done amazing things on his journey but bringing pasta to Italy was not one of them, it was already there in Polos time. There is some evidence of an Etrusco-Roman noodle made from the same durum wheat as modern pasta called lagane (origin of the modern word for lasagna). However this food, first mentioned in the 1st century AD was not boiled like pasta, it was cooked in an oven. Therefore ancient lagane had some similarities, but cannot be considered pasta. The next culinary leap in the history of pasta would take place a few centuries later.Pasta TodayIt is estimated that Italians eat over sixty pounds of pasta per person, per year easily beating Americans, who eat about twenty pounds per person. This love of pasta in Italy far outstrips the large durum wheat production of the country; therefore Italy must import most of the wheat it uses for pasta. Today pasta is everywhere and can be found in dried (pasta secca) and fresh (pasta fresca) varieties depending on what the recipes call for. The main problem with pasta today is the use of mass production to fill a huge worldwide demand. And while pasta is made everywhere the product from Italy keeps to time-tested production methods that create a superior pasta.Dried PastaThere are roughly 350 different shapes and varieties of dried pasta in Italy, even more counting regional differences. Shapes range from simple tubes to bow ties (farfalle, which actually means butterfly), to unique shapes like tennis rackets (racchette). Many, but not all of these types are usually available wherever pasta is made. By Italian law dried pasta must be made with 100% durum semolina flour and water, a practice that all but the worst quality pasta makers worldwide have since adhered to. However there are two factors in dried pasta from Italy that make it typically better than most other products: extrusion and drying methods.Dried pasta, especially the more complex shapes (such as radiatore) are designed for grabbing and holding onto sauces. Dried tube pasta (ziti or penne) often has ridges or slight abrasions on the surface to hold onto the pasta sauce as well. These ridges and bumps are created during the extrusion process, when the pasta is forced from a copper mold and cut to desired length before drying. These molds, while expensive and prone to wear are favored for making the best dried pasta. However most producers worldwide use steel molds that produce pasta that is too smooth to hold onto sauce. Fortunately more pasta makers outside of Italy are starting to use the older style copper molds.After the pasta is cut it must be dried using a process of specific temperature and time. This is another area where mass produced pasta falls short of good Italian pasta made the correct way. The mass produced pastas are dried at very high temperatures for a shorter time than quality pasta. Traditional pasta is allowed to dry slower, up to 50 hours at a much lower temperature. It is after the pasta is fully dried that it is packaged. The result is a product with a much better mouth-feel, quicker cooking time, and superior sauce holding noodles.Fresh Pasta Essentially all pasta starts out as fresh pasta but some is made to be eaten soft. Fresh pasta can be made with slightly different ingredients than the dried variety. Many northern regions of Italy use all-purpose flour and eggs while southern Italy usually makes theirs from semolina and water but it depends upon the recipe. Serving pasta that is made fresh that day shows a great deal of care in preparation and a high level of pride in the households culinary skills. However fresh pasta is not inherently better than dried pasta, it is just different and is used in different situations. Some types of pasta are served only fresh, others only dried and some others can have fresh and dried versions. It is in this case that it can be argued that fresh is better than dried pasta. Fresh pasta has been made in households throughout Italy for generations but the region of Emilia-Romagna has the reputation of making the best. Here fresh pasta is often served with cream sauces or a simple sauce of butter and sage while light tomato sauces are reserved for the summer months. Following the simple but important rule of using fresh local ingredients, the Piedmontese serve their fresh pasta with a butter sauce covered with slices of decadent local black truffles. Wherever you are in Italy, being served fresh homemade pasta is a real treat as you can be assured that the pasta was made that day and will have a taste that will make you rethink notions of what good pasta is.History of Ice Cream in Italygelato ice creamA common belief is that Marco Polo brought ice cream back to Italy from his adventures in China. However just like the story of his introduction of pasta to Italy, there are problems with the story. It is generally assumed that either China or ancient Persia were among the first cultures that developed a dessert made from fruit and either shaved ice or mountain snow. However similar discoveries must have been made by numerous cultures that had access to ice and something sweet to add to it.Evidence does suggest that is was in fact China that made the first so-called Ice Cream makers, using rock salt to increase the hardness of the dessert. These first ice creams were not ice cream at all since there was no milk or cream in it and more resembled sorbet or Italian Ice. Roman Emperors were known to have enjoyed these types of desserts centuries before Marco Polo. So the great explorer may not have introduced ice cream, but Italy does play an important role in introducing frozen desserts including ice cream, to Europe.Ice Cream: Sorbetto, Granita and Italian IceAll three are more ice and flavorings rather than real ice cream, but have a long history of enjoyment in the ancient world. It is most likely that these desserts were introduced to Southern Italy by the Arabs, who also brought sugarcane. The Arabs used mountain snow and fruit juice to make Sharbat, the ancestor to Italys Sorbetto and known elsewhere as sorbet or Sherbet.gelato italian ice creamIn Sicily, a dessert made of course ice, sugar and flavorings known as Granita is probably the closest to the original Sharbat as it has a more slush-like consistency than Sorbetto. Today commercial Sorbetto and Sherbet can contain small amounts of milk, but many are still made with only fruit juice or syrups and ice, known to Americans as Italian Ice. These frozen desserts became very popular throughout Europe by way of France, and the arrival of Catherine de Medicis troupe of Italian chefs. However there would be one more innovation before these Sorbets became true Ice Cream.Ice Cream: GelatoIt would take a few centuries before milk or cream started to be added to these ice desserts, thus creating what we now know as Gelato and Ice Cream. Just as with the Pizza, it is the Neapolitans that are credited with creating the first true ice creams, which appeared in an 18th century cookbook. Once dairy had been introduced, each nationality put their own stamp on Ice Cream, with Italy creating the flavor explosion known as Gelato.gelato ice cream italyThe differences between Italian Gelato and Ice Cream are slight, but make all the difference in flavor and texture. Gelato is made with milk, sometimes skim-milk as opposed to cream which gives Gelato a much lower milk fat content. Less milk fat allows the flavors of Gelato to really stand out compared to the more blended flavors of Ice Cream. Gelatos flavor is helped by the fact that it has less air whipped into than Ice Cream, making it much denser. Even the serving of Gelato is different than Ice Cream since is served with a softer consistency, more along the lines of soft-serve Ice Cream. Fans of Ice Cream are often surprised as just how flavorful Gelato can be and the ultimate chocoholic might find themselves in love with one of the vibrantly colored fruit flavors.While Italy cannot take credit for truly inventing Ice Cream, it has arguably done more for the evolution of iced desserts than any other culture. It was in Italy that the ancestors of Ice Cream and Gelato transformed into more than just regional treats. With such a history of Ice Cream innovation, it is doubtful that Italy is done creating frozen masterpieces yet.History of PizzaPizza: The Soul of ItalyPizza - New York style in wood ovenThere are not too many nations that can say their national dish has become an international phenomenon. Italy has two such dishes, pasta and of course pizza. In America pizza usually falls into two categories: thick and cheesy Chicago style or thin and more traditional New York pizza. In Italy pizza also falls into two distinct categories: Italian pizza and the rest of the world. It might seem silly considering the basic ingredients, but one taste of a true Italian pizza and thats it. You will never feel the same about this simple and delicious food again.Pizza in its most basic form as a seasoned flatbread has a long history in the Mediterranean. Several cultures including the Greeks and Phoenicians ate a flatbread made from flour and water. The dough would be cooked by placing on a hot stone and then seasoned with herbs. The Greeks called this early pizza plankuntos and it was basically used as an edible plate when eating stews or thick broth. It was not yet what we would call pizza today but it was very much like modern focaccia. These early pizzas were eaten from Rome to Egypt to Babylon and were praised by the ancient historians Herodotus and Cato the Elder.Pizza OriginsThe word pizza is thought to have come from the Latin word pinsa, meaning flatbread (although there is much debate about the origin of the word). A legend suggests that Roman soldiers gained a taste for Jewish Matzoth while stationed in Roman occupied Palestine and developed a similar food after returning home. However a recent archeological discovery has found a preserved Bronze Age pizza in the Veneto region. By the Middle Ages these early pizzas started to take on a more modern look and taste. The peasantry of the time used what few ingredients they could get their hands on to produce the modern pizza dough and topped it with olive oil and herbs. The introduction of the Indian Water Buffalo gave pizza another dimension with the production of mozzarella cheese. Even today, the use of fresh mozzarella di buffalo in Italian pizza cannot be substituted. While other cheeses have made their way onto pizza (usually in conjunction with fresh mozzarella), no Italian Pizzeria would ever use the dried shredded type used on so many American pizzas.The introduction of tomatoes to Italian cuisine in the 18th and early 19th centuries finally gave us the true modern Italian pizza. Even though tomatoes reached Italy by the 1530s it was widely thought that they were poisonous and were grown only for decoration. However the innovative (and probably starving) peasants of Naples started using the supposedly deadly fruit in many of their foods, including their early pizzas. Since that fateful day the world of Italian cuisine would never be the same, however it took some time for the rest of society to accept this crude peasant food. Once members of the local aristocracy tried pizza they couldnt get enough of it, which by this time was being sold on the streets of Naples for every meal. As pizza popularity increased, street vendors gave way to actual shops where people could order a custom pizza with many different toppings. By 1830 the Antica Pizzeria PortAlba of Naples had become the first true pizzeria and this venerable institution is still producing masterpieces.The popular pizza Margherita owes its name to Italys Queen Margherita who in 1889 visited the Pizzeria Brandi in Naples. The Pizzaioli (pizza maker) on duty that day, Rafaele Esposito created a pizza for the Queen that contained the three colors of the new Italian flag. The red of tomato, white of the mozzarella and fresh green basil was a hit with the Queen and the rest of the world. Neapolitan style pizza had now spread throughout Italy and each region started designing their own versions based on the Italian culinary rule of fresh, local ingredients.Italian Traditional PizzaThe Pizza Margherita may have set the standard, but there are numerous popular varieties of pizza made in Italy today. Pizza from a Pizzeria is the recognized round shape, made to order and always cooked in a wood fired oven. Regional varieties are always worth trying such as Pizza Marinara, a traditional Neapolitan pizza that has oregano, anchovies and lots of garlic. Pizza Napoli Tomato mozzarella and anchovies. Capricciosa: a topping of mushrooms, prosciutto, artichoke hearts, olives and a boiled egg! Pizza Pugliese makes use of the local capers and olives of the area while Pizza Veronese has mushrooms and tender Prosciutto crudo. Pizzas from Sicily can have numerous toppings ranging from green olives, seafood, hard-boiled eggs and peas.Pizza CapricciosaBesides regional styles there are several varieties that are popular throughout Italy. Quattro Formagi uses a four cheese combination using fresh mozzarella and three local cheeses such as Gorgonzola, ricotta and parmigiano-reggiano. Italian tuna packed in olive oil is also a popular topping along with other marine products like anchovies, shellfish and shrimp. Quattro Stagioni is a pizza (similar to the Capricciosa) that represents the four seasons and makes a good sampler pizza with sections of artichokes, salami or Prosciutto cotto, mushrooms, and tomatoes. In Liguria you may find pizza topped with basil pesto and no tomato sauce. Of course there are hundreds more to discover and all of them are delicious,