mediterranean cuisine

Mediterranean cuisine is the food of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea. Given the geography, these nation-states have influenced each other over time and the cooking evolved into sharing common principles.

Fish dishes are common, although today much of the fish is imported since the fisheries of the Mediterranean Sea are weak. Seafood is still prominent in many of the standard recipes.

Olive oil, produced from the olive trees prominent throughout Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Italy, Spain and other Mediterranean nations, adds to the distinctive taste of the food. Garlic is also used throughout Mediterranean cuisine. It is widely believed that ingredients in this kind of cooking, especially olive oil, are particularly healthy; see Mediterranean diet.

Barbecue or grilled meats, pita bread, hummus, and falafel are very popular forms of the eastern type of the cuisine.

The idea of the ‘standard Mediterranean diet’ ... is a modern construction of food writers and publicists in Western Europe and North America earnestly preaching what is now thought to be a healthy diet to their audiences by invoking a stereotype of the healthy other on the shores of the Mediterranean. Their colleagues in Mediterranean countries are only too willing to perpetuate this myth. The fact of the matter is that the Mediterranean contains varied cultures...