0_Wizard
I love making Italian food because it's so simplistic, you usually only need two to four main ingredients.
Italian cuisine is characterized by its simplicity, with many dishes having only two to four main ingredients.
chosen_Italian_cuisine_0
Italian cuisine
chosen_topic_0_Italian_cuisine
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine is food typical from Italy. It has developed through centuries of social and economic changes, with roots stretching to antiquity. Significant changes occurred with the discovery of the New World and the introduction of potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, maize and sugar beet, this last introduced in quantity in the 18th century. Italian cuisine is known for its regional diversity, especially between the north and the south of the Italian peninsula. It offers an abundance of taste, and is one of the most popular and copied in the world. It influenced several cuisines around the world chiefly that of the United States.
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David, CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes. Born to an upper-class family, David rebelled against social norms of the day. In the 1930s she studied art in Paris, became an actress, and ran off with a married man with whom she sailed in a small boat to Italy, where their boat was confiscated. They reached Greece, where they were nearly trapped by the German invasion in 1941, but escaped to Egypt, where they parted.
Elizabeth David bibliography
Elizabeth David, the British cookery writer, published eight books in the 34 years between 1950 and 1984; the last was issued eight years before her death. After David's death, her literary executor, Jill Norman, supervised the publication of eight more books, drawing on David's unpublished manuscripts and research and on her published writings for books and magazines. David's first five books, particularly the earlier works, contained recipes interspersed with literary quotation and descriptions of people and places that inspired her. By the time of her third book, "Italian Food", David had begun to add sections about the history of the cuisine and the particular dishes that she wrote about.
Instant noodle
Instant noodles are sold in a precooked and dried noodle block, with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The flavoring is usually in a separate packet, although in the case of cup noodles the flavoring is often loose in the cup. Some instant noodle products are seal packed; these can be reheated or eaten straight from the packet/container. Dried noodle blocks are cooked or soaked in boiling water before eating. The main ingredients used in dried noodles are usually wheat flour, palm oil, and salt. Common ingredients in the flavoring powder are salt, monosodium glutamate, seasoning, and sugar.
Curry
Curry (, plural curries) is an umbrella term referring to a number of dishes originating in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent. The common feature is the use of complex combinations of spices or herbs, usually including fresh or dried hot chillies. The use of the term is generally limited to dishes prepared in a sauce. Curry dishes prepared in the southern states of India may be spiced with leaves from the curry tree. There are many varieties of dishes called 'curries'. For example, in original traditional cuisines, the precise selection of spices for each dish is a matter of national or regional cultural tradition, religious practice, and, to some extent, family preference.
Offal
Offal , also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, refers to the internal organs and entrails of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but includes most internal organs excluding muscle and bone. As an English mass noun, the term "offal" has no plural form. Some cultures strongly consider offal as food to be taboo, while others use it as everyday food, or in delicacies. Certain offal dishes—including "foie gras", "pâté" and sweetbread—are considered gourmet food in international cuisine. Others remain part of traditional regional cuisine and may be consumed especially in connection with holidays.
Indian cuisine
Indian cuisine comprises a wide variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. Given the range of diversity in soil type, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially from each other and use locally available spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruits. Indian food is also heavily influenced by religion, in particular Hindu, and cultural choices and traditions. Also, Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences have occurred on North Indian cuisine from the years of Mughal rule. Indian cuisine is still evolving, as a result of the nation's cultural interactions with other societies.
1_Apprentice
I do like Italian food too.  What is your favorite dish?
0_Wizard
It's got to be just the basic pasta, olive oil and fish for me, a staple of the Italian cuisine.
Pasta, vegetables, olive oil and fish are a major part of the Italian cuisine.
chosen_Italian_cuisine_0
Italian cuisine
chosen_topic_0_Italian_cuisine
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine is food typical from Italy. It has developed through centuries of social and economic changes, with roots stretching to antiquity. Significant changes occurred with the discovery of the New World and the introduction of potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, maize and sugar beet, this last introduced in quantity in the 18th century. Italian cuisine is known for its regional diversity, especially between the north and the south of the Italian peninsula. It offers an abundance of taste, and is one of the most popular and copied in the world. It influenced several cuisines around the world chiefly that of the United States.
Pasta
Pasta () is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, with the first reference dating to 1154 in Sicily. Also commonly used to refer to the variety of pasta dishes, pasta is typically a noodle made from an unleavened dough of a durum wheat flour mixed with water or eggs and formed into sheets or various shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. As an alternative for those wanting a different taste, or who need to avoid products containing gluten, some pastas can be made using rice flour in place of wheat. Pastas may be divided into two broad categories, dried ("pasta secca") and fresh ("pasta fresca").
Mediterranean cuisine
Mediterranean cuisine is the foods and methods of preparation by people of the Mediterranean Basin region, especially those of Southern Europe. The idea of a Mediterranean cuisine originates with the cookery writer Elizabeth David's book, "A Book of Mediterranean Food" (1950). She and other writers including the Tunisian historian Mohamed Yassine Essid define the three core elements of the cuisine as the olive, wheat, and the grape, yielding olive oil, bread and pasta, and wine; other writers emphasize the diversity of the region's foods and deny that it is a useful concept. The geographical area covered broadly follows the distribution of the olive tree, as noted by David and Essid.
Olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of "Olea europaea"; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The oil is produced by pressing whole olives. It is commonly used in cooking, whether for frying or as a salad dressing. It is also used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps, and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps, and has additional uses in some religions. There is limited evidence of its possible health benefits. The olive is one of three core food plants in Mediterranean cuisine; the other two are wheat and grapes. Olive trees have been grown around the Mediterranean since the 8th millennium BC.
Israeli cuisine
The Israeli cuisine ( "ha-mitbach ha-yisra’eli") comprises local dishes by people native to Israel and dishes brought to Israel by Jews from the Diaspora. Since before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, an Israeli Jewish fusion cuisine has developed. Israeli cuisine has adopted, and continues to adapt, elements of various styles of Jewish cuisine, particularly the Mizrahi, Sephardic and Ashkenazi styles of cooking. It incorporates many foods traditionally eaten in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines, and foods such as falafel, hummus, msabbha, shakshouka, couscous, and za'atar are now widely popular in Israel.
Arab cuisine
Arab cuisine () is the cuisine of the Arabs, defined as the various regional cuisines spanning the Arab world, from the Maghreb to the Fertile Crescent and the Arabian Peninsula. The cuisines are often centuries old and reflect the culture of great trading in spices, herbs, and foods. The three main regions, also known as the Maghreb, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arabian Peninsula have many similarities, but also many unique traditions. These kitchens have been influenced by the climate, cultivating possibilities, as well as trading possibilities. The kitchens of the Maghreb and Levant are relatively young kitchens that were developed over the past centuries.
Tomato sauce
Tomato sauce (also known as Neapolitan sauce, and referred to in Italy as Salsa di pomodoro) refers to any of a very large number of sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish (rather than as a condiment). Tomato sauces are common for meat and vegetables, but they are perhaps best known as sauces for pasta dishes. Tomatoes have a rich flavor, high liquid content, very soft flesh which breaks down easily, and the right composition to thicken into a sauce when they are cooked (without the need of thickeners such as roux). All of these qualities make them ideal for simple and appealing sauces.
1_Apprentice
I usually like tomato sauce-based dishes.  Do you cook it yourself unusually?
0_Wizard
Yeah I make all my food myself, I try to avoid processed food and stick to the traditional Mediterranean diet.
Italian cuisine is probably the most important expression of the Mediterranean diet.
chosen_Italian_cuisine_0
Italian cuisine
chosen_topic_0_Italian_cuisine
Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of Greece, Southern Italy, and Spain in the 1940s and 1950s. The principal aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits, and vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of non-fish meat products. There is some evidence that the Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of heart disease and early death. Olive oil may be the main health-promoting component of the diet.
Mediterranean cuisine
Mediterranean cuisine is the foods and methods of preparation by people of the Mediterranean Basin region, especially those of Southern Europe. The idea of a Mediterranean cuisine originates with the cookery writer Elizabeth David's book, "A Book of Mediterranean Food" (1950). She and other writers including the Tunisian historian Mohamed Yassine Essid define the three core elements of the cuisine as the olive, wheat, and the grape, yielding olive oil, bread and pasta, and wine; other writers emphasize the diversity of the region's foods and deny that it is a useful concept. The geographical area covered broadly follows the distribution of the olive tree, as noted by David and Essid.
Mediterranean Diet Foundation
The Mediterranean Diet Foundation (Fundación Dieta Mediterránea, F.D.M.) is a non-profit organization based in Barcelona that aims to promote the study, investigation and dissemination of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Its mission is to promote investigation of the health, historical, cultural and gastronomical aspects of the Mediterranean diet. Another of the Foundation’s objectives is the dissemination of scientific findings about the diet and the promotion of its healthful use among different population groups. A group of companies from the food and agriculture sector wished to alert the public of the risks of abandoning healthy eating patterns, especially for children.
Obesity in Mexico
Obesity in Mexico is a relatively recent phenomenon, having been widespread since the 1980s with the introduction of processed food into much of the Mexican food market. Prior to that, dietary issues were limited to under and malnutrition, which is still a problem in various parts of the country. Following trends already ongoing in other parts of the world, Mexicans have been foregoing traditional whole grains and vegetables in favor of a diet with more animal products, more fat, and more sugar much of which is a consequence of processed food. It has seen dietary energy intake and rates of overweight and obese people rise with seven out of ten at least overweight and a third clinically obese.
Trans fat
Trans fat, or trans-unsaturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, are a type of unsaturated fat that occur in small amounts in nature, but became widely produced industrially from vegetable fats for use in margarine, snack food, packaged baked goods, and frying fast food starting in the 1950s. Trans fat has been shown to consistently be associated, in an intake-dependent way, with increased risk of coronary artery disease, a leading cause of death in Western nations. Fats contain long hydrocarbon chains, which can either be unsaturated, i.e., have double bonds, or saturated, i.e., have no double bonds.
Human nutrition
Human nutrition deals with the provision of essential nutrients in food that are necessary to support human life and health. Generally, people can survive up to 40 days without food, a period largely dependent on the amount of water consumed, stored body fat, muscle mass and genetic factors. Poor nutrition is a chronic problem often linked to poverty, a poor understanding of nutrition and dietary practices, and deficient sanitation and food security. Malnutrition and its consequences are large contributors to deaths and disabilities worldwide. Good nutrition helps children grow physically, promotes human biological development and helps in the eradication of poverty.
Seven Countries Study
The Seven Countries Study is an epidemiological longitudinal study directed by Ancel Keys at what is today the University of Minnesota Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene & Exercise Science (LPHES). Begun in 1956 with a yearly grant of US$200,000 from the U.S. Public Health Service, the study was first published in 1978 and then followed up on its subjects every five years thereafter. As the world's first multicountry epidemiological study, it systematically examined the relationships between lifestyle, diet, coronary heart disease and stroke in different populations from different regions of the world.
1_Apprentice
Sounds healthy... I have a chef friend and we both agree that I'm a culinary moron.  It's the microwave for me...
0_Wizard
Well I do appreciate your honesty. Perhaps he could help you by teaching you some Italian dishes, they are simple after all.
Italian cuisine is characterized by its simplicity, with many dishes having only two to four main ingredients.
chosen_Italian_cuisine_0
Italian cuisine
chosen_topic_0_Italian_cuisine
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David, CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes. Born to an upper-class family, David rebelled against social norms of the day. In the 1930s she studied art in Paris, became an actress, and ran off with a married man with whom she sailed in a small boat to Italy, where their boat was confiscated. They reached Greece, where they were nearly trapped by the German invasion in 1941, but escaped to Egypt, where they parted.
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine is food typical from Italy. It has developed through centuries of social and economic changes, with roots stretching to antiquity. Significant changes occurred with the discovery of the New World and the introduction of potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, maize and sugar beet, this last introduced in quantity in the 18th century. Italian cuisine is known for its regional diversity, especially between the north and the south of the Italian peninsula. It offers an abundance of taste, and is one of the most popular and copied in the world. It influenced several cuisines around the world chiefly that of the United States.
Indonesian cuisine
Indonesian cuisine is one of the most vibrant and colourful cuisines in the world, full of intense flavour. It is eclectic and diverse, in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 populated islands of the total 17,508 in the world's largest archipelago, with more than 300 ethnic groups calling Indonesia home. Many regional cuisines exist, often based upon indigenous culture and foreign influences. Indonesia has around 5,350 traditional recipes, with 30 of them considered the most important. Indonesia's cuisine may include rice, noodle and soup dishes in modest local eateries to street-side snacks and top-dollar plates.
Polish cuisine
Polish cuisine is a style of cooking and food preparation originating in or widely popular in Poland. Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become very eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Slavic countries, especially neighboring Czech and Slovak. It has also been widely influenced by other Central European cuisines, namely German, Austrian and Hungarian cuisines as well as Jewish, French, Turkish and Italian culinary traditions. It is rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish "bigos"), spices, and herbs.
Culture of the United States
The culture of the United States of America is primarily Western, but is influenced by African, Native American, Asian, Polynesian, and Latin American cultures. It also has its own social and cultural characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore. The United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as a result of large-scale migration from many countries throughout its history. Many American cultural elements, especially from popular culture, have spread across the globe through modern mass media. America stands as the most prominent cultural force today.
Michael Carlson
Michael Carlson (born June 5, 1974) is a chef and restaurateur from Chicago, Illinois. After dropping out of culinary school, Carlson got his start in the industry working under Paul Bartolotta. From there he studied abroad in Italy under Valentino Marcattilii, and in England under Heston Blumenthal. Carlson says he learned more from American chef Grant Achatz than anyone else. In late 2005 Carlson opened his first restaurant – Schwa – in Chicago. He quickly earned a positive reputation and "Food & Wine" magazine named him one of 2006's top new chefs. In 2007, Carlson was asked to host a gathering of world-famous chefs including Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and Pierre Hermé for Charlie Trotter's 20th anniversary celebration.
Regional cuisines of medieval Europe
The regional cuisines of medieval Europe were the results of differences in climate, seasonal food variations, political administration and religious customs that varied across the continent. Though sweeping generalizations should be avoided, more or less distinct areas where certain foodstuffs dominated can be discerned. In the British Isles, northern France, the Low Countries, the northern German-speaking areas, Scandinavia and the Baltic the climate was generally too harsh for the cultivation of grapes and olives. In the south, wine was the common drink for both rich and poor alike (though the commoner usually had to settle for cheap second pressing wine) while beer was the commoner's drink in the north and wine an expensive import.
1_Apprentice
Does the diet you mention help one to lose weight?