Cuisine of the Mediterranean

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Mediterranean cuisine is the cuisine of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea.

Whether this is a useful category is disputed. Zubaida writes, for example:

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... (Zubaida, 1994)

Given the geography, these nation-states have influenced each other over time and the cooking evolved into sharing common principles. The Mediterranean Cuisine is characterized by its flexibility, its range of ingredients and its many regional variations. The terrain has tended to favour the raising of goats and sheep.

Fish dishes are also common, although today most of the fish is imported since the Mediterranean Sea has been overfished. Seafood is still prominent in many of the standard recipes.

Olive oil, produced from the olive trees prominent throughout Spain, Greece, Italy, and other Mediterranean nations, adds to the distinctive taste of Greek food.

It is believed this kind of cooking, especially olive oil, is one of the factors responsible to the longevity of the Mediterranean people.^{[citation needed]}Barbeque or grilled meats, pita bread, hummus, and falafel are very popular forms of the eastern type of the cuisine.

[edit] Bibliography

Sami Zubaida, "National, Communcal and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures" in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, London and New York, 1994 and 2000, ISBN 1-86064-603-4.