Food Terminology #1

1. Chocolate

Chocolate is generally given as a gift or a gift at the festival. With unique shapes, styles and flavors, chocolate is often used as an expression of gratitude, sympathy, or concern even as a statement of love. Chocolate has also become one of the most popular flavors in the world. In addition to consumed most commonly in the form of chocolate bars, chocolate also becomes a hot and cold beverage.

Chocolate is produced from cocoa (Theobroma cacao) which is predicted to grow first in the northern Amazon region to Central America. Probably to Chiapas, the southernmost part of Mexico. The Olmecs made use of the trees and, perhaps also, made "chocolate" along the Gulf coast in southern Mexico. The earliest documentation on chocolate was found in its use at a chocolate-processing site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras around 1100 -1400 BC. The residue obtained from these processing tanks indicates that initially the use of cocoa is not intended to make drinks alone, but the white selectivity of cocoa beans is more likely to be used as a source of sugar for alcoholic beverages.

The seeds of the cocoa tree itself are very bitter and must be fermented so that the taste can be obtained. After baked and powdered the result is chocolate or cocoa. It is estimated that Mayan chocolate drinking habits began around 450 BC - 500 BC. That said, consumption of chocolate is considered a symbol of important status at that time. Maya tribe consume chocolate in the form of a bubbly liquid sprinkled with red pepper, vanilla, or other spices. Xocoatl drinks are also believed to be a tranquilizer, a belief that may be caused by theobromin content in it.

Chocolate also became a luxury in the time of Colombian-Meso America, in their culture of the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec cocoa beans (cacao bean) is often used as currency. For example the Aztec Indians use a calculation system in which one turkey chicken costs one hundred cocoa beans and one avocado for three cocoa beans. In 1544 AD, Maya Kekchi delegates from Guatemala who visited the Spanish court brought gifts, among them chocolate drinks.

At the beginning of the 17th century, chocolate became a popular refreshing drink in the Spanish palace. Throughout the century, chocolate spread among the European elite, then through a democratic process the price became quite cheap, and by the end of the century it became a drink enjoyed by the merchant class. Approximately 100 years after its publication in Europe, so famous chocolate in London, to establish a "brown house" to store cooking goods, starting in coffee houses. The first brown house opened in 1657. And the first chocolate ice recipe was known to have originated from England in 1668.

source : https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cokelat

2. Kue Lapis

Kue lapis is Indonesian kue, or a traditional snack of colourful layered soft rice flour pudding. In Indonesian languange lapis means "layers". This steamed layered cake or pudding is quite popular in Indonesia, and also can be found in the Netherlands through their colonial links. Kue lapis is also very popular in neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei where it is called kuih lapis.

This snack usually consists of two alternating coloured layers, thus the name of the cake. The cake is made of rice flour, sago, coconut milk, sugar, salt, and food couloring. Popular food colouring includes green-coloured pandan and red rozen food colouring. This cake is steamed gradually, and layers are subsequently added in alternating order to avoid different colours mixing together. This method will create layered pudding-cake.

Kue lapis is similar to lapis legit or spekkoek, the difference being that lapis legit is a puffy layered cake, made of flour and is baked, while kue lapis is a moist layered pudding, made of rice flour and sago, and is steamed.

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kue_lapis

3. Perkedel

Perkedel, bergedel or begedil is Indonesian fried patties, made of ground potatoes, minced meat, peeled and ground corn or tofu, or minced fish. Most common perkedel are made from mashed potatoes, yet there are other popular variants which includes perkedel jagung (peeled maize perkedel) and perkedel tahu (tofu perkedel) and perkedel ikan (minced fish). Throughout most of Indonesia it is called perkedel; however, it is called begedil in Javanese, and also called that way in Malaysia and Singapore, which indicate that this fried food was introduced by Javanese immigrants to Malaysia and Singapore.

Perkedel is believed to be derived from Dutch frikadeller, which is actually a Danish meatball or minced meat dish. This was owed to Indonesian historical and colonial link to the Netherlands. Unlike frikadeller, the perkedel's main ingredient is not meat, but mashed potato.

Prior to mashing, the potato slices, however, are not boiled as that can cause the perkedel to be too mushy, but deep fried or baked instead. The mashed fried potato is mixed, as much as 1:1 ratio, with ground meat or corned beef. However, sometimes common perkedel contains less or no meat at all. The mixture is then mixed with chopped scallion and seasoned with white pepper powder, then shaped into flat round patties and dipped in egg yolk or beaten egg, before being deep fried.

Other than mashed potato, cabe rawit, spring onion, shrimp, peeled corn, or mashed tofu fritters are also common as perkedel ingredients.

Perkedel is a popular dish, either for a side dish or an appetizer. In Indonesia, it is usually served with nasi kuning as part of tumpeng, soto ayam chicken soup to common sayur sop (vegetable-chicken soup). 

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkedel

4. Baguette

A baguette (/bæˈɡɛt/; French: [baˈɡɛt]) is a long, thin loaf of French bread that is commonly made from basic lean dough (the dough, though not the shape, is defined by French law). It is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust.

A baguette has a diameter of about 5 or 6 centimetres (2 or 2⅓ in) and a usual length of about 65 centimetres (26 in), although a baguette can be up to a metre (39 in) long.

The word "baguette" was not used to refer to a type of bread until 1920, but what is now known as a baguette may have existed well before that date. The word simply means "wand", "baton" or "stick", as in baguette magique (magic wand), baguettes chinoises(chopsticks), or baguette de direction (conductor's baton).

Though the baguette today is often considered one of the symbols of French culture viewed from abroad, the association of France with long loaves predates any mention of it. Long, if wide, loaves had been made since the time of King Louis XIV, long thin ones since the mid-eighteenth century and by the nineteenth century some were far longer than the baguette: "... loaves of bread six feet long that look like crowbars!" (1862); "Housemaids were hurrying homewards with their purchases for various Gallic breakfasts, and the long sticks of bread, a yard or two in length, carried under their arms, made an odd impression upon me." (1898)

A less direct link can be made however with deck ovens, or steam ovens. Deck/steam ovens are a combination of a gas-fired traditional oven and a brick oven, a thick "deck" of stone or firebrick heated by natural gas instead of wood. The first steam oven was brought (in the early nineteenth century) to Paris by the Austrian officer August Zang, who also introduced Vienna bread (pain viennois) and the croissant, and whom some French sources thus credit with originating the baguette.

Deck ovens use steam injection, through various methods, to create the proper baguette. The oven is typically heated to well over 200 °C (390 °F). The steam allows the crust to expand before setting, thus creating a lighter, airier loaf. It also melts the dextrose on the bread's surface, giving a slightly glazed effect.

An unsourced article in The Economist states that in October 1920 a law prevented bakers from working before 4 a.m., making it impossible to make traditional round loaves in time for customers' breakfasts. Switching from the round loaf to the previously-less-common slender shape of the baguette, the article claims, solved the problem, because it could be prepared and baked much more quickly.

The rest of the account remains to be verified, but the use of the word for a long thin bread does appear to be a twentieth century innovation.

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baguette

5. Pancake

A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying with oil or butter. In Britain, pancakes are often unleavened and resemble a crêpe. In North America, a leavening agent is used (typically baking powder). American pancakes are similar to Scotch pancakes or drop scones. Archaeological evidence suggests that pancakes were probably the earliest and most widespread cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies.

The pancake's shape and structure varies worldwide. A crêpe is a thin Breton pancake of French origin cooked on one or both sides in a special pan or crepe maker to achieve a lacelike network of fine bubbles. A well-known variation originating from southeast Europe is a palačinke, a thin moist pancake fried on both sides and filled with jam, cheese cream, chocolate, or ground walnuts, but many other fillings—sweet or savoury—can also be used. When potato is used as a major portion of the batter, the result is a potato pancake. Commercially prepared pancake mixes are available in some countries.

Pancakes may be served at any time of the day with a variety of toppings or fillings including jam, fruit, syrup, chocolate chips, or meat, but in America they are typically considered a breakfast food. Pancakes serve a similar function to waffles. In Britain and the Commonwealth, they are associated with Shrove Tuesday, commonly known as "Pancake Day", when, historically, perishable ingredients had to be used up before the fasting period of Lent.

The Ancient Greeks made pancakes called τηγανίτης (tēganitēs), ταγηνίτης (tagēnitēs) or ταγηνίας (tagēnias), all words deriving from τάγηνον (tagēnon), "frying pan". The earliest attested references to tagenias are in the works of the 5th-century BC poets Cratinus and Magnes. Tagenites were made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey, and curdled milk, and were served for breakfast. Another kind of pancake was σταιτίτης (staititēs), from σταίτινος (staitinos), "of flour or dough of spelt", derived from σταῖς (stais), "flour of spelt". Athenaeus mentions, in his Deipnosophistae, staititas topped with honey, sesame, and cheese. The Middle English word pancake appears in English in the 15th century.

The Ancient Romans called their fried concoctions alia dulcia, Latin for "other sweets". These were much different from what are known as pancakes today.

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake

6. Hamburger

Prior to the disputed invention of the hamburger in the United States, similar foods already existed in the culinary tradition of Europe. The Apicius cookbook, a collection of ancient Roman recipes that may date to the early 4th century, details a preparation of beef called isicia omentata; served as a baked patty in which beef is mixed with pine kernels, black and green peppercorns, and white wine, isicia omentata may be the earliest precursor to the hamburger. In the 12th century, the nomadic Mongols carried food made of several varieties of milk and meat (horse or camel).  During the life of their leader Genghis Khan (1167–1227), the Mongol army occupied the western portions of the modern-day nations of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, forming the so-called Golden Horde. This cavalry dominated army was fast moving and sometimes unable to stop for a meal, so they often ate while riding. They wrapped a few slices of meat under their saddles so it would crumble under pressure and motion and be cooked by heat and friction. This recipe for minced meat spread throughout the Mongol Empire until its split in the 1240s. It was common for Mongol armies to follow different groups of animals (such as herds of horses or oxen or flocks of sheep) that provided the necessary protein for the warriors' diets. Marco Polo also recorded descriptions of the culinary customs of the Mongol warriors, indicating that the flesh of a single pony could provide one day's sustenance for 100 warriors.

When Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan (1215–1294) invaded Moscow, he and his warriors introduced minced horsemeat to the Muscovites. This was later called steak tartare. The city states of what is now Germany took to this ground meat product and created many of their own dishes by adding capers, onions and even caviar to the blend and selling it on the streets. It is not known when the first restaurant recipe for steak tartare appeared. While not providing a clear name, the first description of steak tartare was given by Jules Verne in 1875 in his novel Michael Strogoff. There are certain similarities between steak tartare and the German dishes Labskaus and Mett. Other similar raw, chopped meats appeared in the 20th century, such as the Italian carpaccio, which itself was invented in 1930 at Harry's Bar in Venice. Similarly, one of the oldest references to a Hamburgh Sausage appeared in 1763 in the cookbook entitled Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse (1708–1770). Hamburgh Sausage is made with minced meat and a variety of spices, including nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, garlic, and salt, and is typically served with toast. A wide variety of traditional European dishes are also made with minced meat, such as meatloaf, the Serbian pljeskavica, the Arab kofta, and meatballs.

While ground beef was used by various cultures in Europe and Central Asia, the hamburger's other vital ingredient, bread, has a different history. Bread had always been part of the development of many types of foods, including sauces, such as those described by Marie-Antoine Carême in his compendium entitled L'art de la cuisine française au XIXe siècle. The word sandwichwas not recorded until the 18th century. Many cultures claim invention of the sandwich, but it was given its name around the year 1765 in honor of the English aristocrat John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who preferred to eat sandwiches so he could play cards without soiling his fingers. However, it was not until 1840 when Elizabeth Leslie Cook included a sandwich recipe in her cookbook that it appeared in the local cuisine of the United States.

The exact origin of the hamburger may never be known with any certainty. Most historians believe that it was invented by a cook who placed a Hamburg steak between two slices of bread in a small town in Texas, and others credit the founder of White Castle for developing the "Hamburger Sandwich." Records from that time are scarce, however.

All claims for invention occur between 1885 and 1904, making it probable that the hamburger was created sometime in these two decades. Despite varieties, there are common elements in all of the narratives, most notably that the hamburger was born as a food associated with major events such as amusement parks, fairs, conferences, and festivals. All the hypotheses also share the presence of street vendors.

One of the first "birth of the burger" stories belongs to Canton, Ohio natives Frank and Charles Menches who were food vendors at the 1885 Erie County Fair, also known as the Hamburg Fair. Legend has it that during the course of the Fair, the Menches ran out of their signature menu item of pork sausage sandwiches. Their local supplier, Hamburg butcher Andrew Klein, was reluctant to butcher more hogs during a period of unseasonable late summer heat and suggested to substitute the use of ground beef. The brothers fired some up, but both found it dry and bland. They added coffee, brown sugar and other ingredients to create a unique taste. The original sandwiches were sold with just ketchup and sliced onions. With new found success with their beef sandwich, they christened it the “hamburger” after the Erie County Fair’s home town of Hamburg. "National Birth of the Burger Day" is celebrated on September 18th to honor the invention of the burger in 1885 at the Hamburg Fair. In the 1920s, carnival historian John C. Kunzog interviewed Frank Menches about his experience at the Erie County Fair. His detailed hamburger story was published in this book, “Tanbark & Tinsel” published in 1970.

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_hamburger

7. Waffle

A waffle is a dish made from leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron and recipe used. Waffles are eaten throughout the world, particularly in Belgium, which has over a dozen regional varieties. Waffles may be made fresh or simply heated after having been commercially precooked and frozen.

Waffles are preceded, in the early Middle Ages, around the period of the 9th–10th centuries, with the simultaneous emergence of fer à hosties / hostieijzers (communion wafer irons) and moule à oublies (wafer irons). While the communion wafer irons typically depicted imagery of Jesus and his crucifixion, the moule à oublies featured more trivial Biblical scenes or simple, emblematic designs. The format of the iron itself was almost always round and considerably larger than those used for communion.

The oublie was, in its basic form, composed only of grain flour and water – just as was the communion wafer. It took until the 11th century, as a product of The Crusades bringing new culinary ingredients to Western Europe, for flavorings such as orange blossom water to be added to the oublies; however, locally sourced honey and other flavorings may have already been in use before that time.

Oublies, not formally named as such until ca. 1200, spread throughout northwestern continental Europe, eventually leading to the formation of the oublieurs guild in 1270. These oublieurs/obloyers were responsible for not only producing the oublies but also for a number of other contemporaneous and subsequent pâtisseries légères (light pastries), including the waffles that were soon to arise.

Waffles remained widely popular in Europe for the first half of the 19th century, despite the 1806 British Atlantic naval blockade that greatly inflated the price of sugar. This coincided with the commercial production of beet sugar in continental Europe, which, in a matter of decades, had brought the price down to historical lows. Within the transitional period from cane to beet sugar, Florian Dacher formalized a recipe for the Brussels Waffle, the predecessor to American "Belgian" waffles, recording the recipe in 1842/43. Stroopwafels (Dutch syrup wafels), too, rose to prominence in the Netherlands by the middle of the century. However, by the second half of the 1800s, inexpensive beet sugar became widely available, and a wide range of pastries, candies and chocolates were now accessible to the middle class, as never before; waffles' popularity declined rapidly.

By the early 20th century, waffle recipes became rare in recipe books, and only 29 professional waffle craftsmen, the oublieurs, remained in Paris. Waffles were shifting from a predominately street-vendor-based product to an increasingly homemade product, aided by the 1918 introduction of GE's first electric commercial waffle maker. By the mid-1930s, dry pancake/waffle mix had been marketed by a number of companies, including Aunt Jemima, Bisquick, and a team of three brothers from San Jose, Calif. – the Dorsas. It is the Dorsas who would go on to innovate commercial production of frozen waffles, which they began selling under the name "Eggo" in 1953.

Belgian-style waffles were showcased at Expo 58 in Brussels. Another Belgian introduced Belgian-style waffles to the United States at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, but only really took hold at the 1964 New York World's Fair, when another Belgian entrepreneur introduced his "Bel-Gem" waffles. In practice, contemporary American "Belgian waffles" are actually a hybrid of pre-existing American waffle types and ingredients and some attributes of the Belgian model.

Even as most of the original recipes have faded from use, a number of the 18th and 19th century varieties can still be easily found throughout Northern Europe, where they were first developed.

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle

8. Acar

Acar is a type of vegetable pickle made in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. It is a localised version of the Mughlai Achaar. It is known as atjar in Dutch cuisine, derived from Indonesian acar. Acar is usually prepared in bulk as it may easily be stored in a well-sealed glass jar in refrigerator for a week, and served as the condiment for any meals.

The Southeast Asian variations are usually made from different vegetables such as cucumber, carrots, cabbage, shallot, bird's eye chiliand yardlong beans, which are pickled in vinegar, sometimes added with kaffir lime to add citrus aroma, and also dried chillies. Some recipes might have the vegetables tossed in ground peanuts. Acar is commonly served as a condiment to be eaten with a main course, such as nasi goreng (fried rice), satay, and almost all varieties of soto. Just like common pickles, the sour taste of acar is meant to freshen up a meal, especially fishy dishes such as ikan bakar (grilled fish) or the rich and oily dish such as mutton satay to neutralize the fat.

In Indonesia, acar is commonly made from small chunks of cucumber, carrot, shallot, bird's eye chili and occasionally pineapple, and marinated in a sweet and sour solution of sugar and vinegar. Some households add lemongrass or ginger to spice it up. It is usually used as condiment to accompany grilled foods such as satay. Nevertheless, acar is can also be consumed as a whole, complete dish. For example, ikan acar kuning is a fish dish (gourami, mackerel or tilapia) served in acar pickles of cucumber, carrot, shallot and red chili, mixed with yellow spice paste made of ground turmeric, candlenut, ginger, garlic and shallot. It is known as atjar (pickle) in Dutch cuisine, derived from Indonesian acar, since the Netherlands and Indonesia share colonial ties.

Variations of Malaysian acar include Acar Awak or Nyonya acar and Malay acar. Acar Awak is more elaborate, containing additional vegetables such as eggplants as well as aromatic spices in the pickling mix.

The salad has also been adopted into Thai cuisine where it is called achat (Thai: อาจาด, pronounced [ʔāː.t͡ɕàːt]). It is made with cucumber, red chilies, red onions or shallots, vinegar, sugar and salt. It is served as a side dish with the Thai version of satay (Thai: สะเต๊ะ).

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acar

9. Taco

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, vegetables, and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. A taco is generally eaten without utensils and is often accompanied by garnishes such as salsa, chili pepper, avocado, guacamole, cilantro(coriander), tomatoes, onions, and lettuce.

The origins of the taco are not precisely known, and etymologies for the culinary usage of the word are generally theoretical. According to the Real Academia Española, publisher of Diccionario de la Lengua Española, the word taco describes a typical Mexican dish of a maizetortilla folded around food. This meaning of the Spanish word "taco" is a Mexican innovation, but in other dialects "taco" is used to mean "wedge; wad, plug; billiard cue; blowpipe; ramrod; short, stocky person; [or] short, thick piece of wood." As used in this non-culinary way, the word "taco" has cognates in other European languages, including the French word "tache" and the English word "tack (nail)."

According to one etymological theory, the culinary meaning of "taco" derives from its "plug" meaning as employed among Mexican silver miners, who used explosive charges in plug form consisting of a paper wrapper and gunpowder filling.

Indigenous origins for the culinary word "taco" are also proposed. One possibility is that the word derives from the Nahuatl word "tlahco", meaning "half" or "in the middle," in the sense that food would be placed in the middle of a tortilla. Furthermore, dishes analogous to the taco were known to have existed in Pre-Columbian society—for example, the Náhuatl word "tlaxcalli" (a type of corn tortilla).

The taco predates the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico. There is anthropological evidence that the indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate tacos filled with small fish. Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented the first taco feast enjoyed by Europeans, a meal which Hernán Cortés arranged for his captains in Coyoacán. 

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco

10. Sandwich

A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein two or more pieces of bread serve as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a portable finger food in the Western world, though over time it has become prevalent worldwide.

Sandwiches are a popular type of lunch food, taken to work, school, or picnics to be eaten as part of a packed lunch. The bread can be either plain, or coated with condiments such as mayonnaise or mustard, to enhance its flavour and texture. As well as being homemade, sandwiches are also widely sold in restaurants and can be served hot or cold. There are both savoury sandwiches, such as deli meat sandwiches, and sweet sandwiches, such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The sandwich is considered to have been named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, the inventor, it is claimed, of this food combination. The Wall Street Journal has described it as Britain's "biggest contribution to gastronomy".

The modern concept of a sandwich using slices of bread as found within the West can arguably be traced to 18th century Europe. However, the use of some kind of bread or bread-like substance to lie under (or under and over) some other food, or used to scoop up and enclose or wrap some other type of food, long predates the eighteenth century, and is found in numerous much older cultures worldwide.

The ancient Jewish sage Hillel the Elder is said to have wrapped meat from the Paschal lamb and bitter herbs between two pieces of old-fashioned soft matzah—flat, unleavened bread—during Passover in the manner of a modern wrap made with flatbread. Flat breads of only slightly varying kinds have long been used to scoop or wrap small amounts of food en route from platter to mouth throughout Western Asia and northern Africa. From Morocco to Ethiopia to India, bread is baked in flat rounds, contrasting with the European loaf tradition.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, thick slabs of coarse and usually stale bread, called "trenchers", were used as plates. After a meal, the food-soaked trencher was fed to a dog or to beggars at the tables of the wealthy, and eaten by diners in more modest circumstances. The immediate culinary precursor with a direct connection to the English sandwich was to be found in the Netherlands of the seventeenth century, where the naturalist John Ray observed that in the taverns beef hung from the rafters "which they cut into thin slices and eat with bread and butter laying the slices upon the butter"— explanatory specifications that reveal the Dutch belegde broodje, open-faced sandwich, was as yet unfamiliar in England.

Initially perceived as food that men shared while gaming and drinking at night, the sandwich slowly began appearing in polite society as a late-night meal among the aristocracy. The sandwich's popularity in Spain and England increased dramatically during the nineteenth century, when the rise of industrial society and the working classes made fast, portable, and inexpensive meals essential. In London, for example, at least seventy street vendors were selling ham sandwiches by 1850; during that decade sandwich bars also became an important form of eating establishment in western Holland, typically serving liver and salt beef sandwiches.

At the same time that the European-style sandwich finally began to appear outside of Europe. In the United States, the sandwich was first promoted as an elaborate meal at supper. By the early twentieth century, as bread became a staple of the American diet, the sandwich became the same kind of popular, quick meal as was already widespread in the Mediterranean.

source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich