Historic Overview

Cultural Overview

Recipies:

• Azerbaijan
  

• Saudi Arabia

CULTURE OF FOOD

The goal of these pages is to introduce you to two Oriental Cuisines: Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia. You will learn about two countries eating habits, typical dishes and traditions, connected with food. You will find also some traditional recipies that can be reproduced in non-traditional setting.

Consumption of food is a vital part of man's life. People of different national and social backgrounds eat differently. The basic stuff food is prepared from; the ways in which it is preserved, cut up, cooked; the amount and variety at each meal; the tastes that are liked and disliked; the customs of serving food; the utensils; the beliefs about the food's properties -these all vary. Food habits vary from culture to culture. Within the same culture there are differences in social situations: when different occupations and classes eat differently, people on festive occasions, in mourning, or on a daily routine eat again differently. Different religious sects have different eating codes. Food concept is a cultural category and national cuisine is the reflection of people's nature, history, customs and traditions. Being part of the nation's culture, food habits represent national identity for the group of people who share this similarity. The food style of a culture is certainly first of all determined by the natural resources that are available for its use.

Today food serves less and less as a socially unifying event. Meals are no longer at the center of family or community life. In modern industrial societies, few people procure and prepare their food from scratch. As a result, people are becoming more distant from food, even as food becomes ever more abundant. But the truth is that some of them require only slightly more effort than meals out of packages. At time of fast food chains and industrialization of food there are people who are still enchanted with food through social, religious and cultural meaning, live in traditions and customs. Two countries presented on these pages have much in common in terms of religious, social and cultural impact on their eating habits.