Figs grow on the Ficus tree ( Ficus carica ), which is a member of the Mulberry family. Ficus carica is an Asian species of flowering plants in the mulberry family, known as the common fig. Wild fig trees first grew in Africa and West Asia and South Asia and around the Mediterranean Sea beginning … Read more
Beer is the world’s most widely consumed alcoholic beverage. Beer is the 3rd most popular drink overall, after water and tea. Beer is one of the world’s oldest prepared beverages, possibly dating back to the early Neolithic or 9500 BC. In Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq) the Sumer people, about 4000 BC in the middle east were … Read more
A pancake is a flat cake, often thin, and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may also contain eggs, milk and butter and fried on both sides in a pan, often with oil or butter. The Ancient Greeks made pancakes called tagenias (τηγανίτης) meaning “frying pan“. The earliest attested references on tagenias (pancakes) are … Read more
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to, as it is the type of honey collected by most beekeepers and consumed by people. Honeys are also produced by bumblebees, stingless bees, and other hymenopteran insects such as honey … Read more
Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine. Some researchers place its discovery in the XIII Century by Marco Polo, who introduced the pasta in Italy upon returning from one of his trips to China in 1271. On chapter CLXXI from the “Books of the World’s Wonders”, Marco Polo makes a reference to the … Read more
Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes or other fruits (rarely). Wine is made with grapes, but not typical table grapes you’ll find at the grocery. Wine grapes (latin name: Vitis vinifera) have thick skins, are small, sweet, and contain seeds. There are many different kinds of wine grapes–over a thousand. It is … Read more
Caviar is an expensive delicacy consisting of salt-cured fish-eggs of the Acipenseridae family. The roe can be “fresh” or pasteurized, with pasteurization reducing its culinary and economic value. The term caviar traditionally refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspian and Black Sea (Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga caviars). Depending on the country, caviar … Read more
The scientific name for the tree that chocolate comes from, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.” The smell of chocolate increases theta brain waves, which triggers relaxation. Chocolate has over 600 flavor compounds, while red wine has 200. It takes approximately 400 cacao beans to make one pound (450 gr.) of chocolate. Chocolate is … Read more
The word cheese comes from Latin caseus, from which the modern word casein is also derived. The earliest source is from the proto-Indo-European root *kwat-, which means “to ferment, become sour”. There is no exact information regarding the origin of cheese, archaeological studies have shown the origin of cheese dates as far back as 6000 … Read more