Just this past spring break I went to Florida with my family. We tried lots of new things like kayaking in the swampy blackwater rivers of the Florida panhandle. Being in Florida we were really excited to try some sea food. As you can imagine sea food in Iowa is not all that fresh and consequently not all that tasty either. However, in Niceville Florida the sea food is fresh caught and tasty. I tried many different fish and sea creatures I had not had before. These included crab cakes, shrimp pasta, salmon, and trout. Though weary at first of ordering them, I found that they tasted really good. They didn't taste nearly as fishy as I had imagined.
My sister a few years ago traveled to Spain and found that the things they eat there are very, very different than the foods we eat here. Especially in the way they are cooked. Though we eat octopus here, it's called Calamari and is heavily breaded and dipped in different flavoring sauces. At my sister's homestay house her mother cooked squid whole. She plopped the big octopus right into the boiling pot of water and when it was done chopped the tentacles into bits, and that's what was for dinner. My sister was also served partridge. My sister said that the bird was cooked whole, complete with feet which are a delicacy. The part of the bird everyone wants, sort of like the turkey drumstick, I suppose.
Culture is what determines the varied diets of different countries. What a group eats and a group's cooking methods get passed on through generations and are shared with neighbors. Overtime geographical areas develop their own particular "food culture". Then we start associating certain foods with certain geographical places. For example, we say "Let's go eat Mexican tonight."
Another reason for the varied diets is that different foods are more readily available in different places. Like I said before if you're looking for sea food, Iowa is NOT the place to go! However, if you want fresh sweetcorn, there's no better place to visit than Iowa. You see, just like all other resources, our economies and our plates are filled with the things that surround us, that are easily available and cheap.
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