World Cuisine - Europe

Europe

Main articles: European cuisine and Old World wine See also: Mediterranean cuisine and Mediterranean diet Pretzels are especially common in Southern Germany.

European cuisine is a generalized term collectively referring to the cuisines of Europe and other Western countries. European cuisine or Western cuisine includes that of Europe including (depending on the definition) that of Russia, as well as non-indigenous cuisines of North America, Australasia, Oceania, and Latin America, which derive substantial influence from European settlers in those regions. The term is used by East Asians to contrast with Asian styles of cooking. The cuisines of Western countries are diverse by themselves, although there are common characteristics that distinguishes Western cooking from cuisines of Asian countries and others. Compared with traditional cooking of Asian countries, for example, meat is more prominent and substantial in serving-size. Wheat-flour bread has long been the most common sources of starch in this cuisine, along with pasta, dumplings and pastries, although the potato has become a major starch plant in the diet of Europeans and their diaspora since the European colonization of the Americas.

• Regional cuisines of medieval Europe were the results of differences in climate, seasonal food variations, political administration and religious customs that varied across the continent.