新编大学英语(第四版)综合教程2教学课件B2U6+reading+2.pptx

;Cooking and Cuisines [1]One thing that separates man from animals is mans preference for cooked food. The higher apes have been found to share with mankind the ability to communicate by sound and gesture, but no ape has ever cooked its food. We also like our food to appeal to our senses of taste and smell, and we like it to be attractive. Our senses are remarkably acute and discriminating, and all societies which have progressed beyond simple survival satisfy the human pleasure of good food. The great cuisines of the world have developed dishes which appeal both to the taste and to the eye—color and texture are as important as flavor. [2]There are three acknowledged great national cuisines, French, Indian and Chinese. French cooking is generally acknowledged to be supreme in Europe. French cuisine using butter, cheese and cream is typical of all great national cuisines: it combines simplicity with sophistication, uses the native resources of France, has great regional specialties and has become truly international.[3]These three major cuisines have distinguished themselves each by one major characteristic. French cooking with butter, cheese and cream is so typical of their cooking that if omitted the whole character of the cuisine would be destroyed. Also, wine in cooking is as instinctive to a French cook as the use of soy sauce is to a Chinese cook. A second cuisine—Indian cooking is distinguished by the use of spices. The third cuisine is defined by the use of rice as a staple—China being the supreme example. Of course these three cuisines share their characteristics in one way or another. French cuisine can boast some famous rice dishes. Some Indian regional cookery also makes use of butter and the dishes of Sichuan, in Chinese cuisine, are famous for their fiery spices. But the separation into three major cuisines does mark some kind of distinctive characteristic and the three major cuisines, each based on a different major characteristic, have persisted for a