Describing Cuisines

When we discuss food and which kinds of food we like we often need to use the word cuisine.

What exactly does it mean.

Kind of easy to misunderstand.

Well cuisine generally is a type of food that is specific to or connected to a particular place or culture.

Now it could be a country but it doesn’t have to be a country.

For example you could have Japanese cuisine but then there might be a particular city that’s famous for food.

You might have for example New Orleans cuisine which is a famous type of cuisine in America or you could have for example a province name like in China.

You have Sichuan cuisine.

So that’s a particular area in China.

Then for each area in China you have different cuisines.

So usually it’s related to a place but not necessarily it could be just cultural.

Any way we can say it’s a type of food a cuisine is a type of food.

So often when you hear people say what cuisines Do you like or what is your favorite cuisine you can just say the type of food you like Oh I like French cuisine I like Japanese cuisine I like Indian cuisine I like Italian cuisine whatever you want to say.

Now sometimes those things are not clear.

For example if you say I like American cuisine you might have to describe what exactly you mean by that because that’s less clearly defined than perhaps other countries such as French cuisine and Italian cuisine or Indian cuisine.

We often use subjective adjectives and we’re talking about the feeling we have about particular cuisines or the feeling that we have about maybe the taste of a particular food and it could be the overall feeling or it could be something more specific about the taste.

Let me explain what I mean.

So take Indian food.

I like Indian food.

How would you describe Indian food.

Well again it’s quite it’s quite subjective in some way.

I would describe Indian food as a bit heavy and that’s because after I eat Indian food I feel a bit a bit heavy.

So I feel Indian food is a bit heavy.

That’s kind of subjective.

But generally speaking it’s more spicy than other cuisines.

Many other cuisines so it’s it’s also spicy and that’s more related to the particular taste of the food.

It’s got a lot of different spices in it and it’s very hot when you eat it.

Some of it is OK.

So it’s a bit heavy.

That’s my feeling and it’s spicy.

How about German food.

Well German food generally people describe as heavy again.

That’s because the feeling of the food people eat it generally they feel it’s quite heavy compared to other types of food like for example Japanese food which people often describe as very light so heavy and light aren’t exactly tastes.

Their overall feelings.

What about the taste of Japanese food.

Well it doesn’t have a very strong taste typically.

For example like Indian food which might be very spicy which uses a lot of spices Japanese food is often very simple and you could say it’s very simple.

You could also say it’s very mild.

M I L D mild.

If something doesn’t have a particularly strong taste it’s often described as mild mild is a word that can also be used to describe whether you live in a place that doesn’t have extremely hot weather in the summer and not extremely cold weather in the winter.

Then maybe you live in a mild climate so a mild climate is sort of not too strong not that weak kind of in the middle.

Gentle a bit gentle and you could go on with other adjectives that you feel are related to particular cuisines Sichuan food from China is famous for being very spicy and very oily it’s very oily and very spicy.

You could say German food as I mentioned is very heavy but you might also say that it can be a bit bland.

That means no offense to German food can be a little bit boring it’s not very exciting like for example like for example Indian food or maybe Thai food it’s kind of an exciting cuisine.

Both of those are a bit exciting.

They are they can be very spicy or Mexican food Mexican cuisine.

So a lot of these are words that you choose based on your feeling but there are general words common words that are associated associated to each type of food.

For example German food being heavy and Sichuan food being for example spicy and oily.

OK so when you’re talking about cuisine use subjective adjectives and focus on the type of food whatever you want to say about it.