FRANCE
Ingredients and dishes
Bifteck au poivre: Steak with pepper sauce
Blanquette de Veau: Veal stew
Bouillabaisse: Fish and shellfish stew—specialty of Provence
Boeuf Bourgignon: Beef stewed in red wine
Caneton a l'Orange: Roasted duck with orange sauce
Cassoulet: Beans stewed with chicken, sausage, and goose, or any variety meats
Champignon: Mushrooms
Clafoutis aux Cerises: Cherry cake similar to a dense, upside-down cake
Coq au Vin: Chicken cooked in wine
Creme Caramel: Egg custard with caramel sauce (caramelized sugar)
Crepes Suzette: Dessert crepes (thin pancakes) drenched in orange sauce and flamed with cognac and Grand Marnier
Crudites: Variety of fresh, raw vegetable salads
Escargots a la Bourgignonne: Snails in garlic butter
Fines Herbes: A dried herb mixture of chervil, tarragon, parsley and savory
Fromages: Cheeses
Gateau: Cake
Herbes de Provence: A robust herb mix comprising thyme, rosemary, basil, sage, fennel and lavender
Lapin: Rabbit
Moules a la Mariniere: Mussels cooked in wine-based broth
Mousse au Chocolat: Rich chocolate dessert made with eggs and cream
Omelette aux fines herbes: Omelet with herbs
Pains: Breads
Pate: Ground meats seasoned with cognac and herbs and baked firm
Poissons: Fish
Pommes Frites: French-fried potatoes (also called frites)
Potage Creme d"Asperges: Asparagus soup
Poulet Roti: Roast chicken
Quiche a Lorraine: Eggs and cream baked in a pie crust topped with cheese and bacon. A specialty of Alsace
Ratatouille: Provencal vegetable dish based primarily on eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes
Ris de veau: Sweetbreads (from veal)
Salade Frisee: Endive salad
Savarin: Molded yeasted cake soaked in rum syrup
Sole Meuniere: Sole baked with butter sauce
Sorbet: Fruit-based ice similar to sherbet
Soufle au Fromage: poofy, baked egg custard with cheese
Soup a l'Oignon: Brothy onion soup topped with bread and cheese
Steak Frites: Fried steak typically served with"french-fried" potatoes
Tarte aux Fraise: Strawberry pie
Tarte a l'Oignon: Onion pie—specialty of Alsace
Viandes: Meats
ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, n. IRELAND, WALES
Ingredients and dishes
ENGLAND
"Bangers and Mash" - Sausage and mashed potatoes.
Biscuit - A catchall phrase meaning both cookies ("sweet biscuits") and crackers ("dry biscuits"). Sometimes they'll call one of those slightly sweet cookies (like graham crackers) a "digestive biscuit," or merely a "digestive."
Black Pudding - This is blood sausage, not a dessert. Just be thankful it's not Haggis, okay?
"Bubble and Squeak" - a concoction of cabbage and mashed potatoes.
Cornish Pasty - pie crust with potatoes, meat and turnips
Fish 'n' Chips–battered fish with French fries, used to be sold in newspaper and sprinkled liberally with malt vinegar
Ploughman's Lunch–a slab of cheese and a hunk of bread, served with pickled onions and often a small salad.
Scones (with clotted cream)– like biscuits, usually served with jam (jelly), cream as part of afternoon tea
Shepherd's Pie - Meat pie with mashed potatoes on top.
Spotted Dick - a steamed suet pudding, the “spots” are raisins or currants.
"Toad-in-the-Hole"–sausages cooked in batter.
IRELAND
Barmbrack: one of the few yeast leavened breads made in Ireland. Increasingly more varieties are being added. This delicious fruited bread is a special treat for Halloween when tiny charms are often tucked inside, bringing luck to the finder.
Boxty Bread: a flat round bread, made from mashed potatoes, flour, and buttermilk, and leavened with baking soda.
Brawn: a jellied dish of simmered pig's head and sometimes vegetables. The meat is chopped and set to gel in the cooking broth.
Brotchan: an oatmeal thickened soup.
Caveach: boned and fried fillets of fish (usually mackerel) stored in a crock covered with vinegar. This dish is served cold, often with potato salad.
Champ: hot mashed potatoes served with a pool of melted butter. Each spoonful is dipped in the butter. An Irish favorite.
Colcannon: Scottish dish of hot potatoes mashed with another well-cooked vegetable (often cabbage or turnips) and served with melted butter.
Corned Beef and Cabbage: pickled brisket is slowly simmered in water. Near the end of the cooking time, wedges of cabbage are added and cooked till tender. The meat is sliced and served with the cabbage wedges; the broth is reserved to use as a soup base for another meal.
Cumberland Pie: a two-crusted pie made with a potato and flout pastry filled with rolls of bacon and beaten eggs. Cut in wedges after baking.
Curd Cheese: cottage cheese.
Dublin Coddle: slowly baked stew of ham, sausages, onions and potatoes served with hot soda bread.
Oaten Biscuits: a mixture of lard, oats, flour, and milk (no leavening) that is rolled thinly, cut in rounds then baked. Thin, crisp, and nourishing, these may be eaten with morning tea or for a snack.
Scrooch: chunks of beef brisket, mutton, and vegetables boiled together with a little salt and pepper, served as a soup or a meal.
Singin' Hinnies: hot griddle cakes scented with cinnamon and studded with currants. These are usually prepared after pig-killing – so extra lard is added.
Skirlie-Mirlie: a mixture of cooked potatoes and turnips whisked with boiling milk and butter until light and fluffy. Served with toast triangles or fried bread.
Skirts and Bodices: pork trimmings and pickled spare ribs cooked with water, salt, pepper, and onions. A traditional Cork dish..
Tripe and Onions: English fare adopted by the Irish and served as a Sunday breakfast specialty. Boiled onions and tripe are drained, mixed in a white sauce, and served over toast.
Willicks or Willocks: another name for winkles or periwinkles. They are boiled in seawater then eaten out of their shells with a pin. Sometimes vinegar and salt are sprinkled over them or they are dunked in fine oatmeal before popping in the mouth.
SCOTLAND
Bannocks (or Oatcakes)- A barley and oat-flour biscuit baked on a griddle.
Scotch Broth or Hotch-Potch - A rich stock is traditionally made by boiling mutton (the neck is best), beef, marrow-bone or chicken (for a chicken broth) with barley, diced carrots, garden peas, leeks, cabbage, turnips and a stick of celery.
Black Bun - Black Bun is a very rich fruit cake, made with raisins, currants, finely-chopped peel, chopped almonds and brown sugar with the addition of cinnamon and ginger.
Crowdie - A simple white cheese, made from the whey of slightly soured milk seasoned with salt and a touch of pepper. The seasoned whey is squeezed in a muslin bag to remove excess water, left aside for two days and then rolled in oats and served.
Scottish Salmon - In recent times, many major fish farms have been established in the Sea Lochs on the West coast of Scotland. These are major commercial sources of fish, although the quality is not considered to be the same as wild river-caught salmon.
Today the salmon tends to be smoked, and thinly sliced, served as an entrée.
Bridies - Meat pies
Finnan Haddie: Smoked haddock
Haggis - Haggis is made from sheep's offal (or pluck). The windpipe, lungs, heart and liver of the sheep are boiled and then minced. This is mixed with beef suet and lightly toasted oatmeal. This mixture is placed inside the sheep's stomach, which is sewn closed. The resulting haggis is traditionally cooked by further boiling (for up to three hours) although the part-cooked haggis can be cooked in the oven which prevents the risk of bursting and spoiling.
Scotch Eggs – A hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausagemeat, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and deep fried.
Porridge - A simple dish, made of boiled oatmeal. It needs to be boiled slowly and stirred continuously with the traditional spirtle - a wooden stick which is about 30cm (or 12") long - to avoid the formation of lumps.
WALES
Bara Brith - A traditional rich cake that is the centrepiece of many a Welsh tea table
Flummery - Welsh food made from oatmeal steeped in water until it turns sour
Laver bread - A sort of seaweed pancake
Welsh rabbit or rarebit - Cheese melted into a mass, and usually spread over slices of
toasted bread.
GERMANY
Ingredients and dishes
Wurst, sausages- Brunswick Mettwurst (Smoked pork), Weisswurst (veal & herb), Leberwurst (liver sausage)
Tafelspitz—braised beef with horseradish
Rosti—potato pancakes fried with onion and butter
Himmel und Erde—Heaven and Earth: puréed apples and potatoes topped with blood sausage
Schwarzwalder—Black Forest Cake, a chocolate cake with cherries, whipped cream, grated chocolate
Konigsberger Klopse—meatballs in caper sauce
Hackbraten—meatloaf (braten indicates a roast of some kind)
Sauerbraten—beef roast braised in wine or vinegar
Hassenpfeffer—rabbit stew
Schlachtplatte—mixed sausages, sauerkraut and potatoes
SCANDINAVIA
Ingredients and dishes
Smorrebrod – Danish open faced sandwiches.
Smorgasbord – Swedish buffet of hot and cold dishes
Lingonberries – tart, red berries used in sweet and savory dishes
Nyponsoppa – Swedish fruit soup made with rose hips
Reindeer – used throughout Scandinavia
Lutefisk – dried cod
Lefse – potato pancake
Kringla – sour cream cookies, tied in figure eights or knots
Krumkaker – thin, delicate cookies made with a special iron, then rolled around a wooden spoon while still warm
Far I Kal – Mutton and cabbage stew (Norway)
Spettekaka, ostkaka – Swedish cakes
Frikadeller – Danish meat patties
Limpa – Swedish rye bread
SPAIN
Ingredients and Foods
Azafron
saffron, an Arab word for yellow. Stigmas of a purple crocus flower.
Bacalao
dried salted codfish.
Butifarra sausage
a white sausage popular in Cataluna.
Cazuelas
glazed earthenware dishes.
Chorizo
the most typical Spanish sausage, heavily scented with paprika and garlic.
Piment—n
paprika, or ground sweet red pepper, from Spain.
Turr—n
an almond and honey candy of Arab origin that comes in a hard bar and in a soft marzipan-like form.
ITALY
Ingredients and food terms
Al denté: Describes foods, especially pasta, cooked only until soft enough to eat, but not overdone. The Italian translation is "to the teeth."
Antipasto: refers to appetizers served before the main meal. Antipasto literally means "before the pasta.
Asiago: a cow's milk cheese made in northern Italy. Mild nutty flavor when young, more pronounced with age.
Biscotti: Italian cookie often hard in texture and lightly flavored with anise.
Bocconcini: refers to "little fresh Mozzarella balls" Mozzarella cheese is produced in Albruzzi-Molise and Campania and is made from fresh cows milk. Mozzarella is the larger of the balls of cheese produced in the process. The smaller balls are the bocconcini.
Bruschetta: Garlic and Olive Oil topped toasted bread sometimes topped with chopped Tomatoes and Basil.
Cacciatore: is a traditional Italian meal (e.g. Chicken Cacciatore) in which vegetables are cooked in a hearty sauce with meat.
Calamari: is just another name for Squid (in Italian, of course). Calamari is often served deep fried.
Capers:flower buds from the Caper Bush which are harvested and pickled in vinegar and salt brine. Capers are used in cooking as a seasoning.
Capsicum: refers to a bell or green pepper.
Carbonara: traditional Roman sauce consisting of garlic, eggs, and bacon served over pasta.
Carpaccio: raw beef appetizer topped with a mustard - mayonnaise sauce.
Cazuela de Pescado: a variety of fish in a very spicy sauce.
Cilantro: sometimes called coriander. Whole seed or ground, goes savory and sweet. Fresh cilantro is tangy and very similar to parsley.
Fennel: licorice flavored bulb used raw or cooked as a seasoning and garnish. Fennel resembles a head of celery with a bulb at the bottom.
Focaccia: Italian flatbread often topped with olive oil, herbs, garlic, and cheese.
Fontina: semi-soft, high-fat cow's milk cheese that is often used in fondue. Mild taste and excellent for melting in cream sauces and fillings. Fontina should not be confused with Fontinella.
Marinara: over-coat or overcoat: i.e.(Coat pasta with a sauce). vegetable sauce traditionally made with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and olive oil. Variations: Capers, pitted black olives, crushed red pepper or diced chile pepper.
Mozzarella: hand-stretched cheese made from buffalo milk in Campania. Mild and creamy in taste.
Prosciutto: salt-cured ham which is air-cured and served in thin slices. It is popularly used as an appetizer wrapped around melon pieces.
Taleggio: soft, high-fat cow's milk cheese from Lombardia. Rind is reddish-brown and has a very rich taste. Great table cheese and can be used in fillings and cream sauces.
Tiramasu – a custard and cake dessert flavored with coffee
GREECE
Ingredients and Foods
Arni
lamb
Avgolemono
An egg and lemon mixtures used as a sauce or a soup base.
Baklava
the most famous Greek dessert, made of layers of fila pastry, chopped nuts, and a honey-flavored syrup
Dolmades
grapevine leaves stuffed with rice or meat
Feta
the classic white goat cheese of Greece
Fila, filo, or phyllo
the paper-thin pastry dough essential for appetizers, entrees, and desserts.
Garides
shrimp
Kafes
coffee
Kalamaria
squid
Kalamata
probably the most famous Greek olive
Kasseri
creamy farm cheese with a bitey flavor
Kefalotiri
a hard, salty cheese, good for grating
Kourabiedes
butter cookies topped with powdered sugar
Loukoumades
made-to-order deep-fried honey balls topped with honey; served warm
Mezethes
small savory appetizers
Moussaka
a layered casserole usualy made with eggplant and chopped meat, and topped with a custard sauce
Orzo
tiny melon seed-shaped pasta
Pastitsio
a layered casserole of macaroni and chopped meat topped with a custard sauce
Pilafi
rice boiled in broth and flavored with onion and spices
Psari
fish
Souvlakia
skewered food
Spanakopeta
spinach fila pastries
Tahini
crushed sesame seed paste
Tarama
fish roe from gtray mullet
Taramosalata
fish roe spread
Tiropita
fila stuffed with Greek cheese
Tsatziki: cucumber yogurt dip
EASTERN EUROPE AND RUSSIA
Ingredients and Foods
Blinis – pancakes usually made with buckwheat and served with caviar
Baklava – almond filled filo dough
Caviar – sturgeon (fish) roe
Blintzes – cream cheese filled crepes served with sweet sauce
Yogurt – dairy product
Bulgar wheat – staple grain made from wheat
Buckwheat – grain used in many breads and pancakes
Goulash – Hungarian meat dish with paprika
Strudel – dessert made with thin pastry and fruit
Kolache – Czech sweet bread similar to Danish pastries
Bigos - stew or casserole made with wild game
Caraway – spice which tastes like aniseed, used in breads and casseroles
Paprika – Hungarian spice made from ground sweet red peppers
Pierogies – potato filled noodle dough, can be steamed or fried
Stroganov – Russian dish made with high quality beef
Borscht – soup made with beets
Samovar – Russian vessel for brewing and serving large quantities of tea
INDIA
Ingredients and dishes
Achar: Any kind of pickle
Aloo: Potato
Biryani: A fancy rice casserole, often containing meat, poultry, seafood or vegetables
Chapati/Roti: Thin bread cooked on the griddle
Dal:Any kind of legume--beans, peas, or lentils
Dosa: Crispy, crepe-like southern Indian specialty filled with potatoes or vegetables
Ghee: Clarified butter
Gosht: Meat
Korma:Braised meats in a thick, mild creamy sauce
Kulcha: Tender, pita-like bread cooked in the tandoor
Lassi: A refreshing, creamy yogurt drink that can be sweet or salty
Masala: Spice blend
Naan: Flat, oval bread cooked in the tandoor
Pakora: Fritter dipped in a spicy chickpea batter; can be made with vegetables, cheese, chicken or seafood
Paneer: Cheese
Pappadum: Spicy lentil wafers
Paratha: Flaky bread fried on the griddle
Poori: Airy, deep-fried bread
Pulao: An aromatic rice pilaf
Raita: A yogurt-based condiment usually containing vegetables
Rasam: A thin, spicy broth
Saag: Spinach, but can also refer to other greens
Sambar: An extremely spicy broth popular in southern India
Samosa: Flaky, pyramid-shaped pastry stuffed with potatoes or ground meat; a traditional Indian snack
Tandoor: A deep, clay oven that has very high temperatures
Tandoori: Any dish cooked in a tandoor
Vindaloo: An extremely spicy curry dish that's a regional specialty of Goa