By KIM ATIENZA
Some of us may think that eating hamburger started in America. The global food chain McDonald’s has widely influenced such thought.
On the contrary, hamburger originated in Hamburg, Germany. Thus, its name.
Germans named hamburger the flat cake of minced meat cooked on a grill or a hot plate.
Travelling Europeans brought it to America, where it became a big hit.
The Americans, however, are believed to have invented French fries, spliced, deep fried potatoes smothered with salt.
Frankfurter is another food item that originally came from Germany.
Named after the city of Frankfurt, the sausage is made from finely chopped meat wrapped in soft meat skin.
Hamburgers and frankfurters or sausage are made even more delicious by ketchup. But don’t be misled. Ketchup originally came from Asia, Malaysia.
Mayonnaise, the delightful combination of egg, oil, salt and vinegar or lemon juice, was a French creation.
For centuries, chestnut is probably the most important, also the most popular, nut used in the preparation of Chinese dishes.
One of many food items found in tombs in Hupei were chestnuts.
This finding makes the chestnut an exceptionally early part of China’s food culture.
Besides being used for food by the early Chinese, chestnuts were often offered to emperors as tribute foods.
In the Philippines, we have our chestnuts roasted Chinese style. Yung gaya ng nabibili natin sa Hong Kong.
Chestnut shell is hard and reddish brown. The meat inside ranges from white to tan.
Send your questions on anything and everything to Kuya Kim through my Twitter account @kuyakim_atienza using #AlaminKayKuyaKim.
