National cuisines: What ingredients make dishes from different cultures distinctive?
Many national cuisines rely heavily on the availability of certain ingredients How would you define what it is that makes British cuisine British? Or how are we able to recognise when we are eating an Italian dish, or Indian, Greek or Vietnamese for that matter?
While it's hardly fair to stereotype an entire national cuisine with a few basic ingredients – most are of course just far too varied and diverse – it is hard to deny certain flavours evoke dishes from certain parts of the world.
Indeed, it is not unknown for countries to be defined by their "iconic dishes".
Of course many national cuisines rely heavily on the availability of certain ingredients – although that may not necessarily explain the difference between, for example, German and French food.
However, da...