At first thought, Asian food will probably cause you to think of Chinese food, and maybe even Japanese food. But there are so many other foods that fall under the broad category of Asian food.

These include Thai, Indian, Indonesia, Korea and Philippines food to name a few! All have tastes unique to their own countries, despite some common cooking techniques and ingredients.

Herbs & spices

Asian recipes are rich with natural herbs and spices, creating very aromatic, flavor filled dishes that please people of all nationalities. The meals usually include a variety of fresh vegetables, and are often served with rice. They use beef and chicken, as well as other poultry and meat sources to make their meals. Many of the dishes that make up Asian style recipes are spicy- from their meats to their chicken to their salads, you can find spicy, flavorful options sure to please any palate!

A favorite of many is the Chinese sweet and sour chicken, or sweet and sour pork. Sweet and sour sauce can be made from scratch, or can be purchased, premade- in jars from the local grocery store. If you’re lucky, your neighborhood might have an entire market dedicated to Asian foods, as they are gaining in popularity around the world, and more and more people are looking to create authentic Asian dishes in their own homes.

The similarities

It’s actually quite amazing how most Asian recipes have so much in common, despite the fact that the countries that make up Asia are spread out over half of the world! The recipes that make up Asian cooking often contain the same spices and herbs, a side of rice or noodles, and make use of soy sauce and tofu. And while you can find many similarities in all of the recipes of Asian cooking, you can also find dishes from one country to another that are strictly unique to their own country of origin.

Diet

Asian diets are considered fairly healthy by many doctors and individuals throughout the world, primarily because they tend to eat things in moderation. For example, the healthy Asian diet food pyramid has it’s base as “PHYSICAL EXERCISE: DAILY”, meaning that most important to a healthy diet is the amount of exercise that you get each day. Above that, for the second most eaten item on the food pyramid, are rice, noodles, wheats and corn, while immediately above that are the fruits, vegetables and seeds and nuts. These are all ingredients that are eaten on a daily basis. Optionally, Asian diets may or may not include some form of shellfish daily, and also dairy products can or may not be consumed on a daily basis.

Daily consumption

Sweets, eggs, and poultry- while often consumed daily by many parts of the world, are only consumed once a week as part of the healthy Asian food diet. Red meats are only eaten once a month, as opposed to the many nationalities who eat meat every single day. So as you can see from the Asian food pyramid, their healthy eating style is based on the fact that they eat many foods in moderation, while the most nutritional foods like fruits, vegetables and nuts are consumed daily, along with a good dose of physical exercise!

Health

As some of the Asian countries are becoming more westernized, it is being noted that many of the diseases the people suffer from are also starting to show similarities to the diseases found most commonly in western civilizations. Diabetes, and cancer are among the leading causes of death for Chinese people now that their diets have started to include more of the red meat that westernized areas are more used to eating.