Olympic Food Series – Europe Week
Although Europe is quite geographically small, it is home to a mosaic of cultures, languages, and borders. Marked by the two world wars and multiple wars such as the Cold War and fighting in the Balkans, the European Union has now come into force. It consists of 27 member countries (or more) who identify themselves as European.
It is the birthplace of Western culture, and has a long and very interesting history, beautiful modern and medieval architecture, and gorgeous art. Since the 16th century it has been a major player of global affairs, due to countries such as Spain and Portugal colonising other countries.
But even before then European ancient civilisation had a major impact on how we now think in the modern world. Ancient Greece is claimed to have created the concepts of democratic and individualistic culture – however I’m not really sure how that individualistic it really is, because the Italians and Greeks in particular seem to be quite community and family-based to me. I used to have a teacher at university who said that Greece seemed to be a leader back in ancient times, but it seems to be stuck in a time warp since the ancient times. I’m not exactly sure what he meant though.
Europe has two of the greatest culinary rivalries in the world – French and Italian. I mean, the other cuisines like Spanish and German are good too, but these are the two main ones that most people will say that they love. This great rivalry has led to each nation trying to put their cuisine on the world heritage list. But can’t we just be friends and have a great time, in the name of good food and drink? Let’s just break out the beautiful French and Italian wines and cheeses. Or we’ll just eat it while those two nations and their people are fighting over which cuisine is better. More food for us who don’t really care about the argument, I say. 
