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Most countries leave their prized delicacies for only the most important events of the year. They may save them for special holidays or for wedding, birth, or anniversary celebrations. However, cooking delicacies should be a priority to everyone in the family at one time or another throughout the year.

When you acknowledge and learn how to cook the delicacies of your heritage you are not only preparing a delicious meal for yourself. You are also celebrating where you come from. You are embracing the country and the food of your culture. You are able to taste what your ancestors taste.

In addition, when you choose to cook the delicacies of your heritage, you will be teaching your family the traditions as well. Otherwise, your children will likely grow up not even knowing what the delicacies of their heritage are. So, if you want them to be able to pass certain traditional foods onto their family, you will need to show them how to prepare those traditional foods.

So, instead of simply letting your culture and heritage pass you by, consider cooking the delicacies of your heritage a few times a year. With the world changing quickly and all of the cultures emerging closer into one, there is little room to forget where it is you come from. If you don’t know what the delicacies are, you can start by doing some research. You may not be great at preparing them at first, but the more you practice, the more delicious they will become.

Check out some sample Indian recipes that are easy and low fat.

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In today’s modern Chinese restaurants even a more traditional menu will come with English translations for many of the more common Chinese food terms. It is, however, always handy to have knowledge of some to the basic terms just in case you find yourself in need.

Here are eleven definitions that range from vegetables to duck for some of the more common items found in Chinese restaurants.

Choy = vegetable. Vegetables or Choy are found in many Chinese food dishes. This versatile ingredient can be found in stand alone dishes or accompanied by meat.

Dun = egg and is often found in dishes like Egg Foo Young where eggs or Dun are combined with a wide variety of accompaniments like rice, chicken, vegetables and bean sprouts.

Fon = rice and is most familiar in Fried Rice which comes with peas, carrots and pork or in sticky short grained white rice.

Gai = chicken and is a very adaptable ingredient to use in dishes like Cashew Chicken or Moo Shu Chicken where the chicken is thin sliced and served with vegetables, plum sauce and a thin pancake.

Har = shrimp and can be found in Peking Shrimp which can sometimes still be found by its traditional name of Beijing Far Jue Har.

Mien = noodle and is a soft warm noodle served with chicken or pork and vegetables. The all too common chow mien noodle is a crunchy version of the original.

Moo ghoo = mushroom. Moo Ghoo Gai Pan, which means sliced chicken and mushrooms, is an easily found dish on most Chinese restaurant menus.

Op = duck. Op or duck is not as common as chicken or pork but is a delicacy that is worth tasting.

Pien = sliced, proper slicing is key to Chinese cooking.

Suen = sour
Tiem = sweet. Most often times you will see sweet and sour in the same dish such as Sweet and Sour Pork which contains pork, pineapple and green peppers in a sweet sauce.

Shauna Hanus is a gourmet cook who specializes in creating gourmet recipes. She has extensive experience cooking with easy to find grocery items to create delightful gourmet meals. She is also the publisher of a no cost bi-monthly gourmet newsletter. Her newsletter is always fun and informational packed with tips and trivia you can use everyday. Sign up for her newsletter and learn more about Gourmayeats Weekly Recipe Club at http://www.gourmayeats.com

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The term "organic" is being tossed around quite a bit lately, and you’ll soon be seeing a big jump in the number of organic choices when you visit your local Safeway or Wal-Mart store. That’s because the demand for organic produce, milk, and meat has been steadily increasing, to the point where the giant retail chains have begun to take the trend seriously. In turn, there will be a growing concern over the certification process as factory-style farms begin to muscle their way into the organic food market as a result of increased demand.

In 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established what were supposed to be clear guidelines for gaining organic certification, but various ambiguous areas will continue to confuse consumers until those guidelines are made even more clear.

For instance, under USDA rules, growers of fruits, vegetables, meat, and milk are forbidden from using most synthetic pesticides or fertilizer in food production. They’re also prohibited from using genetic engineering, irradiation, or sewage sludge. To be certified organic, livestock must be fed nothing but certified organic feed and can’t be given any sort of growth hormone. They must also be allowed to be outside at least a portion of every day, though the rules for what that actually means have been open to serious dispute over the past few years.

The USDA guidelines were meant to be fairly all-inclusive, but there are a number of gradients, as well. Here are some of the labels you’ll see in your local co-op or supermarket:

100% organic: For produce, this designation means that fruits or vegetables were grown completely without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. In the case of meat or milk, it means that all the USDA stipulations concerning hormones, feed, and time spent outdoors were met.

Organic: This type of produce or meat doesn’t quite meet the highest organic standard, but the remaining 5 percent of its ingredients have been approved for organic use by a nationwide certification organization called the National Organics Standards Board.

Made with organic ingredients: This certification assures consumers that no less than 70 percent of the produce, milk, or meat was produced using organic ingredients.

The last two other labels you’ll see are considerably more ambiguous. First, there’s the term "free-range," which is used interchangeably with the term "cage-free." The USDA regulates the use of either term when it comes to poultry, but not to eggs, and there’s no clear definition of how much outdoor access animals should receive.

The other term is "natural," which has no real meaning in any food commodity other than meat and poultry, which can’t have any artificial coloring, chemical preservatives, or ingredients. Although it’s supposed to have only minimal processing, there’s no certification process that meat or poultry producers must comply with in order to place the term on their labels.

As the market continues to grow, you’ll be seeing these labels more and more. What remains to be seen is if the USDA will tighten or loosen the process in order to allow producers to meet the growing demand for organic products.

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

Jeanette Fisher teaches environmental interior design. For more information about Environmental Psychology and 5 ways you can change your home environment, visit http://environmentpsychology.com

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