Food is one of the most important thing in human body. Eating food is essential for us to keep us alive. Foods are also eaten by human to get some nutrition and energy to do some activities. The foods that are consumed by people in the society actually come from the results of farming or gardening process. In general, the foods contain protein, carbohydrate, mineral, vitamin, fat and many more, which are really useful for the human body. Every human living needs food to fulfill their lives. Without foods, people will be difficult in doing their daily activities. If they do not have enough nutrition in their body, it will affect the health of their body. This is why foods are really important and it can also help human to gain more energy.
However, as human history keep developing, now we have higher standard in choosing the food that we like to eat. The type of foods in some countries for example like Indonesia, Japan or France might be significantly different and it caused by several factors such as the geographic settings or the culture of the country itself. Food in every country is different because of the technology that grew or spread at different times. Eating preferences also change over the past decades and following the culture, climate and other transformations that determined the enlargement of some communities. The development in the way people serve the food, the evolution of European and Asian business etiquette, eating habit in different countries and other factors that allow measuring and analyze the evolution of food help us understand the history and tradition about the other country. Every country has their own unique type of foods which other countries do not have. In addition, there are so many different cuisines and food preferences based on ethnical backgrounds, geographical locations and social classes. With globalization and transposition of knowledge with another countries, foods become easy to access and there are a lot of opportunity for us to try different types of foods over the world. Other factor that spread and mix food preferences are the immigration and ethnical minorities that widen the knowledge about the local cuisines. It is obvious that every country has different cuisine because of several factors. Based on the geographic setting and environment in France, the country is self sufficient when it comes to growing their own foods. In Europe, France is the second largest country (Food by country, 2018). The condition of the climate and soil in France are good for farming. Even only four percent of people in France earn their living from farming but the demand for the foods can be met.
Moreover, this country is surrounded by the water, so French people eat more fishes (Ouderkirk, 2013). While, Indonesia is an Asian country and the food preferences between Indonesia and France are significantly different. Indonesia consists of many islands with a total area of 1,919,440 square kilometer (Nations encyclopedia, 2018). Indonesia soil and climate support a number of agricultural crops, with sugar being the largest commercial crop. There are a lot of agriculture in Indonesia product are exported to the other country. The production of rice increased during the 1980s and 1990s. With the development of the agricultural skills, now Indonesia almost grows enough rice to meet the country's demands. Rice has been an essential symbol for Indonesian society. Furthermore, Indonesia turns out to be a cocoa producing country with the number three ranking in the world. Cocoa has also become one of the best agricultural products in the world which are exported abroad. Indonesia is the third largest producer of coffee in the world after Brazil and Colombia and also the second largest producer of palm oil. On the other hand, based on the spices, the vast majority of French cooking use Salt and pepper as the primary spices. Herbs like basil, bay, parsley, tarragon and thyme are also the dominant herbs that used by French people as the primary spices. Different types of food use different kind of spices. For example, for poultry like chicken dishes are prepared most often with mustard, paprika, garlic, ginger, thyme, basil, bay leaf, and cayenne pepper. Mustard also rates high in turkey dishes, along with garlic and parsley. Cumin is an important seasoning for the orange duck.
While for fish dishes typically prepared with paprika, saffron and ginger. A favorite seafood like scallops are cooked with basil, thyme, white pepper and garlic. Indonesia cuisine uses many kind of herbs and spices such as ginger, pepper, and cinnamon. Indonesian food have a complex flavor which consist of certain ingredients and bumbu spices mixture. Indonesian dishes have a rich flavors like savory, hot and spicy and also have a combination with basic taste such as sweet, salty, bitter and sour. Most of Indonesian food are hot and spicy. On the contrary, in religious way, majority of people in France are Catholic. Most of French people celebrate Christmas day and Easter day. Before Easter day, Catholics have to fast for 40 days (Willner,2017). They have to fast for some foods that they usually enjoy, such as meat. While, on the Christmas day, the French have a big party with their family or friends, which usually end with Bûche de Noël, or Yule log. The shape of the cake looks like a log of wood because of the traditional French custom indicates of lighting a real log at Christmas. While, majority of people in Indonesia are Muslims. The vast majority for about 87 percent adheres to Islam, giving Indonesia one of the largest percentages of Muslims in the world. The most important time of the year for Muslims is Puasa which means they have to fast for 1 month long. After the end of Puasa, Muslims will celebrate the Eid Mubarak Day and return to their regular habit eating.
During Eid Mubarak, Muslims usually prepare ketupat. Ketupat is blocks of rice cooked in coconut or palm trees and they also prepared cookies and cake. On the other hand, based on the holiday celebrations, the anniversary of Storming of the Bastille on 14 July is the French national day. There are some events during that day such as fireworks, dances or having picnic with family which include cheese like Roquefort, Camembert and many more. While, in Indonesia, on 17th August will celebrate the Independence Day. The citizens prepare some festivities from one week before. The festivities include shrimp crackers eating contest and baking contest, which is an attempt to make the biggest tumpeng.
In conclusion, eating food is necessary to keep us alive and to make us feel satisfy at the same time. Foods in every country are different because of the internal factors like individual preferences or the external factors such as the culture or the region of the country itself. Based on the geographic setting and environment in France and Indonesia, both countries are significantly different. France eat more seafood while rice has been the essential symbol of Indonesia. On the contrary, based on the spices, the French cooking use salt and pepper and herbs like basil, bay, parsley. While in Indonesia used more herbs and spices like ginger and cinnamon. Furthermore, based on the religious way, France is dominated by the Catholics which are celebrating the Christmas Day and Indonesia dominated by the Muslims which are celebrating the Eid Mubarak Day. In addition, on the holiday celebration, France celebrated the Bastille Day with having a picnic which include cheese like Camembert and in Indonesia celebrating Independence Day with the contest of making the biggest tumpeng.
