Side dishes

Hello everyone I am David Drgon from the Slovakian Erasmus team and I want to dedicate this blog to side dishes.

I think we all know what side dishes are, but we often overlook them, because everyone wants to get to the main course! But food without a side dish is very rarely enough to feed a grown person, so people started using side dishes. They are also very delicious and what makes them best in my opinion that they often have a very mild flavor which is good because they don't overpower the flavor, and it also combines well with condiments. Alright, that should be enough for the introduction let's start with . . .

1. Bread

Pretty much everyone knows bread and for a good reason it is one of the oldest side dishes to exist 

and in the neolithic age even used as the main food because of the lack of food types. Today people still use bread but mostly as a side dish and not as a main course the main downside of bread is that it is often very dry, so you need to drink often when eating bread with a steak or any other dry main food. That being said it is a very good side dish if you have the time or the equipment you can even make it at home and get your own flavor and texture of the bread it all depends on the person. There are also all kinds of types of bread like a baguette but in the end, they are all very similar and each culture has its own bread.

2. Potatoes

The origin of the potato is pretty funny it comes from South America, and it was brought to Europe in the mid-1500s. At first, they were mostly used as food for cattle later on to reduce food shortages Holy Roman Emperor Joseph Second decided to create a campaign to introduce potatoes as food for people, and it worked really well. Today it is widely used around the world as a side dish, and it is very important some countries rely so much on it in fact that they couldn't even function without it a good example is Ireland. It is also a known fact that potatoes are very filling, so they are used in restaurants as a way to make a small food more worth the price good example is chicken which is easy to digest, and you can eat a lot of it, so the potato is a good way to balance it out.

3. Salad

Salad is a side dish used that is worldwide and is also very healthy. The first people to eat salad were Greeks and Romans they would use raw vegetables and some vinegar oil topped with herbs to make this side dish. Salad is also often combined with a lot of different condiments such as dressings used to enhance the flavor. Salad these days comes in a lot of different types there can be tossed salad and composed salad the main difference is in how they are served. Then there is also the difference in ingredients like diner salads that contain a lot of meat or fruit salad that is made of fruits. The most popular salad is a potato salad which is made with egg and mayonnaise.

4. Rice 

Personally my favorite side dish. Rice originates from China, scientists speculate it could be from the Yangtze River. It is also hard to tell when it arrived in Europe but Alexander the Great most likely from his journeys in Asia brought it here. Today every country pretty much uses rice, but most of the food recipes come from Asia sushi and curry come from Japan and India respectively. I personally love rice because out of all the side dishes I listed here rice has the least amount of flavor and is very moist meaning it won't dry your mouth. Most people would think that a tasteless side dish is bad, but it also allows you to enjoy the main food not to mention rice has a very pleasant aroma. It is also very good for people who like perfect balance because compared to bread or potato it's not as filling but still better than salad. Which is exactly why I consider it the best side dish.

5. Macaroni and cheese 

This side dish is hard to trace back first known recipes were traced all the way back to 1769 in Northern Europe. Today it's mostly popular in the United States and Canada where it's called mac and cheese. Some people might argue that it's more of a main dish rather than a side dish, but it can still be used as one, so I decided to include it. Out of all the side dishes I listed this one has the most intense flavor, so it is best paired with a main dish that has a mild flavor, but it all depends on the person. Another important thing is that this food is very filling which is why families in America loved it so much because it was possible to feed your family for a cheap price. Back in 1960, it was possible to buy an entire pack for 20 cents best known maker of this food was the company Kraft.

Conclusion

I hope this blog could bring some light to people interested in side dishes and foods in general. It's interesting to see how things over time evolve and change. When it comes to foods it mostly depended on the ingredients that were available. If you google which pizza toppings are the most popular by state you will notice that countries like Russia and Scandinavia prefer fish while the United States and Great Britain prefer sausage and pepperoni. This perfectly shows the history and what each country used to eat back in their starting days. Anyway, thank you for your attention.