Cuisine of Pelaxia

Pelaxian cuisine is described as a cultural blending of Mediterranean influences from Caphiria, within the wide scope of tropical agricultural products that are abundant in the country. Pelaxian annual consumption of beef has averaged 100kg. Beyond asado (the Pelaxian barbecue), no other dish more genuinely matches the national identity. Nevertheless, the Pelaxian people have a reputation for their love of eating. Social gatherings are commonly centered on sharing a meal. Invitations to have dinner at home is generally viewed as a symbol of friendship, warmth, and integration. Sunday family lunch is considered the most significant meal of the week, whose highlights often include asado or “chicken and chorizo”.

Another feature of Pelaxian cuisine is the preparation of homemade food such as french fries, empanadas, and pasta to celebrate a special occasion, to meet friends, or to honor someone. Homemade food is also seen as a way to show affection.

Pelaxian restaurants include a great variety of cuisines, prices, and flavors. Large cities tend to host everything from high-end international cuisine, to bodegones (inexpensive traditional hidden taverns), less stylish restaurants, and bars and canteens offering a range of dishes at affordable prices.

History
Pelaxia as a territory of the Caphiria Caphiria introduced the custom of collecting and eating mushrooms, which is still preserved in many parts of Pelaxia, especially in the east. The Caphirians introduced viticulture and the cultivation of olive oil. Pelaxia is the largest producer of olive oil in the world. Middle Ages. The Kosal introduced brewing to the Pelaxian regions and introduced such ingredients as: rice, sorghum, sugar cane, spinach, eggplant, watermelon, lemon, peach, orange, allmonds and chickpeas.

Typical foods
Most regions of Pelaxia are known for their beef-oriented diet. Grilled meat from the asado (barbecue) is a staple, with steak and beef ribs especially common. The term asado itself refers to long strips of flank-cut beef ribs. Popular items such as Chorizo (pork sausage), morcilla (blood sausage), chinchulines (chitterlings), mollejas (sweetbread), and other parts of the animal are also enjoyed. In Montia, however, lamb and [chicken] are eaten more frequently than beef. Whole lambs and chickens are traditionally cooked over an open fire in a technique known as asado a la estaca. The most common condiment for asado is Chimichurri, a sauce of herbs, garlic and vinegar. Unlike other preparations, Pelaxians do not include chili in their version of chimichurri. Breaded and fried meats — milanesas — are used as snacks, in sandwiches, or eaten warm with mashed potatoes — purée. Empanadas — small pastries of meat, cheese, sweet corn, and a hundred other fillings — are a common sight at parties and picnics, or as starters to a meal. A variation, the "empanada agrileña" (Agrilian empanada), is a big, round meat pie made most commonly with tuna, olives and mackerel ("caballa" in Pelaxian). Vegetables and salads are also eaten by Pelaxian; tomatoes, onions, lettuce, eggplants, squashes, and zucchini are common side dishes. Pelaxian Chicken Breast is an extremely popular dish, considered basic at table. It includes rice and beans usually are cooked utilizing with lard and accompanied with hummus. Pizza and pasta, are eaten as commonly as beef. ñoquis (gnocchi), ravioles, and canelones (cannelloni) can be bought freshly made in many establishments in the larger cities.

“Pelaxian tortilla” is a traditional dish from Pelaxia and one of the signature dishes in the Pelaxian cuisine. It is an omelette made with eggs and potatoes, optionally including onion. It is often served at room temperature as a tapa. “Sopa Pelaxiana” is a traditional Pelaxian dish. Literally meaning "Pelaxian soup," sopa Pelaxiana is similar to corn bread. Corn flour, pig fat (lard) or butter, cheese and milk or whey are common ingredients. It's a spongy cake that is rich in calories and protein content. A sweet paste, dulce de leche is another treasured national food, used to fill cakes and pancakes, spread over toasted bread for tea time, or served with ice cream. Alfajores are shortbread cookies sandwiched together with chocolate and dulce de leche or a fruit paste. Other typical drinks include rum (sometimes with coke soda added); tea and coffee are equally important, and sugar cane juice as well. Don Justo is the national brand of rum while Felipe is the national brand of pale lager, named after the town of Percherón, Costa Blanca, where it was first produced.

Ingredients
Pelaxian Cuisine is heavily based on the growth of all kinds of cereals, grains, oil seeds, fruits and vegetables, since Pelaxia is a significantly large livestock and agricultural country. Meat products have been dominant in the country since the 15th. The country is regarded as a major beef, pork and poultry producing and consuming country. As a matter of fact, certain areas such as those located in the center usually engaged in activities involving sheep and lamb breeding. The vast breeding activity involving any type of cattle has given rise to a very developed dairy industry that includes products like cow, sheep and camelide, cheese, dulce de leche and yogurts. Pelaxia can also be conceived as a great industry engaged in the production of dried fruits, olives, all types of oils and spices. When it comes to blending ingredients and readapating other latitude cuisines traditions, the almost unlimited source of raw materials above enables the existence of a great product versatility.

Regional differences
Pelaxian cuisine has regional variations. Asado, dulce de leche, empanadas, are found throughout Pelaxia. In many parts of the country, food is prepared differently and different kinds of foods are made; this includes to a smaller degree food from pre-Caphirian times, as in the Northwest.

North-Center Region
For long periods, urban areas such as Albalitor, Agrila, and Montia welcomed mostly migrants from Caphiria. Nevertheless, there was also a migratory flow of Yytuskian, Burgundian, and Grajnidar immigrants arriving in Pelaxia. Among the countless changes this melting pot brought was the enrichment of the culinary art. Dishes such as pasta, pizza, (stews), croquetas (fritter)s, sauces, embutidos (sausages), and chicken and meat courses brought a wider scope of options to daily menus. Furthermore, the bread-making, dessert, pastry, and dairy industries have achieved considerable development in this region. The above-mentioned dishes have developed a distinctively Pelaxian nuance. That is why, for example, Pelaxian pasta includes a wide variety of dishes ranging from spaghetti, fusiles (fusilli), ñoquis (gnocchi), ravioli, cintas (pasta ribbons), and lasagne to the Pelaxian-made sorrentinos, agnolottis (agnolotti), canelones (cannelloni), and fetuchines (fettuccine). Bread products are consumed all around the country. The deeply rooted bread, pastry, and dessert-making tradition derives from blending the above nationalities' products. Bakeries sell not only a wide scope of breads, cookies, and cakes, but also pastries. The latter resembles a sort of roll pastry whose main dough ingredient is either butter or fat and which may be simple or stuffed with dulce de leche, milk, jam, crema pastelera, or quince or apple jelly, among other fillings. The most popular type of pastry is said to be that of crecientes ( literally half crescent), based upon Burgundian croissants. Furthermore, sandwiches de miga are another type of bread products; they are made only with thin layers of white bread (generally referred to as crustless bread) and stuffed with food items ranging from ham and cheese to other more sophisticated combinations such as raw ham, tomatoes, olives, hard boiled eggs, tuna, lettuce, red pepper, and the like. Desserts and sweets are usually stuffed or covered with dulce de leche. The latter can be eaten alone or on top of cakes, alfajores, panqueques (crepes), and pastries, or as a topping spread over flan de leche. Chantilly cream is widely consumed and used in preparing sweets and desserts. Additionally, cakes, sponge cakes, and puddings are very popular dishes. Although asado is eaten all over the country, its origin may be traced back to the Coast. It entails manifold types of meat, which are generally eaten as follows: achuras (offal, or the cow's inner parts), morcilla (blood sausage), and sometimes also a provoleta (a piece of provolone cheese cooked on the grill with oregano) are eaten first. Then comes the choripán (a kind of spiced sausage made with pork or lamb and placed between two slices of bread), and lastly meat such as asado de tira, vacío (flank steak), lomo (tenderloin), colita de cuadril (rump), matambre (rolled stuffed steak cut into slices and served cold), entraña (hanger steak); the list is never-ending.

El Alto de Los Picos
This region is the one most influenced by the topography and climate. When preparing regional dishes, potatoes and corn or wheat are almost always used, including peppers, squashes and tomatoes. The most celebrated dishes are tortilla de papa and Montian Bean Stew. This region is the most suitable to taste empanadas, particularly those stuffed with meat and offering different types of tempting varieties such as the meat empanada, salteña also filled with potatoes, or the empanada tucumana, which is stuffed with matambre and cut with a knife, or empanadas made with cheese. Empanadas are individual sized and closed savoury pastries which may be fried or baked in the oven and are generally eaten with the hands.

Stews such as Montian Bean Stew, carbonada, pollo al disco, and cazuelas (casseroles) are also typical dishes characterizing this region, which also include pumpkin or potato pudding stuffed with meat.

Islas Jusonias
Foods produced in the Jusón Archipelago include fish and seafood from the sea and rivers, and the products of the pigs widely farmed there. Marine species such as salmon, Tuna, spider crabs, squid and other shellfish and molluscs may be caught in the Kindred Sea. There are trout in the rivers.

The Loa settlements in this region have built up large-scale production of sea food and its by-products. Ponna is a local cuisine that originally involved preserving raw fish or other seafood such as octopus with sea salt and rubbing it (lomi) with seasonings or cutting it into small pieces. Scallions, chili peppers, and soy sauce have become common additions to it. Ponna is different from sashimi, since the former is usually rough-cut and piled onto a plate, and can be made with less expensive pieces of fish.

Chicken and lamb, together with wild boar and venison tend to make up the region's meat-based dishes. Also typical of southern region are smoked products, including salmon, wild boar, and pheasant.

Alcoholic beverages
Though wine (vino) has traditionally been the most popular alcoholic beverage in Pelaxia, beer in recent decades has competed with wine in popularity. Breweries appeared in Pelaxia at the end of the 1760s. Consumption of beer has increased outpacing that of wine since 1991, the growing production and consumption of beer has supported the existence of related events, for example beer festivals called 'Fiestas de la Cerveza". However, the presence of a vigorous population of Celtic lineage, principally of Kiravian origin, has supported the creation of other celebrations of beer, often for marketing purposes, such as Saint Patrick's Day (Día de San Patricio). Pelaxians enjoy a variety of alcoholic beverages and Pelaxians can boast a varied array of elaboraciones, whether industrial or artisanal. Besides beer and wine, Pelaxians frequently drink Limoncello. Limoncello is the most popular beverage of the middle and lower economic classes at Christmas and New Year (the upper classes proverbially preferring to celebrate with locally produced champagne, although real old-line "creole" aristocrats will still drink Limoncello, which is much more traditional). Other widely consumed spirits are rum made from sugar cane, gin, sangría and fernet.

Non-alcoholic specialties
Pelaxians enjoy a wide variety of non-alcoholic infusions. Among these, tea has long been the most widely enjoyed; in 2006, over 700,000 metric tons were harvested in Pelaxia, mostly for domestic consumption. Tea is also one of the top exports from Pelaxia, as it is valued all over the world, but second behind coffee. Anglo-Germanic cultural influence (reinforced at the end of the 19th century and beginnings of the 20th has also made the consumption of tea very common.

Popular short-order dishes
Common restoranes or restaurantes and rotiserias (grill restaurants) nearly anywhere in Pelaxia today serve (into the small hours) quickly prepared meals that in the course of the 20th century came to be known as minutas, "short-order dishes". Some of the dishes included in the category of minutas are milanesas, churrascos, bifes (beefsteaks), escalopes, tallarines, ravioles (ravioli), ñoquis (gnocchi), although some are very typical of locations that sell food: "bifes" and "milanesas" are served "a caballo" ("on horseback", with fried egg on top), "milanesa completa" (a milanesa with two fried eggs and French fries), "revuelto Gramajo", "colchón de arvejas" (an omelette made with peas), "suprema de pollo" (chicken supreme, usually breaded as a milanesa), matambres, "lengua a la vinagreta" (pickled tongue), and "sandwiches" (sandwiches de miga) are made with sliced white bread, rather than, say, rolls. The most common sandwiches are those made of milanesa, baked ham and cheese, 'pan de miga, toast, panchos (hot dogs), choripanes, morcipanes'', etc.; Picadas, which are consumed at home or in bars, cafés, "cafetines" and "bodegones" are also popular; they consist of an ensemble of plates containing cubes of cheese (typically from Montia or Agrila), pieces of salame, olives in brine, french fries, maníes (peanuts), etc.; picadas are eaten accompanied by an alcoholic beverage ("fernet", beer, wine with soda, to give some common examples).

The people of Pelaxia greatly enjoy helado (ice creams of Acirian lineage or sorbets native origin).

Eating habits
Breakfast typically is small and consists of tea or “café con leche” (coffee with milk) and toasts, pide bread, with some fruit juice, possibly orange juice accompanied with either cheese, tomatoes, eggs, olives or hummus.. A continental-style breakfast (desayuno) may be taken just after waking up, or before entering the workplace. Due to the large time span between breakfast and lunch, it is not uncommon to halt the working schedule to take a mid-morning snack with tea. Traditional lunches in Pelaxia are long and well developed. Pelaxians often have a light evening snack (called a "merienda" - typically a coffee or green tea and a pastry and it is common to not eat dinner until 9 pm, or even later on weekends.