Hi Steemit! Food and nutrition, languages and cultures

Hello to all on Steemit! My name is Shan and I love exploring food from around the world from the vantage point of a linguist to get a better understanding of different cuisines and the cultures that they arose from. I'm super stoked to be joining Steemit, where I will be sharing drool-worthy posts about food and dishes from different cuisines while providing linguistic tips including the names of the dishes in the respective languages of the cultures as well as other cultural tidbits. I strongly believe that the way to a language's soul is through its stomach; not only is learning about food not just one of the most rewarding aspects of learning a language and culture, but showing knowledge and willingness to learn about the cuisine and culinary habits of a culture is also a surefire way to impress friends who speak your target language.

My primary area of focus is the broad East/Southeast/South Asia region, though I love food and languages from all around the world, so I will do my best to provide representation of other regions as well. In my own cooking, I also experiment with fusion dishes as well, though I make sure to ground my dishes firmly with appropriate acknowledgement in the original cuisines getting fused together. I will also bring up ways to tweak dishes to suit a variety of diet lifestyles, particularly low-carb/paleo/ketogenic diets and vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free substitutions. I personally practice a balanced diet with moderation that allows for occasional treats (to allow for flexible exploration and avoid the feeling of deprivation) in conjunction with an exercise routine and some intermittent fasting for weight maintenance and overall health, but people do often take different nutritional approaches according to whether they are trying to lose weight or gain weight or other personal preferences, so I provide some recipes that are geared towards certain diets that I feel can be useful in some circumstances. You will also notice soon enough that I have a irrational obsession with all things matcha 🍵 ;)

Food pics and shorter summary posts can also be found on my Instagram (also polyglotfoodie), though more detailed discussion will be posted here on Steemit. I of course welcome all comments and discussion no matter if it is about food, languages, cooking, cultures, health, or just plain old chit-chat, so I hope you can join me as we eat our way to fluency, one delicious word at a time!