Food & Cooking · Unit 11
Cuisines of the World
How different places cook, and why
Cuisines are not arbitrary. What grows in a climate, what preserves in it, and what arrived by trade together explain most of why a region cooks the way it does.
The unit covers the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and the Americas, with staple foods and climate as the thread connecting them.
This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 119 questions, starting at difficulty 3 and building to 4. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.
- Steps
- 20
- Questions
- 119
- Difficulty
- 3-4
What this unit covers
- Cooking Across Asia
- Africa and the Middle East
- The Mediterranean
- Staple Foods and Climate
- The Americas
Where this fits
Best after Cooking Methods and Herbs and Spices.
Where people slip
Many national dishes use ingredients that arrived recently. Tomatoes in Italian cooking and chillies in Indian cooking both postdate 1500 and came from the Americas.
How the unit is structured
Cuisines of the World runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 3 and climb to 4 as you progress.
Challenge rounds
Example questions
30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 119 in the unit altogether.
Africa and the Middle East
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
1. Which are eaten widely across the Middle East? Pick all that apply.
- Flatbreadcorrect
- Hummuscorrect
- Datescorrect
- Maple syrup
Flatbread, hummus and dates are all everyday foods there.
- Fact or fibLevel 3
2. African cuisine is a single uniform style of cooking.
Answer: False
False. The continent contains enormously varied culinary traditions.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
3. What is couscous?
- Tiny steamed grains of semolinacorrect
- A kind of bread
- A meat stew
- A dessert
Tiny steamed granules of semolina wheat, eaten across North Africa.
- Odd one outLevel 3
4. Which of these is NOT usually part of a Middle Eastern mezze?
- Steamed sponge puddingcorrect
- Hummus
- Falafel
- Flatbread
A steamed pudding belongs to British dessert tradition.
- True or falseLevel 3
5. Flatbreads are used to scoop food in many Middle Eastern and North African meals.
Answer: True
True. Bread often takes the place of cutlery.
- Type the answerLevel 3
6. Which North African stew is named after the clay pot it is cooked in?
Answer: tagine
A tagine has a distinctive conical lid.
Cooking Across Asia
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
7. Which dishes come from Asia? Pick all that apply.
- Sushicorrect
- Dumplingscorrect
- Pad thaicorrect
- Fish and chips
Sushi, dumplings and pad thai all come from Asian cuisines.
- Fact or fibLevel 3
8. Every country in Asia cooks in exactly the same way.
Answer: False
False. Asia contains dozens of very different cuisines.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
9. What are chopsticks used for?
- Eating foodcorrect
- Stirring paint
- Measuring flour
- Lighting fires
They are eating utensils used across much of East and Southeast Asia.
- Picture questionLevel 3
10. 🍜 Which cuisine is this bowl of noodles most associated with?
- Asian cuisinescorrect
- Nordic cuisine
- Andean cuisine
- Alpine cuisine
Noodle soups are a staple across East and Southeast Asia.
- Sort into groupsLevel 3
11. Sort each flavour base by the cuisine it signals.
Answer: Soy, ginger and spring onion = East Asian; Rice wine and sesame oil = East Asian; Olive oil, garlic and oregano = Mediterranean; Tomato and basil = Mediterranean
Characteristic combinations identify cuisines quickly.
- Build the sentenceLevel 4
12. Build a sentence about culinary change.
Answer: Cuisines change constantly through trade and migration
Cuisines change constantly through trade and migration.
Staple Foods and Climate
- Build the sentenceLevel 3
13. Build a sentence about world cooking.
Answer: Trade and migration shaped every national cuisine
Trade and migration shaped every national cuisine.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
14. Which are staple foods somewhere in the world? Pick all that apply.
- Ricecorrect
- Wheatcorrect
- Cassavacorrect
- Chocolate
Rice, wheat, maize and cassava all feed whole regions.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
15. Which grain is the staple in much of Europe and North America?
- Wheatcorrect
- Rice
- Millet
- Sorghum
Wheat, mostly as bread and pasta, dominates those diets.
- Sort into groupsLevel 3
16. Sort each staple by the region it is most associated with.
Answer: Rice = Much of Asia; Noodles = Much of Asia; Maize tortillas = Mexico and Central America; Beans and maize = Mexico and Central America
Climate shapes which staple dominates.
- True or falseLevel 3
17. Maize is a staple food across much of Latin America and Africa.
Answer: True
True, eaten as tortillas, porridge and many other forms.
- Put in orderLevel 4
18. Put these stages of a dish becoming global in order.
Answer: A local regional dish -> Carried abroad by migrants -> Adapted to local ingredients -> Commercialised by restaurants -> Recognised worldwide
Local dish, migration, adaptation, commercialisation, worldwide.
The Americas
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
19. Which foods come from the Americas? Pick all that apply.
- Maizecorrect
- Potatocorrect
- Cocoacorrect
- Rice
Maize, potatoes and cocoa all originated there.
- Fill the blankLevel 3
20. A flat Mexican bread made from maize or wheat is a ____.
- tortillacorrect
- baguette
- bagel
- pretzel
Tortillas wrap fillings for tacos and burritos.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
21. What is a tortilla made from?
- Maize or wheat flourcorrect
- Rice
- Potato only
- Beans
Tortillas are flat breads made from maize or wheat flour.
- Put in orderLevel 3
22. Put these steps of making a taco in order.
Answer: Warm the tortilla -> Add the filling -> Add toppings and salsa -> Fold and eat
Warm the tortilla, add filling, add toppings, eat.
- Sort into groupsLevel 3
23. Sort each ingredient by which hemisphere it originated in.
Answer: Tomato = The Americas; Potato = The Americas; Wheat = Europe, Asia or Africa; Rice = Europe, Asia or Africa
The Columbian Exchange moved crops in both directions.
- True or falseLevel 3
24. Maize, potatoes and tomatoes all originally come from the Americas.
Answer: True
True. All three spread worldwide after 1492.
The Mediterranean
- Build the sentenceLevel 3
25. Build a sentence about Mediterranean food.
Answer: Olive oil is used across Mediterranean cooking
Olive oil is used across Mediterranean cooking.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
26. Which are Mediterranean foods? Pick all that apply.
- Olivescorrect
- Tomatoescorrect
- Feta cheesecorrect
- Maple syrup
Olives, tomatoes and feta are all common around the Mediterranean.
- Fact or fibLevel 3
27. A dish being centuries old makes it more nutritious.
Answer: False
False. Age says nothing about nutritional quality.
- Fill the blankLevel 3
28. The least processed grade of olive oil is called ____ virgin.
- extracorrect
- light
- pure
- refined
It is cold pressed with strict quality limits.
- Match the pairsLevel 3
29. Match each dish to its country of origin.
Answer: Pizza = Italy; Paella = Spain; Sushi = Japan; Tacos = Mexico
Many famous dishes are closely linked to one place.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
30. Which oil is central to Mediterranean cooking?
- Olive oilcorrect
- Coconut oil
- Palm oil
- Fish oil
Olive oil is used for cooking, dressing and preserving.
Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.
How you practise
This unit mixes 12 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.
- Build the sentence
- Choose all that apply
- Fact or fib
- Fill the blank
- Match the pairs
- Multiple choice
- Odd one out
- Picture question
- Put in order
- Sort into groups
- True or false
- Type the answer
Practise Cuisines of the World
119 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.
Play this unitMore units in Food & Cooking
- What We EatFood groups, meals and where our food comes from
- Fruit and VegetablesGrowing, picking and eating plants
- In the KitchenTools, hygiene and staying safe while you cook
- From Farm to PlateThe journey food takes before it reaches you
- Grains and BreadThe crops that feed the world and the loaves they become
- Dairy and EggsMilk, cheese, butter and the remarkable egg
- Meat, Fish and ProteinProtein foods, how they cook and how they are caught or raised
- Herbs and SpicesFlavour, aroma and the trade that moved the world