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Acai Berry Pictures, Photos & Images

Stock Food Photos of the Acai Berry

FACTS ABOUT Açai ( Acai ) Berries

We are selling 43 Acai berry stock photography photos in our Açai photos stock library collection. Buy on line Rights managed and Royalty free Acai berry photography, pictures and images.

The acai palm (Euterpe oleracea), pronounced ah-sah-ee, is a member of the Euterpe genus and is native to Central and South America, from Belize south to Brazil and Peru.The palms prefer to live in floodplains and swampland and grow to a height of 15-30 meters.

The acai palm is very fast growing and is grown for its fruit and palm hearts which are eaten in salads. The acai fruit is about 25mm in diameter and grows on branches that support 800 or so acai fruits. When ripe the acai berry is a deep black purple colour with a large seed in the middle.

Stock photography of the acai berry the super fruit anti oxident from the Amazon. The acai berry has been associated with helping weight loss. (© Paul Williams 2009)

Acai berries have been an important fruit to the inhabitants of the Amazon region of Brazil, originally as food and today as a cash crop. The acai berry in recent years have been shown to have antioxidant properties particularly when freeze dried, powdered or the essence extracted. It has also been associated with weight loss but this has not been confirmed in the US by the FDA.

Acai berry juice is now becoming readily available in drinks and yoghurt and has become a trendy super fruit in the last couple of years, turning up in smoothies and juice mixes.

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Acai Berry Fact Sheet

Jul 22, 2010 | Categories:Home Page Blog, Ingredient Food Photos, Slider Blog | Tags: acai berries, Acai Berry, Food Stock Photos, stock photos | Leave A Comment »

British Food Pictures & Photos

British food used to suffer from a bad reputation. The British cuisine was knocked back by war rationing which lasted until 1853. This left a generation who had had to cook on basic rations.

In the 1980′s though a revolution took place. Well trained Australian chefs came to Britain as part of the traditional year out. Pub food improved with fresh produce and good small restuarants started to thrive. At the top end of the market Nouvelle Cuisine came in from France and added a high level of haute cuisine.

By the end of the 1990′s London was one if not the top place to eat in the world, and the further success of The Fat Duck being voted the top retaurant in the world added more credibilty to British food.

Today Gordon Ramsey and Jamies Oliver can be seen on TV sets around the world. Jamie Oliver inspired a new young male generation to get into the kitchen and food as a trendy passtime grows and grows.

In this series of British food photographs we have concentrated on traditional British food. The sunday roast was a classic post war dish. It brought families together every Sunday to sit down and talk to each other. The best Yorkshire pudding recipe is always hotly contested and is an essential part of the roast dinner.

You will also find food photos of crumpets, bake beans and food photos of classic full British Breakfasts.

This is a growing collection of food photography by food photographer Paul Williams so please come back to see updates of the food photos.

To See British Food Photos Click Here

OTHER PHOTO COLLECTIONS Of FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

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Jul 22, 2010 | Categories:Home Page Blog | Leave A Comment »

Citrus Fruits Facts, Pictures, Photos & Images

FACTS ABOUT CITRUS FRUIT

Citrus fruit grow in tropical and sub tropical regions of the world. The best know citrus fruit are oranges, lemons, grapefruit, Mandarins, clementines and limes. Funky Stock has collections with stock photos of all these fruits plus photos of the less well citrus fruit, kumquats and pomelos.

Citrus fruit skin is also high in essential oils which are removed to be used in flavorings or as fragrant essences in aromatherapy oils, cosmetics and soaps.

Citrus fruits are high in vitamin C and were used by the sailors of sailing ships to avoid scurvy which was caused by vitamin C deficiency common on long voyages with no fresh foods available. As the British acquired the nick name “limeys” it looks like limes were the preferred citrus fruit of British sailors.

The acidity of lemons is also a good remedy for the alkaline bee sting and few drops of lime are squeezed by martial artists into the corner of their eyes to help their vision.

See Our Citrus Stock Pictures, Photos & Images

POMELO STOCK PHOTOS

The pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis) is a citrus fruit native to South East Asia. It is usually pale green to yellow when ripe, with very thick pithy rind. It is the largest citrus fruit, 15–25 cm in diameter, and usually weighing 1–2 kg. Other spellings for pomelo include pummelo, and pomelo, and other names include Chinese grapefruit, jabong, lusho fruit, pompelmous,[2] Papanas, and shaddock.[3] Pomelos are also referred to as chakotara in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. The pomelo taste like a sweet grapefruit. In the Phillapeans the fruit is cut into segments and dipped in salt before eating. In Thailand segments are also dipped in chili to eat.

See Our Citrus Stock Pictures, Images & Photos

ORANGE STOCK PHOTOS COLLECTION

Oranges originated in Southeast Asia. The fruit of Citrus sinensis is called sweet orange to distinguish it from Citrus aurantium, the bitter orange. The name is thought to ultimately derive from the Sanskritfor the orange tree, with its final form developing after passing through numerous intermediate languages.

See our Oranges stock pictures, photos & images gallery

LIME STOCK PHOTOS

Lime is a term referring to a number of different fruits, both species and hybrids, citruses, which have their origin in the Himalayan region of India and which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are often used to accent the flavours of foods and beverages. They are usually smaller than lemons, and a source of vitamin C. Limes are grown all year round and are usually sweeter than lemons.

Limes are a small citrus fruit, Citrus aurantifolia, whose skin and flesh are green in colour and which have an oval or round shape with a diameter between one to two inches. Limes can either be sour or sweet, with the latter not readily available in the United States. Sour limes possess a greater sugar and citric acid content than lemons and feature an acidic and tart taste, while sweet limes lack citric acid content and are sweet in flavour.

See our Lemons & Lime stock pictures, photos & images

LEMONS STOCK PHOTOS

The lemon is a small evergreen tree (Citrus limon) originally native to Asia, and is also the name of the tree’s oval yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind (zest) are also used, mainly in cooking and baking. Lemons evolved their sour flavor as a chemical plant defense. Lemon juice is about 5% (approximately 0.3 mole per liter) citric acid, which gives lemons a tart taste, and a pH of 2 to 3. This makes lemon juice an inexpensive, readily available acid for use in educational science experiments. Because of the tart flavor, many lemon-flavored drinks and candies are available, including lemonade.

See our Lemons & Lime stock pictures, photos & images

CLEMANTINE and MANDARIN STOCK PHOTOS

Clementines and Mandarins. A clementine is the hesperidium of a variety of mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata), named in 1902. The exterior is a deep orange colour with a smooth, glossy appearance. Clementines separate easily into seven to fourteen juicy segments. They are very easy to peel, like a tangerine, but are almost always seedless. Clementines are, thus, also known as seedless tangerines.The traditional story is that it was “originally an accidental hybrid said to have been discovered by Father Clément Rodier in the garden of his orphanage in Misserghin, Algeria.”[1] However, there are claims it originated in China much earlier. James Saunt has commented that “Some authorities believe it is virtually identical to the variety known as the Canton mandarin widely grown in Guangxi and Guangdong Provinces in China.”[2]The Clementine is not always distinguished from other varieties of mandarin oranges. However, it should not be confused with similar fruit such as the satsuma, which is another name for the Japanese mikan, and is another popular variety. The clementine is occasionally referred to as Algerian tangerine.

Visit our madarin stock pictures, photos & images

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Jul 21, 2010 | Categories:Food Stock Photos, Home Page Blog, Slider Blog | Tags: acai berries, Acai Berry, citrus fruit photos, Food Stock Photos, grapefruit photos, lemons pictures, limes pictures, oranges pictures, pomelo photos, stock photography | Leave A Comment »

Italy Stock Pictures, Photos & Images

Italy , officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent and partly on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within the Italian Peninsula, and Campione d’Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers 301,338 km² and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.2 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world.

The land known as Italy today has been the cradle of European cultures and peoples, such as the Etruscans and the Romans. Italy’s capital, Rome, was for centuries the political centre of Western civilisation, as the capital of the Roman Empire. After its decline, Italy would endure numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Normans and later, the Byzantines, among others. Centuries later, Italy would become the birthplace of the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.

Through much of its post-Roman history, Italy was fragmented into numerous kingdoms and city-states (such as the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Duchy of Milan), but was unified in 1861, a tumultuous period in history known as the “Risorgimento”. In the late 19th century, through World War I, and to World War II, Italy possessed a colonial empire, which extended its rule to Libya, Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, Ethiopia, Albania, Rhodes, the Dodecanese and a concession in Tianjin, China.

Modern Italy is a democratic republic. It has been ranked the world’s eighteenth most-developed country and its Quality-of-Life Index has been ranked in the top ten in the world. Italy enjoys a very high standard of living, and has a high nominal GDP per capita. It is a founding member of what is now the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Italy is also a member of the G8 and G20. It has the world’s seventh-largest nominal GDP, tenth highest GDP and the fifth highest government budget in the world.

THE GREEKS AND ROMANS

Excavations throughout Italy reveal a modern human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greek colonies were established all along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula became known as Magna Graecia. Our photo collections include pictures of the great Greek temples in Sicily At Selinute and Agrigento and the great Greek Ampitheatre in Taormina.

Ancient Rome was at first a small agricultural community founded circa the 8th century BC that grew over the course of the centuries into a colossal empire encompassing the whole Mediterranean Sea, in which Ancient Greek and Roman cultures merged into one civilization. This civilization was so influential that parts of it survive in modern law, administration, philosophy and arts, forming the ground that Western civilization is based upon. Rome still has the ruins and remains of its great buildings such as the iconic Colosseum and the remains of the emperors palaces in the Forum our Rome collection of photos and pictures show many of the important sights of Rome.

Roman art was very heavily influenced by the Greeks as can be seen in the Roman mosaics in our photo collection of Villa Romana.

In its twelve-century existence it transformed itself from monarchy to republic and finally to autocracy. In steady decline since the 2nd century AD, the empire finally broke into two parts in 285 AD: the Western Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire in the East. The western part under the pressure of Goths finally dissolved the Western Roman Empire and Rome was sacked. This left the Italian peninsula divided into small independent kingdoms and feuding city states for the next 14 centuries, and leaving the eastern Byzantine Empire sole heir to the Roman legacy. Byzantine art can be seen in the photo and picture collections we have of the great Byzantine churches of Monreale and the Palentine Chapel in Palermo

MIDDLE AGES

In the sixth century AD the Byzantine Emperor Justinian re-conquered Italy from the Ostrogoths. The invasion of a new wave of Germanic tribes, the Lombards, doomed his attempt to resurrect the Western Roman Empire but the repercussions of Justinian’s failure resounded further still. For the next thirteen centuries, whilst new nation-states arose in the lands north of the Alps, the Italian political landscape was a patchwork of feuding city states, petty tyrannies, and foreign invaders.

For several centuries the armies and Exarchates led by the Exarchate of Ravenna, Justinian’s successors, were a tenacious force in Italian affairs – strong enough to prevent other powers such as the Arabs, the Holy Roman Empire, or the Papacy from establishing a unified Italian Kingdom, but too weak to unify and control the region.

Italy’s regions were eventually subsumed by their neighboring empires with their conflicting interests and would remain divided up to the 19th century. It was during this vacuum of authority that the region saw the rise of the Signoria and the Commune. In the anarchic conditions that often prevailed in medieval Italian city-states, people looked to strong men to restore order and disarm the feuding elites. In times of anarchy or crisis, cities sometimes offered the Signoria to individuals perceived as strong enough to save the state, most notably the Della Scala family in Verona, the Visconti in Milan and the Medici in Florence.

Italy during this period became notable for its merchant Republics. These city-states, oligarchical in reality, had a dominant merchant class which under relative freedom nurtured academic and artistic advancement. The four classic Maritime Republics in Italy were Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi. Venice and Genoa were Europe’s gateways to trade with the East, with the former producer of the renowned venetian glass. Florence was the capital of silk, wool, banks and jewelry. The Maritime Republics were heavily involved in the Crusades, taking advantage of the new political and trading opportunities, most evidently in the conquest of Zara and Constantinople funded by Venice.

During the late Middle Ages Italy was divided into smaller city-states and territories: the kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States the centre, the Genoese and the Milanese the north and west, and the Venetians the east.

RENAISSANCE

The unique political structures of late Middle Ages Italy and its dynamic social climate and florescent trade allowed the emergence of a unique cultural efflorescence. Italy never regained the unity it once had in the days of the Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages was divided into smaller city states and territories: the kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States the center, the Genoese and the Milanese the north and west, and the Venetians the east.

Fifteenth-century Italy was one of the most urbanised areas in Europe. Most historians agree that the ideas that characterized the Renaissance and their earliest apologists and supporters had their origin in late 13th century Florence or gravitated in or around Florence, as well as the other rival city-states. The Renaissance achieved its epitome, in particular with the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Francesco Patriarch (1304–1374), Bocaccio. The Renaissance was an extremely important period in Italian history, and in European history, and brought along numerous political, philosophical, literary, cultural, social and religious reforms.

The Renaissance was so called because it was a “rebirth” of many classical ideas that had long been buried in the chapters of classical Antiquity. One could argue that the fuel for this rebirth was the rediscovery of ancient texts that had been almost ‘forgotten’ by Western civilization, but were preserved in some monastic libraries or private libraries of powerful and wealthy patrons. Some would argue that there were translations of Greek and Arabic texts into Latin from the Islamic world that found their way into Italy and contributed to the Italian/European Renaissance. However, most of the manuscripts were either already in the Italian Peninsula or in ‘Greece’ and were taken to Italy in the centuries preceding the Renaissance by the Italians themselves (by the traders who travelled regularly to the Eastern Mediterranean, including Greece) and by Byzantine Greeks who migrated to Italy during the onslaught of the Ottoman empire, against the Byzantine Empire in the 1400s, and specially after 1453, once the Ottomans had conquered the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. These Byzantines fled the Turks, sometimes carrying precious manuscripts and their knowledge (Greek and Ancient Greek) and while fixating themselves in Italy made a discreet but crucial contribution to the Renaissance.

Florence became Italy’s main centre of the Renaissance as our photo picture collection of Florence shows. Numerous artists, such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli worked in the city. Its economy flourished, and according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Florence from the 14th century to the 16th century was one of Europe’s greatest cities, and its numerous museums, palazzi and churches, such as the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi have been described by the encyclopedia as works of art themselves.

Rome was also a city particularly affected by the Renaissance. This period of reform changed the city’s face dramatically, with works like the Pietà by Michelangelo and the frescoes of the Borgia Apartment. Rome reached the highest point of splendour under Pope Julius II (1503–1513) and his successors Leo X and Clement VII, both members of the Medici family. In this twenty-years period Rome became one of the greatest centres of art in the world. The old St. Peter’s Basilica built by Emperor Constantine the Great, was re-built mainly by Michelangelo, who in Rome became one the most famous painters of Italy.

Rome lost in part its religious character, becoming increasingly a true Renaissance city, with a great number of popular feasts, horse races, parties, intrigues and licentious episodes. Its economy was rich, with the presence of several Tuscan bankers, including Agostino Chigi, who was a friend of Raphael and a patron of arts. Before his early death, Raphael also promoted for the first time the preservation of the ancient ruins.

The great republics like Venice conquered the Byzantine empire and looted its treasures decorating St Marcs Cathedral with ancient columns and treasures like the 4 horses from Constantinople (today Istanbul). With this vast wealth Italian architects and artists invented Baroque which is typified by lavish, intricate curved buildings and sculptures. Once the excesses of the Baroque were over Italian architect Palladio produced Neo Classic buildings like the Rotunda that influenced every major country palace in England.

TODAY

Today Italy is a vibrant republic with one of the 5 great cuisines of the world and is the home of the world famous Italian pizza as well as a rich and diverse historic and architectural heritage. Even the smallest village church seem to have a renaissance masterpiece painting hanging over its alter. Italian culture has influenced so much of Europe for 2,000 years. From the great ancient buildings of Rome to the great fashion, furniture and car designers of today Italy has shaped so much of the way we see and think.

OUR ITALIAN GALLERIES OF PHOTOS, PICTURES & IMAGES

Rome pictures, images and photos

Venice pictures, images and photos

Burano pictures, images and photos

Chioggia pictures, images and photos

Tivoli pictures, images and photos

Portofino pictures, images and photos

Alberobello pictures, images and photos

Amalfi Coast pictures, images and photos

Amalfi pictures, images and photos

Positano pictures, images and photos

Pisa pictures, images and photos

Florence pictures, images and photos

San Gimignano pictures, images and photos

Bari pictures, images and photos

Ostuni pictures, images and photos

Ticino pictures, images and photos

Italian Food pictures, images and photos

Italian Pizzas pictures, images and photos

OUR SICILY GALLERIES OF PHOTOS, PICTURES & IMAGES

Villa Palagonia pictures, images and photos

Noto pictures, images and photos

Siracusa pictures, images and photos

Palermo pictures, images and photos

Palentine Chapel pictures, images and photos

Villa Romana pictures, images and photos

Selanute Greek Temples pictures, images and photos

Agrigento Greek Temples pictures, images and photos

Taormina pictures, images and photos

Mount Etna pictures, images and photos

Monreale pictures, images and photos

Erice pictures, images and photos

Cefalu pictures, images and photos

Trapani & Masala pictures, images and photos

Scopello & Zingaro Park pictures, images and photos

Ragusa Ibla pictures, images and photos

Modica pictures, images and photos

Scicli pictures, images and photos

Jul 21, 2010 | Categories:Home Page Blog, Travel Stock Photos | Tags: Florence Photos, Funky Stock Library, Italian food photos, Italian Photos, Italy Pictires, Photos of Sicily, Rome Pictures, stock photography, travel stock photography, Venice Pictures | Leave A Comment »

Fruit pictures & Photos with a smile

Food Photography of Smiley Fruit

Smiley fruit shows stock photos of oranges, apples, pears and lemons with a smile cut into them. These stock photos are perfect for magazine articles about healthy fruit or for use as advertising posters to promote fruit. The fruit food photos would also make an impresive fruit home page photo or a photo to hang on your kitchen awll for fun.

Either way the happy fruit photos can be downloaded from our site on line or you can purchase photo prints on line as well.

visit our Happy Fruit Stock Photo and Print Page

http://www.funkyfood.co.uk

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Jul 15, 2010 | Categories:Food Stock Photos, Home Page Blog | Tags: apples, citrus, Food Stock Photos, fruit pictures, oranges, stock photography | Leave A Comment »

Stock Photos & Pictures Of Portofino Italy

FACTS AND HISTORY OF PORTOFINO, ITALY.

Portofino is a small Italian fishing village, comune and tourist resort located in the province of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. The town crowded round its small harbour is considered to be among the most beautiful Mediterranean ports.

According to Pliny the Elder, Portofino was founded by the Romans and named Portus Delphini, or Port of the Dolphin, because of the large number of dolphins that inhabited the Tigullian Gulf.

In the late 19th century, first British, then other northern European aristocratic tourists began to visit Portofino, which they reached by horse and cart from Santa Margherita Ligure. Aubrey Herbert was one of the more famous Englishmen to maintain a villa at Portofino.

Eventually more expatriates built expensive vacation houses, and by 1950 tourism had supplanted fishing as the town’s chief industry, and the waterfront was a continuous ring of restaurants and cafes.

Portofino became the favorite of the stars like Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando, Marcello Mastroianni, Orson Welles, Maria Callas and Aristotele Onassis, Louis Armstrong and Walt Disney, Laurel and Hardy, John Wayne and Joan Collins, Anita Ekberg and Rex Harrison.

Today Dolce & Kebana have a villa in Portofino & Tokyo Disney Sea in Chiba Japan, has made a full size replica of the harbor for its theme park. The Top Gear crew made it their stating point for a race to Saint-Tropez on the BBC TV series, Hammond in a Ferrari Deytona, May in a speedboat.

Today it still has plenty of small wooden fishing boats in its harbour but the jet set millionaires also moor at Portofino in their multi million dollar yaughts.

Sitting above the harbour is Castello Brown, a house museum. The castle’s site is well suited for harbor defense, and appears to have been so used since the 15th century. Today it is a museum showing work of Frederica Schiaffino who used Castle Brown to make works of art. From Castle Brown park land stretches to the end of the headland with many secluded villas and bays.

OTHER PHOTO COLLECTIONS FROM ITALY

Sicily Photos & Pictures

May 10, 2010 | Categories:Home Page Blog, Slider Blog, Travel Stock Photos | Tags: Funky Stock Library, Photographer Paul Randall Williams, photos of Italy, Photos of Potofino, Portofino fotos, Portofino Images, Portofino Pictures, stock photography, stock photos, travel stock photography | Leave A Comment »

Chocolate & Cacao Stock Photos and Pictures

Chocolate Stock Photos & Pictures

FACTS AND HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE AND CACAO.

Chocolate ( See Photos) is one of the worlds favorite treats. It has been grown and consumed for over 2000 years. Theobroma cacao, native to Mexico, Central and South America, has been cultivated for at least three millennia in that region. Cocoa mass was used originally in Mesoamerica both as a beverage and as an ingredient in food. Chocolate has been used as a drink for nearly all of its history. The earliest record of using chocolate dates back before the Olmec. In November 2007, archaeologists reported finding evidence of the oldest known cultivation and use of cacao at a site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, dating from about 1100 to 1400 BC

Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central and South American peoples. It was not until the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs that chocolate could be imported to Europe. In Spain it quickly became a court favorite. In a century it had spread and become popular throughout the European continent To keep up with the high demand for this new drink, Spanish armies began enslaving Mesoamericans to produce cacao.

Even with cacao harvesting becoming a regular business, only royalty and the well-connected could afford to drink this expensive import.[18] Before long, the Spanish began growing cacao beans on plantations, and using an African workforce to help manage them. The situation was different in England. Put simply, anyone with money could buy it. The first chocolate house opened in London in 1657. In 1689, noted physician and collector Hans Sloane developed a milk chocolate drink in Jamaica which was initially used by apothecaries, but later sold to the Cadbury brothers in 1897.

Chocolate in its solid form was invented in 1847. Joseph Fry & Son discovered a way to mix some of the cocoa butter back into the dutched chocolate, and added sugar, creating a paste that could be moulded. The result was the first modern chocolate bar.

A Dutch family’s (van Houten) inventions made mass production of shiny, tasty chocolate bars and related products possible. In the 1700s, mechanical mills were created that squeezed out cocoa butter. But, it was not until the arrival of the Industrial Revolution that these mills and new machinery allowed for the mass production of chocolates. Companies began advertising this new invention to sell many of the chocolate treats we see today and people began experiencing and consuming chocolate worldwide.

ORIGINS & PROCESS

Roughly two-thirds of the entire world’s cocoa is produced in Western Africa, with 43% sourced from Ivory Coast. Cacao pods are harvested by cutting the pods from the tree using a machete, or by knocking them off the tree using a stick. Cocoa pods contain beans surrounded by a white membrane that are a bit like lichees and do not taste of chocolate at all. On average a pod produce enough cacao to make 5-7 chocolate bars. The beans with their surrounding pulp are removed from the pods and placed in piles or bins to ferment. The fermentation process is what gives the beans their familiar chocolate taste. The duration of the fermentation varies from 2 to more than 7 days. It is important to harvest the pods when they are fully ripe because if the pod is unripe, the beans will have a low cocoa butter content, or there will be insufficient sugars in the white pulp for fermentation, resulting in a weak flavor. After fermentation, the beans must be quickly dried to prevent mold growth. Climate and weather permitting, this is done by spreading the beans out in the sun from 5 to 7 days.

The dried beans are then transported to a chocolate manufacturing facility. Cacao beans contain no sugar and between 12% and 50% fat depending on variety and growth conditions. The beans are cleaned, roasted, and graded. Roasted cacao nibs are made from the process whereby the cacao seeds are roasted in large, rotating ovens, at temperatures of about 210-290F. Roasting lasts from half an hour up to two hours. The heat brings out more flavor and aroma, and it dries and darkens the seeds. Next the shells are removed to extract the nib then the seeds are cracked and winnowed, that is, their outer shells are cracked and blown away, leaving the crushed and broken pieces of cacao seeds – “processed cacao nibs”. At this point, we have something edible and really chocolaty. Finally, the nibs are ground and liquefied, resulting in pure chocolate in fluid form called chocolate liquor. The liquor can be further processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter.

( Raw cacao nibs are not from roasted cacao seeds, instead, they are just made from raw cacao seeds. For example, you can manually press on the cacao seeds, peel it, and then break it into nibs.)

To get cacao butter the Cacao liquor is pressed at high pressure which forces our the cacao butter. The pressed liquor once pressed is very dried and is ground into cacao powder. To make chocolate the chocolate liquor is blended with cacao butter, sugar, vanilla or milk to make different types of chocolate The basic blends of ingredients for the various types of chocolate (in order of highest quantity of cocoa liquor first), are as follows:

Dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and (sometimes) vanilla

Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla

White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder, and vanilla.

Stock Photos of chocolate & Strawberries recipe

At this stage the chocolate is rather grainy so to make it smooth it is processed by “conching” in a conche. A conche, so called because a conche shell was originally used, is a container filled with metal beads which act as grinders. The refined and blended chocolate mass is kept in a liquid state by frictional heat in the conche. Conching can last a few hours for cheaper chocolates, and up to six days for the expensive chocolate.

The final process is called tempering. Uncontrolled cooling of the conched chocolate causes crystallization of cocoa butter causing the surface of the chocolate to appear mottled and matte, and producing chocolate that crumbles rather than snaps when broken. The uniform sheen and crisp bite of properly processed chocolate are the result of consistently small cocoa butter crystals produced by the tempering process. The chocolate is stirring as it cools after conching, it is then heated back up slowly and the process repeated several times. This will give our chocolate that nice glossy look and effects the final chocolates texture from soft and crumbly to hard chocolate which snaps. This final tempering along with the cocoa content effects the final type chocolate produced by the Chocolatiers to make unique chocolates. These recipes are obviously great secrets protected fiercely by big chocolate brand like Cadbury and Nestle.

CHOCOLATE AND HEALTH.

Chocolate has for many years been accused as a source of obesity. This seems to be obvious if the chocolate contains a lot of sugar but low sugar dark chocolate are low in calories.

“Every study on chocolate is pointing to the same conclusion: there is something in chocolate that is really good for us. That something is the raw cacao bean, the nut that all chocolate is made from. The cacao bean has always been and will always be Nature’s #1 weight loss and high-energy food. Cacao beans are probably the best kept secret in the entire history of food.”

— David Wolfe, co-author of Naked Chocolate: The Astonishing Truth About The World’s Greatest Food.

Cacao and dark chocolate with a high cacao content has been found to have health benefits. Dark chocolate with its high cocoa content, is a rich source of epicatechin and gallic acid, which are thought to possess cardioprotective properties. Dark chocolate has also been said to reduce the possibility of a heart attack when consumed regularly in small amounts.

One-third of the fat in chocolate comes in the forms of a saturated fat called stearic acid and a monounsaturated fat called oleic acid. However, unlike other saturated fats, stearic acid does not raise levels of LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. Consuming relatively large amounts of dark chocolate and cocoa does not seem to raise serum LDL cholesterol levels; some studies even find that it could lower them. Indeed, small but regular amounts of dark chocolate lower the possibility of a heart attack.

Cacao nibs contains Magnesium, Sulphur, and Anti-oxidant, Monoamine Oxidase Enzyme Inhibitors, Phenylethylamine, and Anandamide. These substances can help us having healthy heart, relieving us from stressful mood, and much more. So recent years cacao nibs are becoming a popular healthy food.

Cacao seems to be the number one source of magnesium of any food. This is probably the primary reason women crave chocolate during their period. Magnesium is associated with balanced brain chemistry, strong bones, and happiness. Magnesium is the most deficient major mineral on the Standard UK Diet (SUKD); over 80% of us are chronically deficient in Magnesium!

Cacao is high in the beauty mineral sulphur. Sulfur is associated with strong nails, hair, beautiful, shiny skin, and a clean liver and pancreas.

FAIR TRADE CHOCOLATE.

For years chocolate harvesting has been carried out by child labour in West Africa. Even though this is illegal it is still widespread in the Ivory Coast and Ghana according to BBC Panorama reports. Even though paperwork is required under the Harkin Engel protocol to prove that the cacao beans had no child labour in its production there are ways to get child labour beans into main stream through independent traders. Brands like Coop used Fair Trade chocolate and can verify its source. This idea spread to Cadbury and Nestle products and should guarantee farmers a fair price and all farms should be child labour free. This is slowly changing and the big chocolate companies have agreed to help with foundations and investment into cacao farms to stop child labour in Africa. This is a slow process though and child labour beans can still slip into the Fair Trade supply.

The truth is that chocolate prices are still too low and an increase should be implemented to take African cacao farmers out of poverty so they do not need child labour.

OUR OTHER CHOCOLATE & CACAO STOCK PHOTOS & PICTURES

May 08, 2010 | Categories:Food Stock Photos, Home Page Blog | Tags: cacao, cacao liquor, cacao nibs, chocolate, chocolates, Food Stock Photos, stock photography, stock photos | Leave A Comment »

See Our Food Photography

We added more ways to see our food photography. We have uploaded out library to Picassa at picasaweb.google.com/funkystockphotos/ This is googles photo album site and will make our photos more accessable if you have a google account.

If you prefer Yahoo our food photography can be seen on Flickr a flickr.com/photos/funkystockphotos/.

We hope this gives you more choice over how you can access our food photography.

Don’t forget you can always see Paul Williams food photography portfolio at funkyfood.co.uk

Apr 12, 2010 | Categories:Funky Stock News, Home Page Blog | Tags: Food Stock Photos, stock photography, stock photos | Leave A Comment »

Indian Food Photography

Stock Photos of Indian Food

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The cuisine of India is characterized by the use of various spices, herbs and other vegetables grown in India and also for the widespread practice of vegetarianism across many sections of its society. Each family of Indian cuisine is characterized by a wide assortment of dishes and cooking techniques. As a consequence, it varies from region to region, reflecting the varied demographics of the ethnically diverse Indian subcontinent.

India’s religious beliefs and culture have played an influential role in the evolution of its cuisine. However, cuisine across India also evolved due to the subcontinent’s large-scale cultural interactions with neighboring Persia, ancient Greece, Mongols and West Asia, making it a unique blend of various cuisines across Asia.The spice trade between India and Europe is often cited as the main catalyst for Europe’s Age of Discovery. The colonial period introduced European cooking styles to India adding to the flexibility and diversity of Indian cuisine. Indian cuisine has had a remarkable influence on cuisines across the world, especially those from Southeast Asia.

As a land that has experienced extensive immigration and intermingling through many millennia, India’s cuisine has benefited from numerous food influences. The diverse climate in the region, ranging from deep tropical to alpine.

In many cases, food has become a marker of religious and social identity, with varying taboos and preferences (for instance, a segment of the Jain population will not consume any roots or subterranean vegetables. One strong influence over Indian foods is the longstanding vegetarianism within sections of India’s Hindu, Buddhist and Jain communities. People who follow a strict vegetarian diet make up 20–42% of the population in India, while less than 30% are regular meat-eaters.

Around 7,000 BC, sesame, eggplant, and humped cattle had been domesticated in the Indus Valley. By 3000 BC, turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard were harvested in India. Many recipes first emerged during the initial Vedic period, when India was still heavily forested and agriculture was complemented with game hunting and forest produce. In Vedic times, a normal diet consisted of fruit, vegetables, grain, dairy products and honey. Over time, some segments of the population embraced vegetarianism, due to the ancient Hindu philosophy of ahimsa. This practice gained more popularity due to a cooperative climate where a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains could easily be grown throughout the year. Buddhism, among several other beliefs and practices borrowed vegetarianism from Hinduism to embrace Ahimsa. A food classification system that categorised any item as sattva, rajas or tamas developed in Ayurveda. Each was deemed to have a powerful effect on the body and the mind.

Later, invasions from Central Asia, Arabia, the Mughal empire, Persia, and elsewhere had a deep and fundamental effect on Indian cooking. Influence from traders such as the Arab and Portuguese diversified subcontinental tastes and meals. As with other cuisines, Indian cuisine has absorbed New World vegetables such as tomato, capsicum, chilli, and potato, as staples.

Islamic rule introduced rich gravies, pilafs and non-vegetarian fare such as kebabs, resulting in Mughlai cuisine (Mughal in origin), as well as such fruits as apricots, melons, peaches, and plums. The Mughals were great patrons of cooking. Lavish dishes were prepared during the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The Nizams of Hyderabad state meanwhile developed and perfected their own style of cooking with the most notable dish being the Biryani.

During this period the Portuguese and British introduced foods from the New World such as potatoes, tomatoes, squash, and chilies as well as cooking techniques like baking.

The staples of Indian cuisine are rice, atta (whole wheat flour), and a variety of pulses, the most important of which are masoor (most often red lentil), channa (bengal gram), toor (pigeon pea or yellow gram), urad (black gram) and mung (green gram). Pulses may be used whole, dehusked, for example dhuli moong or dhuli urad, or split. Pulses are used extensively in the form of dal (split). Some of the pulses like channa and “Mung” are also processed into flour.

Most Indian curries are cooked in vegetable oil. In North and West India, peanut oil has traditionally been most popular for cooking, while in Eastern India, mustard oil is more commonly used. Coconut oil is used widely along the western coast and South India, Gingelly oil is common in the South as well. In recent decades, sunflower oil and soybean oil have gained popularity all over India. Hydrogenated vegetable oil, known as Vanaspati ghee, is also a popular cooking medium that replaces Desi ghee, clarified butter (the milk solids have been removed).

The most important/frequently used spices in Indian cuisine are chilli pepper, black mustard seed (rai), cumin (jeera), turmeric (haldi, manjal), fenugreek (methi), asafoetida (hing, perungayam), ginger (adrak, inji), coriander (dhania), and garlic (lassan, poondu). Popular spice mixes are garam masala, which is usually a powder of five or more dried spices, commonly including cardamom, cinnamon, and clove. Each region, and sometimes each individual chef, has a distinctive blend of garam masala. Goda masala is a popular sweet spice mix in Maharashtra. Some leaves are commonly used like tejpatta (cassia leaf), coriander leaf, fenugreek leaf and mint leaf. The common use of curry leaves, curry roots is typical of all South Indian cuisine. In sweet dishes, cardamom, saffron, nutmeg, and rose petal essences are seasoned.

Indian cuisine is one of the most popular cuisines across the globe. The cuisine is popular not only among the large Indian community but also among the mainstream population of North America and Europe. In 2003, there were as many as 10,000 restaurants serving Indian cuisine in England and Wales alone. A survey held in 2007 revealed that more than 1,200 Indian food products have been introduced in the United States since 2000. According to Britain’s Food Standards Agency, the Indian food industry in the United Kingdom is worth £3.2 billion, accounts for two-thirds of all eating out and serves about 2.5 million British customers every week. The popularity of curry, which originated in India, across Asia has often led to the dish being labeled as the “pan-Asian” dish. Curry’s international appeal has also been compared to that of pizza. Though the tandoor did not originate in India, Indian tandoori dishes, such as chicken tikka made with Indian ingredients, enjoy widespread popularity. Chicken Tikka Masala has now become the most popular dish in the United Kingdom and curry sauces are now being exported from England back to India.

The spice trade between India and Europe led to the rise and dominance of Arab traders to such an extent that European explorers, such as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, set out to find new trade routes with India leading to the Age of Discovery.

OTHER PHOTO COLLECTIONS Of FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Apr 11, 2010 | Categories:Food Stock Photos, Home Page Blog, Slider Blog | Tags: balti, butter chicken, chocken tikka masala, curry, curry's, Food Stock Photos, Funky Stock Library, Indian cuisine, Indian food, jalfrezi, nann bread, Peshwari naan, photographer Paul Williams Randall Williams, stock photography, stock photos | Leave A Comment »

Photos and Facts about Coffee

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Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 countries. Green (unroasted) coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.

The energizing effect of caffeine in the coffee bean is thought to have been discovered in Yemen in Arabia and the north east of Ethiopia, and the cultivation of coffee first expanded in the Arab world. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of the Yemen in southern Arabia. From the Muslim world, coffee spread from Egypt to Italy via trade with Venice and through Eastern Europe with the Turkish conquests, then to the rest of Europe and then onto Indonesia and the Americas.

Ethiopian ancestors of today’s Oromo people were believed to have been the first to recognize the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant. From Ethiopia, coffee was said to have spread to Yemen, where the coffee beverage was first made and drunk, and then the beverage went to Egypt.

Coffee became more widely accepted after it was deemed a Christian beverage by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the “Muslim drink.” The first European coffee house opened in Italy in 1645. The Dutch were the first to import coffee on a large scale, and they were among the first to defy the Arab prohibition on the exportation of plants or unroasted seeds when Pieter van den Broeck smuggled seedlings from Mocha, Yemen, into Europe in 1616.[96] The Dutch later grew the crop in Java and Ceylon. The first exports of Indonesian coffee from Java to the Netherlands occurred in 1711. Through the efforts of the British East India Company, coffee became popular in England as well. Oxford’s Queen’s Lane Coffee House, established in 1654, is still in existence today. Coffee was introduced in France in 1657, and in Austria and Poland after the 1683 Battle of Vienna, when coffee was captured from supplies of the defeated Turks.

The Frenchman Gabriel de Clieu brought a coffee plant to the French territory of Martinique in the Caribbean, from which much of the world’s cultivated arabica coffee is descended. Coffee thrived in the climate and was conveyed across the Americas. The territory of San Domingo (now Haiti) saw coffee cultivated from 1734, and by 1788 it supplied half the world’s coffee. However, the dreadful conditions that the slaves worked in on coffee plantations were a factor in the soon to follow Haitian Revolution. The coffee industry never fully recovered there. Meanwhile, coffee had been introduced to Brazil in 1727, although its cultivation didn’t gather momentum until independence in 1822.

Coffee berries, which contain the coffee seed, or “bean”, are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the genus Coffea. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The green seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways.

Of the two main species grown, arabica coffee (from C. arabica) is generally more highly regarded than robusta coffee (from C. canephora); robusta tends to be bitter and have less flavor but better body than arabica. Robusta coffee contains about 40–50% more caffeine than arabica. For this reason, it is used as an inexpensive substitute for arabica in many commercial coffee blends. Good quality robusta beans are used in some espresso blends to provide a full-bodied taste, a better foam head known as crema, and to lower the ingredient cost.

Coffee beans must be ground and brewed to create a beverage. Almost all methods of preparing coffee require the beans to be ground and mixed with hot water for long enough to extract the flavor, but without boiling for more than an instant; boiling develops an unpleasant “cooked” flavor. The ideal temperature is 79 to 85 °C (174 to 185 °F) and the ideal serving temperature is 68 to 79 °C (154 to 174 °F).

Espresso-based coffee has a wide variety of possible presentations. In its most basic form, it is served alone as a shot or in the more watered-down style café américano—a shot or two of espresso with hot water added. Reversing the process by adding espresso to hot water preserves the crema, and is known as a long black. Milk can be added in various forms to espresso: steamed milk makes a caffè latte, equal parts steamed milk and milk froth make a cappuccino, and a dollop of hot foamed milk on top creates a caffè macchiato. The use of steamed milk to form patterns such as hearts or maple leaves is referred to as latte art.

Coffee has become a vital cash crop for many Third World countries. Over one hundred million people in developing countries have become dependent on coffee as their primary source of income. It has become the primary export and backbone for African countries like Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, as well as many Central American countries.

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