East Timor is country in South East Asia which is an island in Pacific Ocean and also owns parts of the Timor Island in Indonesia. It is closely located near Darwin, Australia and population mostly consists of Indonesians.
The food in East Timor is divided into two categories vegetarian and non vegetarian.
As agriculture is the main occupation in East Timor the primary food include of rice as it is cultivated hugely in this country. Apart from rice the other food items which is cultivated here in this country includes sweet potatoes, maize, cassava and taro. These are the basic food of East Timor, the vegetables that are grown here consists of beans, cabbage, spinach, onions and cowpeas.
The second category of food consists of poultry, pigs and goats. Almost every house in East Timor domesticates all the above food items for meat purpose. Fish is also another food in this country as fishing is also an occupation after agriculture. Com is small fishing village in East Timor. Fishing is the main occupation here in this village. Many tourists are also attracted to this village as it is a good place for fishing.
East Timor suffers from food insecurity due to invariable climate conditions. The country also has “Hungry season” which starts from November to February. Many household depend on their own production of food but as climate conditions affects the production. So many household depend on other sources of food that is meat. The domestication of poultry, pigs and goats are better way to get food rather than the agriculture as climate factor is not in favor of agriculture.
The food in East Timor is similar to food in Indonesia as Indonesia ruled over East Timor for a very long time. East Timor has also flavors of Portugal as Portugal had made East Timor their colony.
Coffee is also cultivated in East Timor which is considered as cash crop. Many families get sufficient income from the production of coffee, hence coffee is cultivated in large quantities as the climate is suitable for coffee cultivation.
The fruits that are available here in this country include watermelons, bananas, papaya, coconuts and mangoes. East Timor recipes use many types of spices in their food. Apart from the local food Japan, Italy, China, Portugal and Thai foods are also available here.
East Timor mainly has the difficulty of storage of food supply due to many aspects like less production, drought, low gains, and the lack of a proper supply method. The scarcity in food source turns out to be more serious in the months of October, November and February, March. The other major problem in East Timor is frequent droughts due to irregular rains and climate conditions. Hence, this in turn also affects the production of food. The difficulty of insufficient food is more in rural areas in East Timor because of high price of food. The result is that many of the populations in East Timor suffer from malnutrition.
