Food, Glorious Food
I talk to my mother almost everyday, and on every one of those calls, she will ask me what I am eating/have eaten/plan to eat for lunch/dinner, depending on the time of day when we talk. I may go adventurous for dinner and choose from rotis, pasta, noodles, soups, salads or any number of eating out options but lunch follows a regular and monotonous pattern : rice (tomato/coconut rice if I am in the mood), a dal or sambar, a vegetable and curd. Despite this, my mother will want to know what the menu for the day was.
(source: http://getaway2india.wordpress.com)
We are Indians, you see. Food is how we show love and affection. Food as in: talking about food, asking the other person if (s)he has eaten, pressing the person to eat until they burst, packing up leftovers for people to take and of course, complaining that they eat too little. Never mind if the mound of rice on that banana leaf is as high as a mini Kanchenjunga.
Food is the glue that brings us together. I am yet to go a party in India where the hosts are not left with copious amounts of leftovers. Food that would have satisfied a marauding army must be available, regardless of the size of the crowd.
Food is memory, and memories that are unique to every family; delicious memories that leave the mouth watering and the heart tingling, years after one has left home. World travellers and gourmets will still remember that one taste which can never be found elsewhere. For me, it is my mother’s vegetable pulao, topped with pieces of fried bread. Not only have I never eaten this style elsewhere, I am convinced that even if someone else tried it out, it would never be the same. My mother claims to have no secret ingredients, but I cannot bring myself to believe it. Mostly, I refuse to cook pulao, unable to bear eating something that is not the same as the original.
Food is custom. Curd rice follows rasam saadam which in turn follows sambar saadam. There is a comfort in this dull routine that will soon be wholly unfamiliar to an entire generation of children reared on cosmopolitan eating.
Food is celebration made ritual. Kozhakattai for Vinayaka Chaturthi, Seedai and rava laddu for Janmashtami, Sundal for Navaratri. Kaju katli and Jalebi may taste as good but they cannot give me quite the same thing as the adirasam my grandmother used to make for Deepavali.
In my younger years, along with my sisters, I enjoyed making fun of what I saw as older women’s obsession with food. Now, as my grandmother grows old and frail and can no longer make adirasam, I feel the loss of something more than just food. New age gurus like Michael Pollan tell us what we in India have perhaps always known : that food is much more than just the sum of its parts.
I see myself becoming more like my mother than I thought I would, and am no longer embarrassed at talking about food, or the making of it. So, don’t be surprised when I ask you, are you cooking/eating something special for New Year’s? And if so, what is it?
A very Happy New Year to all of you, and see you in 2010.
I’m not cooking anything special for New Year’s Day, because we will be travelling, but I know just what you mean about food. It’s a big thing in my immediate family - making good food for each other, comparing notes on recipes, swapping ideas, teaching each other new dishes, giving each other recipe books. It’s a way that I connect with my mother and my father and my brothers, and with my friends.
I am tracing your evolution as a cook from our Bangalore days… of course I’m smiling
And this post comes just as I’m calling my MIL at Mumbai to double check the recipe for Kali and Thatakam that is made on thiruvadirai…
If you notice, each festival will have a dish made of the seasonal crop - for eg, sugarcane, ginger and turmeric for pongal, sundal from pulses for Navaratri, etc. Its another thing that they are available all through the year these days.
True, it is much more than the sum of its parts..
I have to agree about not enjoying certain recipes unless they are the ‘original’… we just moved to Delhi, and I asked my mom to sent her driver for some work I needed done, and she sent me a dabba of Gajar halwa. I know nobody can make it like that.
When after days of settling and unpacking, finally we settled enough for me make a simple, bland meal at home the kids behaved like they had been starving!
It will be simple home cooked meal tonight… most probably boiled rice, masoor daal, alu-matar and some sliced radish.
How true.. I too miss the ‘original’ tastes of some food items, like Sambar, which I feel only my mom can make authentically, at least for me! I have a friend who never eats biryani other than what her mom prepares. Not just food, but the act of preparing food is also stuff of memories. I remember the days in which everyone in my family sat together and helped my mom in making feasts for festivals, like sadya for Onam.
@ Deb - oh yes, the sharing of meals, methods and recipes is such a family thing…and such a big part of ‘tradition’. Hope you had a lovely New Year’s inspite of the travel.
@ Uma - yes, I was a total disaster in those days, isn’t it
Never thought of the seasonality bit, but now that you mention it, it must have been a key reason for why certain foods were used at certain times.
@ IHM/Saika - even if a blind tasting shows otherwise, I think certain foods will always be special to the way mom makes them!
Ohh I am a foodie to the core!!
and did u take that pic? It is too mouth watering!! 4 gulab jamuns!! drool…
Yes there are some special recipes with older generations that have got lost in my family too
Hi Reema - Hope you had a lovely (foodie) new year. I didn’t take that pic - as I’d credited above, it was from another site…
Great blog with really insightful posts…just got a good laugh over the mangalsutra post. I talk to my parents everyday (multiple times) and “what did you eat” is often the first question of our conversation. I also like to hear about what they are eating for dinner because it makes me feel like I’m there with them and reminds me of dinners we had when I lived with them still. Learning how to recreate these “special meals” prepared by my father/mother’s hand are a big reason why I started cooking…I don’t want my daughter to be a victim of cosmopolitan eating
Thanks for dropping by, Nithya. Initially I thought that this “what did you eat” was a peculiarity of my family - now, I’ve realized it’s a hallmark of Indians everywhere
This sure is a delicious post. being a foodie myself I too belive that original recipies from our grandma’s kitches are truely worth every bite. I love to cook and think one should keep the taste alive in these times of quick bites and fast food.
Very nice post. I totally understand what you’ve written. We have a standing joke in our family - no matter what we are discussing, eventually the conversation will turn to food. Its uncanny. We’ve tested the theory countless times. And each time it proven right! I’ve blogged about the TamBram food culture - do take the time to visit and give your feedback.