How mundane becomes exotic

I came across this story in the news about making your own yogurt. It talks about these special “heirloom” cultures from European countries. The story makes yogurt-making sound exotic and wondrous. We Indians can roll our eyes at it, given that making yogurt is an integral a part of our daily lives, but I see an omen of things to come. Our mothers have probably never even thought about how old their yogurt culture is. My mother’s is older than I am for sure, and I have been using the same culture that I brought from India about ten years ago. But in a country where food has been industrialized for many generations now, making yogurt at home becomes a newsworthy item. 

Raw milk is another such thing. When I was growing up, we got raw milk delivered home every day. We boiled it to kill all contamination, drank it the same day, turned the leftover into yogurt, and started the process all over, the next day. In the US, pasteurized and homogenized milk is considered the cause of many dietary and allergy problems by some, but you have to jump through hoops and pay through your nose to get raw milk. Advocacy groups have been established for this once simple thing.

Then there is the ‘eat local’ movement in the US. My Indian friends will remember their parents going to the “sabzi mandi” regularly to buy locally grown seasonal produce without upping their noses and calling themselves ‘locavores’. Specialty, and very expensive, restaurants have opened that profess to serve only locally grown fruits and vegetables. It really is quite difficult to find locally grown and seasonal fruits and vegetables in the US.

Now I see globalization not only bringing convenience foods to India, but actively trying to change dietary habits to sell more breakfast cereal and doughnuts. Modern Indians look forward to be able to buy packaged milk that lasts for a whole week. Children are growing up eating industrially-produced breakfast cereals and fast food, guaranteeing that food habits would have completely changed in just one generation. I want to scream, to shout, “Learn from other people’s mistake. Don’t do it!”. Here I am in a 'developed' country, struggling to feed my family seasonal and fresh food, and fighting an expensive uphill battle to achieve that, and there are people on the other end of the world happily giving that up to be 'modern'! The society in America has already seen what convenience food can do to a culture, the health of a populace and to the environment. It has changed crops to the extent that we have to seek out heirloom seeds to get tomatoes that have some flavor. Food industrialization has destroyed a way of life beyond recovery in the US, and bringing it back has turned into a legal, and political battle. That way of life is still healthy, and not forgotten in other countries, but it will be destroyed even faster in a mad dash towards consumerism and modernization. 

Is obesity and environmental damage an integral part of providing equal opportunities to the children of India? Do things have to come full circle again, if they have already been there once? Do we have to destroy a way of life, and then be forced to discover it as ‘exotic’ once again?

Feeding children

Now and then I read some book on feeding kids, or watch a movie such as Julie and Julia, and get completely inspired to introduce my family to new, interesting foods to only be reminded of the reason why I keep making the same five recipes again and again.

Food is a very cultural thing which, of course, is no new revelation, but I am always surprised by how much our food choices are shaped by the culture around us. Most children growing up in India, see images of Indian foods everywhere - in ads, in movies, pretty much anywhere food is displayed. Even the ads for Lays potato chips stress their spiciness. The children subliminally start associating an enjoyable meal with samosas and choley. They go to a wedding or a party, and see paneer and chicken masala as the main course, with gajar halwa for dessert, and that for them defines a feast. When I take my kids back to India, and they attend a feast, they refuse to eat anything there because it all looks alien. Of course, it is instantly assumed that one, I have raised completely Americanized kids who have not been taught anything about their heritage, and second that my children find the food too spicy. Both assumptions are wrong. The simple reason is that in my girls' minds a feast will forever be associated with a big roasted bird in the center of the table with mashed potatoes and gravy on the side, and not little pieces of vegetables and meat floating in a savory sauce. An excellent dessert is a pie not grated carrots cooked in milk. They watch their American cartoons, and ads and subconsciously absorb that a fun, tasty snack to drool over is not a Samosa but a big juice cheeseburger. Although, I cook Indian food almost daily, given the context of our lives even my kids sense that, this is not what most of their friends eat.

I am also reminded of reading the book "What to expect the first year", and how everything in it made complete sense when I initially read it. If you always feed your kids brown bread, they will love brown bread and find white bread tasteless. Of course! Two children, and ten years later I have acquired enough wisdom to know that just isn't true. Oh yes, I fed my kids brown bread for years and yet, the first time they tasted a PBJ sandwich made with white bread they exclaimed how delicious it was, and declared that is how they want their sandwich from now on.

This week, out of sheer frustration arising from packing the same Ham & Cheese sandwich for lunch everyday, I once again embarked on trying to introduce my girls to some different foods, that could also be lunch candidates. The first dish I made was Polenta squares. This had been rejected before but I decided to give it another try. They loved it, ate quite a few for snack and I happily packed it for lunch the next day with some marinara sauce and ranch. It was brought home uneaten. Sigh. Apparently it tasted good only when freshly made. I tried a few more things for the rest of the week and all were rejected, and as I stood there wondering aloud what to make for dinner my older one suggested "let's make lasagna. I know it is delicious". It is important to note that this child has never had lasagna before and I haven't made lasagna since she was born! I had lasagna noodles on hand, and I scraped together enough ingredients to make a spinach lasagna. It was a great success! Now this defies all explanation.

Food shortage

You know there has been talk for some time that we are on the brink of some very bad times - global warming, food shortages, chemicals in everything etc etc. It has finally hit home when Sam's club decides to limit rice purchases. Things must be really bad if we are going to have food rationing in the USA!

Once things start getting expensive perhaps the overboard consumerism will stop. To my kids, living in this land of plenty, nothing is precious anymore. You buy them cupcakes and they complain about the color of the frosting! That has always felt wrong to me but I don't know what the solution is. To my kids food is this ubiquitous thing, available in any shape, size and taste you want, at any time you want and there is nothing special about it. They have no respect for food or its preciousness and I don't know how to teach them this important lesson. Do I make them lead a life of deprivation just to teach them life lessons? I truly believe that hardship in life is important to grow resilient, strong and grounded human beings but can I force hardship on my own kids. Probably not but then I fail in my duty as a mother, and therein lies my dilemma. I think I will make my kids change schools every two years -that ought to force some hardship!

Food for thought

Kids amaze me. I wish I could get into their little brain computer and print out a detailed log of processes!

I made cheeseburgers and steamed broccoli for dinner yesterday and my kids were excited about it. They happily ate their dinner without me ever having to ask them to eat some more. We had pleasant conversation at the table, you know, how one expects dinnertime to be. Even more surprising is the fact that I haven't made cheeseburgers in months, so this is a relatively new food for my kids, who like all children frown at all new food!

For as long as I know I have made Indian food for dinner so logically one would expect that, Indian food is what my kids like and would eat regularly! After all that is what they see on their plates every single day. And yet my kids usually come to dinner with long faces when they see Indian food on the table. They are both under 7, mind you, and not yet at an age where they are hanging out at friends' and seeing what they eat. Then I make cheeseburgers and they are excited about dinner.

Somebody please give me a manual. This is beyond me!!!