Cuisine and Culture
Legend has it that as soon as Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar began
his meal, huge quantities of rice were distributed to the poor waiting outside
his palace. Feeding the poor is a tradition that continues today all across
Pakistan - the more fortunate sharing with the less fortunate, or in memory of
a departed family member, or as a religious obligation during the month of
fasting.
The sharing of food is
an important ritual, whether a family meal or a lavish party for friends.
Sharing a meal is seen to have many benefits. It brings people closer. It’s a
time for parents and siblings to share their news, discuss problems, and get to
know each other. Child psychologists find it improves the vocabulary of
children, they eat better, are less likely to have depression, anxiety or
aggression. A family meal can also extend to sharing a meal with close friends
or colleagues. Many Japanese firms, have shared cafeterias where the top
executive eats alongside the lower staff. The intimacy of a shared meal builds
trust and team spirit.
Food is essential to survival. From hunter gatherers to the
establishment of agriculture, its importance can be gauged by the many cultural
rituals that evolved around food production, preparation and consumption. From
song, dance and storytelling, elaborate harvest festivals and market fairs of
rural communities, to the sophisticated décor and cuisine of Michelin restaurants,
food becomes the positive binder of societies.
The Japanese Washoku, or food for harmony, is both a respect
for nature, the great provider, as well as the transmission of tradition to the
young. Family recipes are shared from parent to child bonding generations. Cooking
shows and recipe books reach out to an even greater number of people and
introduce nations to one another.
The Mughals documented culinary experiments of the royal
kitchens. Babar planted fruit orchards and introduced iced water, Akbar
introduced kulfi, murgh muslam and
nauratan korma, the empress Nur Jehan, created rainbow coloured yogurt dishes,
Shah Jahan’s kitchen created Shab Degh better known to us as nihari. The
hundreds of recipes are collectively known as Mughlai cuisine, preserved in recipe
books such as Nuskha-e-Shahjahani and Alwan-e-Nemat. The 15thcentury Ni'matnāmah Naṣir al-Dīn Shāhī of
Malwa included the first miniature paintings of South Asia, illustrating the
making of foods such as kheer and samosa.
Sharing food has been used to ease political tensions such
as the legendary Manchu-Han Imperial Feast that brought the Manchu and Han
people together in 18th century China. Embassy dinners across the
world are occasions for deepening political understanding.
The ability of spices to add flavor and turn mere nutrition
into cuisine, motivated much of global trade routes. Spices from the east, and
crops unique to South America, changed the experience of eating for the whole
world.
All religions teach gratitude for food - some say Grace, some Alhamdollilah Food is a cornerstone of hospitality. In
south India, the banana leaf on which food is served should be folded from the
top to indicate satisfaction at the end of the meal. The Japanese would
experience mottainai, a feeling of regret at having wasted something, if they
do not finish their food, while in China, an empty plate suggests a person is
still hungry. Children in Pakistan are told, eating all their food is like
sweeping the holy sites of Makkah and Medina.
Food can be served in individual portions on separate
plates, or the thali of Indian cuisine.
In some cultures such as Morocco, Ethiopia, the Middle East or Pakistan,
people traditionally share food from one communal dish.
Some meals commemorate a historical event such as the Haleem
made in Muharram to mark the tragedy of
Kerbala and the symbolic taking of bread and wine in the sacrament of the
Eucharist to commemorate the last supper of Jesus.
There is a dark side to food, or rather the lack of it. It
becomes a weapon as opponents were once starved into submission during sieges,
and even today through creating food dependencies. Poverty and natural
disasters, as Pakistan is facing today, erases all the niceties of cuisine as
we are shocked by images of children scraping empty pots for a few grains of
rice. Thousands of acres of crops are destroyed as the country inevitably will
face food shortages. We overlook the
loss of an estimated 750,000 animals in the recent floods, not counting the
many less visible species.
Most
people assume that food is nature’s exclusive gift to humans, but as Rumi says “Grass, thorns, a hundred thousand ants and snakes,
everything is looking for food. Don’t you hear the noise?”
Durriya Kazi
Karachi
September 9, 2022
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