Cooking and food

[Suvir Saran]

What does the term "cook" mean across cultures?

Is it imply the subjection of foods to heat or fire?

Or does it have other meanings as well in other cultures?

What is it's unique form in Indian cooking?

[anil]

Sorry,  it is out of my league. I rarely cook - I leave it to the

experts and lovers-of-cooking  

[Suvir Saran]

Aaaah... and what did it mean to you and your family growing up? Any thing curious about Indian cooking and styles as compared to the other places you have been and cultures you have studied Anil?

You have traveled very much it seems.  Would be great to hear you compare maybe a couple of styles...

Or at least share what you think makes Indian cooking different or if there is anything t hat Indians think or do differently.

What role does religion play in food, or has played?

[Suvir Saran]

Cooking as a concept in the Hindu world is not about just subjecting meats and vegetables to heat or fire.  To cook in India would more generally mean to prepare the food for eating.

In the traditional world of Hindu religion, they take cooking to another extreme.  Cooking in that world is the creation of a system whereby you pair in a meaningful and significant manner the food and the person that will consume it.  The goal of cooking is to ensure compatibility between the food and the person eating it.

[John Whiting]

It fascinates me that a country so overwhelmed by sheer numbers can maintain this emphasis on individuality.

[Suvir Saran]

John it gets increasingly more intricate.  And you know, so many people follow these in practice.  There are those like me that love knowing these rules.  But plenty across the villages, smaller cities and even in areas of urban living still follow some principles given from their religions closely.  These of-course are unique to Hindu cooking.

My grandmother told me as a child about the relevance of the whole universe as food to each other.  It was from the Upanishads that she was teaching me.

Hindus believe that food multiplies. There is no other way of thinking of food.  The earth we live in is food, the air we breathe is food, the space above us depends on the earth as food and the earth depends of space for food.  So it shares with Hindus the importance of significance of food in a much larger order than just the culinary.

It is understood then that all those that realize that food itself is dependent on food, is then the master of food.  Such a person will then be able to live a life of peace, with progeny, cattle, a home and above all a brain that is intelligent and a mind that brings the person Brahman like fame.

The above will share with one easily the marriage of ideology and the practical.  The Hindus seem to thrive in the fluidity of things and life.  And this is yet another example.  An understanding of not giving more credence to either what is practical or what is ideological, but to find a middle ground that is respectful of both and takes from each that which can be of help today.  There are times when one could see a clear struggle between what ideology proposes and practicality will dispose.   But there is a framework that exists in contemporary India that gulfs the bridge between these polar opposites.    In fact those than can understand the Hindu principles, are able find contemporary resonance that eliminates the need for practical opposition.  The contemporary life in India is still new and young, and the exploration of how to thrive without losing one or the other is still being worked and successfully.

In other words Hindu cooking is consistent with the larger Hindu philosophy of human beings unable to make much happen without the influence or control of the divine forces.  

Thus it should be no surprise to some that in the Hindu context, even raw foods can be labeled cooked.  Under the Hindu conception of cooking the treating of raw foods with fire, water, milk, sun and peeling can all alter the food from being labeled as cook instead of raw.  Even the word raw has its own many nuances.  To a Hindu thus, what would be called raw, uncooked, or imperfectly cooked are all variations of being cooked.  But for raw foods to be called cooked, one has to follow the set rules about what makes a food cooked, even when raw.

To Indian cooking, there are two very different styles of cooking.  One is called Banana (to make, prepare or assemble) and the other is called pakana (to ripen).  They each mean to cook but have very different meanings.  And then there is the confusion that is further created in the understanding that neither is only relegated to meaning cooking either.  

Then there are still more twists.  Pakana is used more in households where meat is used.  When one eats in a vegetarian or Brahman home, the word Pak will not be used.  They would use ban or taiyyar (meaning ready).

And then there are Vaishnav Sadhus (Holy men who believe in Vishnu) who would never use the common words that are used even in Brahman home kitchens.  They ascribe to words that even a Brahman home chef may consider appropriate violent meanings.

The word Kaatna is commonly used for cutting, but a holy man would rather use Amanyaa.

Khaana (to eat) is the word used for the act of eating foods in most all homes, but a holy person would never use that profane word, instead they would use Paanaa (to gain by divine gift).

Namak (salt) is what one would call table salt in homes, but a holy person would call it Ram Ras (The nectar from Lord Rama).

There is the Pumpkin most Indians call Kaddu but to holy persons, the word is Sitaphal (fruit from Ram's consort Sita).

These will explain how deeply culture and religion and folklore are still enmeshed in many a family and peoples daily lives.

[anil]

In the pedagogy of Cultural Anthropology, Food and Cooking has played a very important role. Food and Cooking are rituals as well as work-life. At its very base is the construct of "Hunter and Gatherers".  From communities to large societies in some form or the other it has reflected in ways that the rituals have evolved.

Mind you I was not trained as a cultural anthropologist, did take some courses at graduate schools though  

[Suvir Saran]

Anil, that makes you a perfect person for us to learn from.  You are God as was suggested in another thread.

And the Hindu in me, can see the God in you easily...

[Jaymes]

There is a reason why, in the Christian faith, disciples are asked to "break bread" with each other, and with the shepherd of the flock.  Inviting someone else, particularly a stranger, to share your campfire, your table, is one of the highest, most noble, of human instincts.  Sharing food is symbolic...a letting down of one's guard, of one's innate selfish nature, sharing sustinence, nourishment, replenishment of body, mind and soul.

Also, in the bible story of the loaves and fishes, Jesus first created the food ("cooking" if you will), then fed the multitudes; all this to provide an allegory to the spiritual nourishment he was about to impart.  And to satisfy their bodily hunger first, preparing the way for them to then reflect upon, and understand, their spiritual hunger.

And there are the obvious implications in the Christian ritual of communion.  Worshipers literally consume food and drink (bread and wine) to establish their "oneness" with the diety and with each other.  The founder of Christianity (whomever you understand that to be) chose eating and drinking as the single most sacred act a believer can perform in order to become one in community with the church and with the Lord.

Pretty profound.

[anil]

Anil, that makes you a perfect person for us to learn from.  You are God as was suggested in another thread.

And the Hindu in me, can see the God in you easily...

Sheesh. I am a sinner    After all, at a very tender age, I swigged XXXRum from my Grandpa's bottle and replaced that swig with equivalent amount of water. Not to talk about having eaten meat, and later on done more nasty things.

Things on to God, that are God's and Things on to anil, that are Ceaser's    [ Don't mind stealing Ceaser's ***** ]

[Suvir Saran]

Tell us more Anil... you have much to share.... please.

[Toby]

Suvier, "food multiplies" post was beautiful, and has given rise to a multiplicity of thoughts in my mind. Thank you.

[Suvir Saran]

Suvier, "food multiplies" post was beautiful, and has given rise to a multiplicity of thoughts in my mind.  Thank you.

Toby,

I had been waiting for you to share some of those thoughts that came up.. Did any include spices or Indian food? Care to share some with us?

And yes, food to me is all about the manner in which all of life is nothing but keenly connected to each and everything else that forms it. I look at life as being a part of food and food as being a part of life and similarly life being me in this form and me being life.

So, in the end, I am what I eat. And I eat what is from me and of me and will make me.