My Old Blogs

Think of that you have been served with dal-bhaat (the basic Indian staple rice and lentil) in a spherical ball shape coated with some dry roasted rice flour and deep fried – shocked. Let’s take another example of serving Aloo Gobi in a format where a slice of cauliflower steamed and topped with cumin oil on a bed of coriander flavoured mashed potato. This is really a shocking way of serving these most delightful Indian foods. This might happen with lot of dishes – in fact the celebrity chefs are calling it as Modernist Cuisine. But the fact says that this is not a new thing rather during 10th century, the name Modernist Cuisine was not given for this kind of preparation. One of the best examples is Arancini which might have originated in 10th century in Sicily when the Arab was ruling the country.

The word Arancini came from a word called Arancia meaning Orange. Truly in the older days it used to be in size of orange but also an amazing fact that when this dish was created, it was sweet and were prepared using ricotta cheese, sugar, spices, and milk. Probably the first documented Arancini is in a book named The History of Italian Cuisine by Senora Francesca Bezzone date back to the 19th century. While tracing the history and origin of this dish came across with a book named “Italian Cvsine – A Cultural History” written by Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari wherein they are stating that a controversy was available for long time about the formation of famous Milan dish Rissotto and the Sicilian Arancini. Author describes that a very common street fight regarding the origin of Milan’s signature dish of Saffron Risotto is nothing more than a poorly executed arancina that fell apart on a plate was very commonly seen.

Historical evidence also produced three data:

1. The dish have originated in Sicily in the 10th century when the Arab’s were ruling the country. They served a large serving bowl of saffron-infused rice with plates of meat and vegetables shared between a table.

2. 12thcentury – these saffron infused rice balls were coated with bread crumbs and deep fried and carried for long travels.

3. Sicily arancini became a traditional food for Santa Lucia on 13th December 1646 when a grain supply arrived at Santa Lucia for the severe famine during 17thcentury

However, arancini is basically a rice balls either of a size of an orange or smaller and filled with savoury mixture like meat sauce (ragu) with peas; prosciutto and provolone/mozzarella/pecorino cheese; diced capers; eggplant and tomatoes. This is also known by some other names. ‘Sartu Arancina’; ‘Suppli’ or ‘Riso Frittata’. In the Campania region, the arancino was first introduced into the Kingdom of Naples by the Aragones who called them, simply, ‘Palle di Riso’ (rice balls). Traditionally, arancino has two variants: first one which is perfectly round in shape filled with the above-mentioned stuffing; and the second one known as ‘Al Burro’ (with butter) which is longer and pear like shape. In Catania region of Sicily, there are presence of two other version of Arancini. ‘Arancino alla Norma’ (with eggplant) and another version with New born pistachios. In Roman food and cuisine there is an availability of a dish named ‘Suppli’ which are similar to arancini but normally it is filled with chicken giblets and mined meats. It was served with fresh tomato sauce and without the sauce too and termed as ‘Suppli in Bianco’.

Creation of Monzu chefs also directly linked with this dish. Queen of Naples in the late 1800 – Queen Maria Carolina sent Chef Marie Antoinette to France to her sister where he mixed the rich French food and the Italian poor man’s food (cucina povera) and created a new cuisine. The chefs were termed as Monzu chef which was a Neapolitan corruption of “Monsieur”.

Cooking is not a rocket science – very true but at the same time there are many a dish where the very core factor of science play the most important role. As a chef it is the responsibility to understand that typical science and then to start making those dishes. Experience also matters but unknowingly those experienced person learns the science and apply the same for the purpose of cooking. Let us discuss a dish where scientifical methodologies are involved strongly and the chefs should understand it before cooking.

A very simple dish known as jelly is prepared with full of science. The jelly sets because of an availability of protein known as collagen found in almost all bodies. It is made up of three protein fibres wrapped around each other. Gelatine is present in jelly which is made from collagen available in animal bones and skin. When the gelatine is heated with water, the collagen (protein fibres) breaks apart and the jelly melts. When it is cooled it again start to coil up trapping all the water molecules and makes it set. Until and unless this very integral science is not clear to a chef, he/she cannot cook a dish known as Kholodets.

It is the most unusual food item in Russian cuisine but at the same time one of the most interesting dishes in the world because of the hidden science as stated earlier. Kholod in Russian language refers to cold and this dish is an intrigue winter holiday festival food. It is considered to be one of the best appetizers and is an excellent accompaniment with Vodka. To increase the pallet it is always served with a strong horseradish sauce and a very hot Russian mustard. It is basically a Russian meat aspic which is mainly cooked with those parts of meat which has immensely dense gelatine content and has an ability to set a jelly without adding any external elements. This dish take almost 24hours to set properly and around six to seven hours to cook. Mainly pork legs, ears, beef tails are used to make this dish. Laurel leaves, garlic, peppercorn and salt is added during the midway of cooking. An experience chef would always take a spoonful of broth, hold it for few minutes and then put his lips on the spoon and try to feel the stickiness – if the lips are stuck with the broth it is considered to be ready.

So far, the evidences collected this dish get more popularised during 19th century when Russians started to eat French cuisines. Kholodets are also known as “Studen”. Availability of the similar dish in Judish, Poland, German and other European cuisine is available such as German ‘Sülze’. In case you want to make a non-meat version it would be termed as “Zalivnoe” wherein it is prepared with fish strictly. Kholodets and Studen have identical meaning. Both of them refers to cold in old Russian language. According to the old Russian language January month was named Studeny.

According to Russian tradition if you have accepted a food offered, you cannot say it is bad. Even this tradition is mentioned in the old Russian text “Domostrov”. But a catchphrase is created attached with this dish and which is showed in a classical movie from Soviet Union “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” One of the main characters from the movie Ippolit eats fish Zalivnoe and say “Nu I gadost eta yasha zalivnaya riba” which means “Your fish zalivnoe is a filth”.

One of the most classical historical stories is attached with this dish and without which the entire write up is incomplete. Russian revolution is worldly known so as Pavlik Morozov. It is said that Pavlik Morozov is considered as demon as he betrayed his father. Actually his father was a demon who wanted to kill Pavlik and his brother as they are protesting. Pavlik killed his father while cooking a kholodets pretending that he shall cook his father’s meat in the kholodets and store as souvenir. The Government of the Soviet Union declared Pavlik as a hero, but he left in folklore as the traitor to his family. There are several poems available on the happening of Pavlik and one of it states “Pavlik Morozov was cooking a kholodets, On the floor his father was rolling without legs”. 

Mr. Pushpendra Singh, Assembly MLA and Mr. P.P. Chaudhary, Sarpanch of a village known as Gurha Khowa under tehsil of Desuri, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. You all must be shocked that for a food article, why these political details are given in the beginning and what could be the resemblance?

I have searched Rajasthan for its food very closely. Not only that I was working in Rajasthan and that is one reason why I went to places to hunt foods or it is my passion to do so. The above-mentioned names played a very important role to write my article and make me understood the intrigue facts about a speciality Indian bread named Khoba/Kobha/Roth/Rotla/Angarkadi/Jadi Roti.

I met both of them in the year 2015 when I was looking for the root of this speciality Roti. I was accompanied with one of my known person Late Dineshwar Sharma Ji of Bikaner and while going to the village he gave me a lot of information about this age-old delicacy.

Rajasthan was always remained as the land of Kings and mythologies. The Kings also respects the Gods and Goddesses a lot and which eventual gave birth to many a dish. This Khoba Roti is expected to be 5000 years old and it represents the Suryavanshi Kings as this roti is in the shape of Sun. According to him there was a King in Jodhpur region who wanted to cut some trees of his vicinity which according to him are not of worth. Karni Mata of Bikaner gave a dream to him and asked him not to shovel the trees and immediately to come to Bikaner and take her blessings. On the way from Jodhpur to Bikaner the Kings stopped at this village Gurha Khowa and the villagers presented him a roti for his long travel and for his healthy trip. This entire story is picture depicted inside the Karni Maata temple of Bikaner.

According to Mr. Pushpendra Singh, the villagers have created the roti as a token of love from the village for the Goddess Karni Maata as those trees were shading this small village. Karni Maata protected their village from the anger of God Sun, hence the roti is made in the shape of Sun. According to Mr. P.P. Chaudhary, some 80 to 90 years back also this Khoba Roti was an important offering to Karni Maata temple.

Rajasthani foods were mainly for the warriors. Look into the names and it is easily understood that the dish is somewhat associated with travels or wars. Scarcity of water, scorching sun, long distance travel through deserts, non availability of food products all affects the creation. Khoba Roti is a simple roti which according to Marwari language means a deep indentation which is given to the roti after placing the raw thick dough on the griddle and preferably with thumb finger. Ghee plays the most important role for this roti. According to the locals, the more the ghee the better the roti in look, taste and shelflife. This roti is also very popular among the tribes or banjara community of Rajasthan. This roti can be eaten alone or may be with some garlic pickle or simple raw onion. Although you can always enjoy this roti with combination of Rajasthani delicacies. Gatte Curry, Rabodi ki Sabzi, Papad Ki Sabzi, Dal Panchmel, Lal Maas, Kadhi Pakoda all are extremely good pairing with this roti.

Rajasthan’s Marwari community has a sect of believers known as Jains. They are much strict on their diets as like the Jews. They are strictly vegetarian and apart they do not even eat rhizomes - no onion and no garlic is a very common term known by the hoteliers. These sects of people were happier with this roti as this roti can be home made and with one grain. On this aspect they have a festival called Roth Teej wherein Roth refers to the grain used to make the bread. “The festival reinforces the belief that material wealth doesn’t last and only renunciation can lead to true happiness.”

There were two more village found in the name of Khoba in India. One is in Valsad district Gujrat and one in Pathankot district of Punjab. If we look into the geographical nature of both the village, it has got deep indentation which is known as Khoba in Marwari language. Although there is no relation with this authentic bread and the village but if not bread, let the village get popularised.

योमरी च्वाम्मु उक्के दुने चाकु,  ब्युमा ल्यासेय मब्युमा बुरिचा – Meaning “Yomaris are pointed and filling is sweet, If you give me bread, you are pretty if not you are ugly” - Nepal

“Dabba bharaya leera da, Ai ghar Ameera da” – meaning “A box filled of old tattered cloth strips but this house is of the rich - Punjab

“যে দেবে থালা থালা তার হবে সোনার বালা, যে দেবে মুঠো মুঠো তার হবে হাত ফুটো” – meaning “one who gives full of platter shall be fulfilled with gold, and the one who gives by measuring through hands, his hand might get burnt” - Bengal

Remembering these kiddish poems? I might sound funny but these classical folklores are more attached with the cuisines of districts, states, country and on a bigger sense the entire world. The poem at the beginning is for a festival called Yomari Punhi from Nepal. Second one is from Lohri from North India and the third one is from Ghetu/Ghatu festival of Bengal. The most amazing thing is that all these festivals are always associated with kids dressing in fancy dress and singing and going to various houses to ask for generous gifts, and in the remembrance of Lord Krishna dancing and playing with Radha during full moon night. But I am here to discuss more about the food and a treasure came into my hand through this festival approaching in Nepal.

Nepal has lots of community and they celebrate differently. Newari is a community who are widely spread now. Children goes to the neighbourhood singing songs and asking for Yomari. It is basically a type of bread and Punhi refers to Purnmasi/Purnima/Full Moon. So literally a bread eaten during this full moon festival. Yomari came from two different words – ‘Yau’ and ‘Mari’. Yau in Newari means Loved and Mari means bread. Hence bread loved by all.

For a God oriented country like Nepal this is one of the most auspicious ceremonial festivals where they wanted to satisfy the Gods and Goddesses of Grains – Mother Annapurna with the offering of their grains by making a special bread named Yomari. They make various shapes of Yomari resembling various Gods such as Laxmi, Kuber, Ganesha, Saraswati etc. Sometimes they prepare Yomari with stuffing inside and sometimes without the stuffing. But it is a steamed bread which is always gifted to other people which refers that I have to donate my heart to the dish to make it the best. These Yomari’s are always placed in a large grain basket known as Bhakari and offered.

There are various legends available on the origin of this typical dish. But almost all the Nepali people believe that the dish is originated in Panchal region (today’s Panauti). One legend says that a Newari couple “Suchandra and Krita” got married and they have created some confectionery bread which they have distributed to all the people across the village. Lord Kubera was also in that village staying in disguise and when he receive this bread, he was so happy with the generosity of the couple that he blessed the couple with wealth and prosperity. He also announced that anyone who prepares Yomari with the shape of Gods and Goddesses on the full moon day shall be blessed with the same.

Culture never stay hidden. One or the other day it surely comes out in front and we start matching those through different methods. It is not wrong to predict that some of the Newa sweets are having root to the neighbouring country India whereas some have strong connection of Persian influence such as ‘Jeri’ and ‘Halwa’. Historians have different belief about the origin of this dish. Evidences show a strong relevance of Indian influence on this dish. According to the book ‘Social History of Nepal’, the Bhasa Vamsavali found in Kathmandu Valley mentions that the people of Kathmandu started making yomaris from the time of Amshuverma, from 6th CE. The authors of the book – Tulasi Ram Vaidya, Tri Ratna Manandhar and Shankar Lal Joshi—suggest that Newas might have adopted the culture from the Tibetans and even further north, Korean, which also prepare yomari-like sweets.

There is a very famous Ganesha temple at Ticchugalli, Patan which has a statue of tichhu/mushik (shrew), the vehicle of Lord holding modaka (tear drop shaped sweet dumpling) and the temple is built in 1646. Food historian KT Achaya mentions in his book that this sweet modaka is available date back to 200BCE. Hence a strong relationship is coined between these two.

Whatever relationship in terms of origin we want to create, there are major differences available between modaka and yomari. According to Newa culture the yomari is stuffed with ‘Chaku’ (pulled jaggery taffy) instead of jaggery in modaka. Yomari is folded such neatly into teardrop shape that no pleats are visible as in modaka it is seen. There are other hypotheses available also. It is been coupled to a citrus fruit Jambhara (Sanskrit) – citrus medica (bot.), known as Tahsi in Newa and Bimiro in Nepali language which has a similar shape. In Newa culture this fruit is worshiped during Mha puja – a festival for worshiping the foetus according to Sanskrit Scholar Gautam V Vajracharya. It is also worshiped during Mohani Nakha or Dashain. This fruit hold an important significance in both Hinduism and Buddhism. According to Hinduism women who wish to become pregnant worship Jambhara, an alternative Sanskrit word is ‘Bijapura’ meaning seed-filled. In Buddhism, the god of wealth is known as Jambhala who in Hinduism is known as Kubera and the name is derived from the citrus fruit Jambhara. Yomari is also eaten in the occasion in Newa society where the parents feed pregnant daughters. During Yomari Punhi, people also make mayo and bayo yomari: mayo, filled with black lentils, symbolises the female sexual organ, and bayo, filled with chaku and sesame seeds, symbolises the male sexual organ. The two are a symbolic representation of two sexes. Even the ‘yomari phonegu’ practice is considered to be the meeting of loved ones and seeking romance.

There are other belief wherein it is said that Lord Krishna gets separated from Radha and both of them started living in separate places. Their followers started to perform to bring joy to both of them. Male kids started to act as Radha and dance in front of Krishna and vice versa. Maintaining the same tradition this ritualistic event is still in performance and is performed very holistically and wholeheartedly.

These folklores are attached with various hidden cultures and truth which is getting lost because of fast moving lifestyle. Honestly our next generation is facing a severe deficit of parenting which not only means parents not spending good amount of time with their kids rather experiencing the kids with our old school culture which is our pride. These old cultures not only bring celebrations rather evolve various culinary traditions which is still hidden for the rest of the world. Let us work together to track these delicacies out.

Remembering the old Pizza Song written by Charlotte Diamond whose end part says – 

“Oh, I was a pizza
I was the best
I was a pizza
Now I'm a mess”………..

If we talk about comfort food these days to my mind Pizza has taken over all the control and it is the largest favourite fast food across the world. Although a traditional food from Italy but all the credit goes to the Americans who have popularised it so well. A statistic shows that some 3 billion pizzas are sold each year in the US alone, an average of 46 slices per person. But the chronicle of this well-known food is attached with lots of turmoil – migration, economics and technological change.

Looking back at the history of this dish, it firstly appears in Virgil’s Aeneid. Shortly after arriving in Latium, Aeneas and his crew sat down beneath a tree and laid out ‘thin wheaten cakes as platters for their meal’. They then scattered them with mushrooms and herbs they had found in the woods and guzzled them down, crust and all, prompting Aeneas’ son Ascanius to exclaim: “Look! We’ve even eaten our plates!”

The word ‘Pizza” was seen for the first time in a Latin text in the town of Gaeta of Byzantine Empire in 997AD – the text says “Gaeta duodecim pizze” – which means the tenant of certain property is to give twelve pizzas to the Bishop of Gaeta on every Christmas Day and twelve every Easter Sunday.

Although there is much debate about the origin of the word Pizza but according to Senor Carol Heltosky, author of Pizza: A Global History and Associate Professor of history at the University of Denver says that the word came from a Latin word ‘Pinsa’ meaning flatbread. Naples were founded around 600BC and during 1700s and early 1800s it was a thriving waterfront city. Notorious for its throngs of working poor or lazzaroni and the word ‘Pinsa’ is quite common amongst them as stated.

A recent archaeological discovery found a preserved Bronze Age Pizza in the Veneto region which somehow suggests the myth of Roman soldiers gaining taste from Jewish Matzoth while posted in Roman-occupied Palestine. But forget about all myths and histories, what we love to believe is during 18th century in Naples the Pizza as we know has come into being. As stated earlier this city was one of the most highly populated cities in Italy and a statistic suggests that from 1700 to 1748 there was an influx of population o more than 1,99,000 people. This huge influx actually brought poverty for the country. Economy drastically thrashed. The most abject of these were known as lazzaroni, because their ragged appearance resembled that of Lazarus. Numbering around 50,000 they scraped by on the pittance they earned as porters, messengers or casual labourers. Food which met this need is pizza and it was not sold in the shops rather the vendors use to carry in box packets and sell in slice as par the budget of the people. As Alexandre Dumas noted in Le Corricolo(1843), a two liard (a small coin used in France) slice would make a good breakfast, while two sous (a coin used in France which is equal to four liard) would buy a pizza large enough for a whole family.

Pizzas were not complicated at that time. Hardly there were any topping. The mot favourite affordable topping were garlic, lard and salt. But a little different would include Caciocavallo(a cheese made from horse’s milk), Cecenielli (whitebait) or basil or tomato. For a long time, pizzas were scorned by food writers. Associated with the crushing poverty of the lazzaroni, they were frequently denigrated as ‘disgusting’, especially by foreign visitors. In 1831, Samuel Morse – inventor of the telegraph – described pizza as a ‘species of the most nauseating cake … covered over with slices of pomodoro or tomatoes, and sprinkled with little fish and black pepper and I know not what other ingredients, it altogether looks like a piece of bread that has been taken reeking out of the sewer’. In fact during 19th century pizza was pointedly ignored from the first cookbook. But it changed after Italian unification. While on a visit to Naples in 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita grew tired of the complicated French dishes they were served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hastily summoned to prepare some local specialities for the queen, the pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito cooked three sorts of pizza: one with lard, caciocavallo and basil; another with cecenielli; and a third with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. The queen was delighted. Her favourite – the last of the three – was christened pizza margherita in her honour. Neapolitan pizza is not only special for its relevance in the history of the dish, but also because, since 2010, it holds a STG qualification granted by the EU. STG means that Neapolitan pizza, or Pizza Verace Napoletana, as it is known (original Neapolitan pizza), is a specialità tradizionale garantita (guaranteed traditional specialty): its ingredients are controlled and regulated by law, just as its shape, the way the dough is prepared and cut, and where it can be consumed.

But pizza found its second home in America by the end of the 19th century through the hands Italian immigrants and in 1905 the first pizzeria “Lombardi’s” was opened in New York City. Today’s pizzas are far removed from those of the lazzaroni; and many pizza purists – especially in Naples – balk at some of the more outlandish toppings that are now on offer. But pizza is still recognisable as pizzaand centuries of social, economic and technological change are baked into every slice. A small pizza is sometimes called a pizzetta. A person who makes pizza is known as a pizzaiolo.

Some unavoidable variations of Pizza:

1. Pizza Marinara – a traditional Neapolitan pizza that has oregano, anchovies, and lots of garlic

2. Pizza Capricciosa – Mushroom, prosciutto, artichoke hearts, olives, and ½ boiled egg

3. Pizza Pugliese – Local capers and olives

4. Pizza Veronese – Mushroom and tender Prosciutto Crudo, green olives, seafood, hard boiled eggs and peas

5. Quattro Stagioni – is another traditional Italian pizza similar to the Capricciosa. It represents the four seasons and makes a good sampler pizza with sections of artichokes, salami or Prosciutto Cotto, mushrooms, and tomatoes

6. Pizza al Taglio or Pizza Rustica – sold almost everywhere in Italy usually be weight and often piled with marinated mushrooms, onions or artichokes.

7. Focaccia – is a typical Liguria style pizza but much thicker than normal pizza topped with olive oil and rosemary and sometimes with caramelised onion.

8. Sfincione – is a thick Sicilian sheet pizza that uses tomato sauce, anchovies (usually anchovy paste) breadcrumbs, and caciocavallo (or another local variety) cheese.

9. Italian Calzone – is smaller than its American cousin and is often filled with either meats or fresh vegetables especially spinach and mozzarella

A newer trend that is gaining popularity is the emergence of sweet pizzas and traditional Italian pizzerias are trying to accommodate this trend by using unique ingredients. These dessert pizzas often have flavour combinations such as Nutella, honey, fruit jam, yogurt, even mustard, and liquor.

“Taste of love is sweet, when hearts like ours meet” – Johny Cash

The second Pandava Bhima was a great cook according to Mahabharat and Lord Krishna loves to eat food cooked by him and it is mentioned in many of a chapter. Because of this quality of Bhima, Lord Krishna suggested him to took a name of Ballava during their one-year exile. Shikharini– which means one who took birth from Shikha – the fire refers to another name of Draupadi. There is no documented proof but historians have accepted that Bhima used to cook a dish made up of hung curd and sweetened with sugar. Now whether he used to serve this dish to Draupadi and named it after her pseudo name or he loves to prepare it for Lord Krishna and named it after his name (Shikharini= One who wears a peacock feather known as Shikha) is million-dollar question. Whatever the case may be, an unavoidable dessert took birth in the name of Shikharini which later got famed with the name Shrikhand.

A very easy and simple dessert but unputdownable. It is a traditional sweet of Maharashtra, Gujrat, Rajasthan and some parts of Madhya Pradesh. Sour curd is hung for long duration of time so that all the water drains out. In India and Pakistan this solid curd is known as ‘chakka’. Once this chakka is ready you need to sweeten the curd with powdered sugar and this process is known in Hindi, ‘fetna’. It is mostly flavoured with small cardamom powder and sometimes with rose water. It is then garnished with nuts. Variations include fruit pulps and especially mangoes during summer has become a delicacy.

Dewater curd hung for few hours; sugar and flavourings added in the mass resulted Shikharni which is modern days Shrikhand – it is first noted around 500BC writes historian KT Achaya in his book. A Historical Companion written by him also suggests that the mention about this dish appeared in food writings in Kannada as early as 1025AD. It refers to ‘Lokopakara’ of Chavundaraya, which says that it was also known as Shikarini at that time. In another book by the same author, ‘The Historical Dictionary of Indian Food’ mentions that Shrikhand has been a part of Gujrati cuisine since 500BC. There is a mention about Shrikhand in the ‘Supa Shastra’ written by the poet Mangarasa in 1594AD.

The recipe mentioned in the old scripture and the modern style remains almost same. The ancient Gujarati-Jain literature from 7th to 14th century A.D has frequent reference to numerous food items like Dukkia (dhokla first mentioned in A.D 1066), Veshtika (vedhami). Shikharini (shrikhand) has also found itself in the coveted mention. According to Jashbhai B. Prajappati and Baboo M. Nair, in the book 'The History of Fermented Foods', shrikhand was originated in ancient India around 400 BC, and soon became a dessert relished by both the rich and the poor. Shrikhand could safely be dubbed as one of the oldest desserts that originated on Indian shores.

There are other sources and evidence available too which claims that the word Shrikhand came from the word Ksheer, thickened milk in Sanskrit and Quand, sweet in Parsi. It is quite related as the dish might be of Persian origin brought to Western India by the Parsi(Zorastrian) settlers, who emigrated from Iran to India around 8th to 10th century AD. It is interesting that Shrikhand was mentioned in the food writings from Kannada around the same time. Although there is no exact written records available as to when this dish came into existence.

To my experience with Shrikhand so far, the ‘Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale’ of Pune and ‘Saras Dairy’ at Udaipur sells the best of Shrikhand. At times in both the places you have to stand in long que and especially at the Pune shop they sell the chakka which you can take and prepare your own Shrikhand. There is another shop at Pune named ‘Sangli’ who produce excellent Shrikhand too. Whatever the case may be, all depends on the quality of the milk that you get from the animal and obviously the quality of the curd.

During our college day our respected faculty loves to test our enhancement of knowledge. Now being in the fraternity for almost 16yeras, I understand the intrigue fundamentals of asking those questions. Probability one is to actually enhance your knowledge by researching, going to libraries and looking for books to find out the answer (Mr. & Mrs. Google was not available at that time). Probability two is to avoid the student nuisance by giving them a troublesome task in stipulated time. One of the tasks at time given by our respected teacher was to find out speciality sweets of different states of India. And quite obviously Ghewar from Rajasthan was there. I never knew at that time that at some age of my life I shall be doing research on typical dishes around the world and dig out the most available truths which for sure stun me and my readers. My process of research is obviously reading various books, research papers etc. but the most importance I give to being in that place and finding evidences and meeting people who has some valid proof to pass on about that dish.

Ghewar is not from Rajasthan………………

Shut up. Never never say this word to anyone in India a you may be killed for that. There is no evidence or proof that Ghewar actually came from Iran/Persia but yes it is true that it came through the hand of people who invaded India through the deserted parts of the country. Evidence supported by Mr. Suman Behari, owner of Lucknow’s 140year old sweet shop. At the same time the owner of a 250years old sweet shop of Jaipur, Lakshmi Mishtanna Bhandar – the owner Mr. Ajay Agarwal protest and says that his family is preparing this traditional sweet for such a long time and have received no evidential support for Iranian origin. Whatever dispute the origin might have, this unputdownable sweet has overpowered everything and entered into the sweet memories of every corner of the country.

It is a traditional dessert of the state Rajasthan although a GI tag ha not yet been given to it. A semi fermented pouring batter which is prepared with refined flour and moisture (some people add very small quantity of gram flour for taste enhancement). Later it is dropped onto very hot clarified butter (ghee) from a height and obviously inside a mould wherein it start taking its shape of honeycomb. There are at least 10 variations available these days but the most important thing to remember is that this is a seasonal sweet for Rajasthan. From the middle of September to end of February is the best time to produce and sell ghewar as said by the owner of Bikanerwala of Bikaner. The moisture content in the air is absolutely perfect for the ghewar to not to make it very dry neither to soaked with vapour to lose the crispy ness.

My visit to find out the reality of this super attractive dessert towards the interior part of Rajasthan revealed hidden facts which is mind boggling. There are two village in Jaisalmer namely “Jeevraj Singh ki Dhani” and “Jhanda Madhoojowala” revealed and unique understanding about this dessert. Water was always a scarcity for Rajasthan and ghee was plenty so as the floury products especially the gram flour. Mr. Suwa Singh who was a sarpanch of that village intimated that he has seen ghewar being prepared with Besan. He also told that as this dish came through the warriors entered through this region to India, they have actually used the local ingredients to prepare this dish at that time. The other village is having around 49families and all are very aged. From one of them I have gathered that the fried ghewar is actually work as a supplement of moisture inside the food pipe in the scorching summer. Refined flour increases the absorption requirement of water whereas besan does the opposite. The tradition of making ghewar with besan is hardly seen a people are more concerned with the taste and commercial quality of food rather than tradition as stated by the sarpanch of the village.

Ghevar is a disc-shaped Indian sweet having a honeycomb pattern. It is first fried and then kept it for resting for the oil to drip out. Once it is oil free, it is then poured with sugar syrup for its sweet taste. After pouring the sugar syrup it is again kept for draining of excess sugar syrup and then it is decorated with khoya/mawa, chooped dry fruits, kesar, chandi varak (silver leaf) etc. A speciality in the sugar syrup is seen in Jodhpur wherein you have specifically order for the sugar syrup flavour. Rose, Orange, Kewda, Paan, Gulkand, Jamun etc. flavour sugar syrups are available and you have to place the order accordingly.

Ghevar is sold in two styles – sweet and non-sweet. Sweet one is having low shelf life (around 3-4 days) whereas the unsweetened version has a shelf life of 20-30 days. One of the most famous variation of ghewar is Paneer Ghewar which should never be interpreted that paneer (cottage cheese) is used to prepare this ghewar rather the curdled milk is added to prepare the batter for ghewar.

Sharing some of my best-known sweetshops of Western Rajasthan which may be of your interest while visiting Rajasthan.

Bikaner

1. Bikanerwala 2. Chotu Motu Joshi 3. Madhav Sweets

4. Heeralal Sweets 5. Jeshraj Shivraj 6. Shyam Ji Halwai

Jodhpur

1. Janta Sweet Home 2. Jodhpur Sweet 3. Gulab Halwa Wala

Jaisalmer

1. Dhanraj Ranmal Bhati a

2. Khetehwar Mishtann Bhandar

3. Shri Majisa Mishtann Bhandar

Barmer

1. Dalluji Sweets and Kachori

2. Parasmal Lanchhiram Khandelwal

Nagaur

1. Chhaggani Sweet Shop

2. Darpan Sweets

Pali

1. Metiya Sweet Home

Perhaps the best controversies are available in food dishes across the world. Be it a dish wise confusion or it is a cuisine wise confusion, people love to fight to prove their food existence. One of that such dish is Kabab. Across the world this most popular food item is available in different name but region wise controversy on proving that who originated the dish is a controversy. Kabab – Kebab – Kibap – Kibbeh – endless are the names. We Indians get acquainted with the term through the hand of Mughals, but there are plenty of controversies available between us. According to the old Sanskrit scriptures, the evidence of kabab is available which is much older than the arrivals of Mughals. According to Pali transcript, evidence of a dish called ‘Sondheko’ which means pit-smoke roasted meat chunks are also available. Hence a never-ending controversy but the most exquisite food item which we love most.

We are going to understand a dish today which probably claims the origin of all kabab dishes. Guesses right – I am talking about “Oltu Cağ Kibap”. Oltu is a small village from Yusufeli district of Turkey for centuries. The most famous Cağ Kibap is available in the village of Tortum, Uzundere, Oltu, Olur and Senkaya districts of Erzurum province along with Yusufeli district of Artvin. It is termed as Cağ kebab as the small skewers in Turkish language is known as “Cağ” and also as “Bico”. The skewer material is different for both the term, hence the names are different. Once it is iron is known as Cağ and when it is made with wood it is termed as Bico.

Ottoman historical evidences and a through travel research report published by one of the most valuable Ottoman travellers Evliya Çelebil, thi kebab is considered as the mot important food for any events for more than 30 years. It is also considered as the ancestor of Döner kebab and originated to Kipchak Turks. The major difference between Döner Kebab and Oltu Cag Kebab is that the meat is not placed vertically unlike Döner Kebab rather horizontally preferably, over embers of wood fire. Obviously, the cooking technique doesn’t have the capability to change the name of a kebab but it can certainly make thing unique. 

The most important crux as a major difference is hidden in the characteristics of the meat used. Utmost necessary to make Oltu Cağ kebab from the hogget naturally raised in high plateaus of Erzurum and Kars provinces. Hind and forelegs are always preferred. 1:4 of Fat:Lean meat produces the best result. Meat cutting and seasoning also plays an important role for this kebab. Meat cuts should not be thin or thick. In seasoning the meat cuts, only salt, onion and black pepper are used and the use of anything else such as thyme or basil is not suggested. However, it is noted that great attention should be paid to the onion to be used since every type of this vegetable is not preferred in Cağ kebab. Pungent onion varieties are not preferred and white coloured varieties ranging in flavour from sweet to mild must be used. Moreover, it is emphasized on that onion taste should not be preponderant and felt in this kebab.

Oltu Chambers of Commerce which has given a geographical indication tag for this kebab with the name of Oltu Cağ Kebabı. During 1960 the world saw increase of Cağ kebab restaurants after it had been served for the first time in a barrack-like building by a man with livelihood challenges.

According to Master Chef Kemal Koç, serving in Erzurum central district, stated that this kebab dated back to Ottoman period and known as bico at those times and claimed that he had commercialized it the first time by introducing it to restaurant cuisine in 1982 with the name of “Tortum Kebabı Cağlı”. He also claimed that he had the trademark of this kebab with the title of “Tortum Meşhur Koç Cağ Kebabı (Tortum Famous Koç Cağ Kebab)” by registering it in 2000. Similar information regarding the history of Cağ Kebab was also reported by Şakir Aktaş, one of the leading Cağ kebab master chefs serving in Erzurum. As Kemal Koç did, he also claimed that he had the registered trademark of Tortum Cağ Kebab. Both Cağ Kebab Master Chefs stated that this kebab was given the name of “Cağ kebab” due to that the skewers were known or called as Cağ which were used in serving of this kebab. They warned that this special kebab had been mispronounced as “Cağ kebab” in some places.

Lin et al, emphasized on those foods are related to social, cultural and natural characteristics of a particular geography and that they are a symbol and an emblem of a region, and a sign of culture. Since tourists in their visiting sites generally prefer the foods and meals, traditional and local foods have a great tourism potential. Insomuch that gastronomy or culinary tourism represents a new tourism market and becomes more and more popular. This tourism branch constitutes especially the main or at least additional activities of the tourists in the enterprises in a given destination. Even in some circumstances, the main motivating factor of the tourism trips has been the desire of knowing and experiencing this unique regional food culture. Along with other local, cultural and social values, as a traditional food, Cağ kebab has the potential of enhancing and strengthening the authenticity, hospitality and economy of Erzurum province.

Bloody Mary – the ever most selling cocktail in the history of drinks. Can someone who knows about the intrigue details of food and drinks think of this cocktail without the presence of Worcestershire sauce? Not possible. Or think of devilled eggs without Worcestershire sauce – a devil’s thought.

“Worcestershire is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county” – source Wikipedia.

But Worcestershire is more famous for a food condiment known as Worcestershire Sauce. It is mostly known in the industry as Worcester sauce or W-sauce. It is basically a proprietary sauce which is why the recipe is still not known and mostly used to enhance the flavour of particular ingredients during the process of marination.

While tracking the history, it has been found that this sauce has a close relation with India especially the undivided Bengal. Very recently one Kishwar Chaudhury from Bangladesh prepares a dish which owns a culinary competition namely “Panta Bhaat” (overnight soaked cooked rice). This particular dish is still today eaten with a special relish made out of ingredients like dried prawns, tamarind, onion, garlic, roasted green chilly, black cumin powder, coriander leaves etc. this particular relish not only bring tang to the dish rather it increases the production of more saliva for better supply of required acids by the body. This particular relish could be considered as the forefather of Worcestershire sauce.

One Lord Marcus Sandy, who was the Governor of Bengal during the British Rule (28th January, 1798 – 10thApril, 1863) went back to Worcestershire after retirement and was craving to get the sauce which he use to eat along with the food in India. He called Mr. John Lea and Mr. William Perrins who were basically a chemist researcher and owner of a medical store. At that time both of them combinedly doing research on hair lotions for growth of hair which requires lots of Indian spices and herbs. Lord Sandy ordered them to prepare the sauce as it is by tasting a sample which he was having as his last supply. Both of them agreed as they had lot of Indian ingredients available with them and also with a thought that they can sell it to the market. Unfortunately the end product was so strong in flavour because of the presence of dried fish that they were unable to accept it as edible product. Hence, they decide to put the sauce in a jar and keep it the store room. Fortunately they forgot about the product and the sauce gets enough time to mature. After two years of time, one fine day they noticed the jar and opened it and tasted it. Amazed they are – it was extremely tasty and delicious. Within a very short span of time this particular sauce was a hit item of the market.

Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as Great British Railway Journeys and Great Continental Railway Journeys. According to his research the sauce took shape from Bengal and Britishers just added spice and flavour to it.

According to him, there are some historical evidence unavailability of Lord Sandys being Governor of Bengal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_governors_of_Bengal_Presidency). It proves that Lord Sandy was never been in India which later was supported by Mrs. Lord Sandy when Ms. Elizabeth Grey (Countess of Kildare, an English noblewoman, the second wife of Gerald Fitz Gerald, 9th Earl of Kildare) visited. She also understood from Mrs. Sandy that the craving for curry powder was so high that she replicates a dish she learned from her uncle who had been a former chief justice in India. She then recommended the chemist to recreate the dish. The facts that the exact origin story died with Lea and Perrins. This particular brand was commercialized in 1837 and the first bottles of sauce were published in 1838. They sold 636 bottles in 1842.

Lea and Perrins were a successful salesman who went around with their truck full of medicine, some of their products were in high demand in the surrounding towns like Birmingham, and even abroad. Lea and Perrins convinced the steward on British passenger ships to include in their dining set up. It became British staple as steak sauce and further emigrated worldwide. It commercially arrived in New York in 1839. They set up a factory in 1845 on Bank Street, in Worcester. By 10years they were selling 30,000 bottles a year. Initially, they promoted the sauce as a health tonic. Worcestershire sauce was originally a trademarked name but soon there were imitators all around. To show originality, they started putting their signature on the bottles, to ensure customers could recognize. Later, they started using alternative name Worcester Sauce in ads in Australia and New Zealand and elsewhere. The name was considered as a generic term since 1876 until when the English High Court of Justice ruled that the founders didn’t have the trademark. During the period of the Second World War, the founders switched from the use of Soy sauce to hydrolysed vegetable protein.

This tangy steak sauce could spread it’s taste to all parts of the world. It is variously known by different names like ‘Spicy Shy Sauce’ in and around Shanghai, Worcester sauce in Taiwan, Gip sauce in Hong Kong. It has bred its usage in Cantonese dim sum and Haipai cuisines and the Shanghai-style pork chops. It is known as Engelsk sauce among the Dutches. In Ell Salvador, it is colloquially termed as ‘Salsa Inglesa' or ‘Salsa Perrins’.

Whatever the case may be, we Indian have endless amount of contribution towards British inventions. Worcestershire sauce could be one of the best examples. We feel proud and especially I feel great to learn when a sauce which is so popular worldwide has a Bong Connection.

Year 1981 turns out to be extremely fascinating and action pact because of a movie and its location. “For Your Eyes Only” – starring Rodger Moore and location is Greece. Remember the restaurant where 007 first met with the princely lady Melina Havelock of Greece who is about to take revenge for her fathers’ killing. Forget it, rather remember what 007 was doing before he met the lady. It was a spread of a chess board in front of the table. There was a hukkah in front of Bond and he was eating a skewer of meat with a bread – Souvlaki.

It is one of the most famous fast food of Greece and now it is the world’s most famous fast food. Be it in the version of Gyros-Pita or Shawarma-Pita. It could be of any choice of meat entangled with various other materials but obvious to be served with classic tzatziki sauce. Variations may include of adding ingredients like potato, cabbage, paprika etc.

The root of this dish goes back to historical trace. Famous epic Iliad where we get the first evidence of the dish. In the Homer book it is mentioned - King Priamo, came to Achilles and begged for the dead body of his son Hector, who he killed the previous day in the battle. Achilles, according to Homer, offered him a meal of truce, where the two men enjoyed for the moment the blessing of peace that was forgotten in the horrors of war. It is also mentioned that Achilles cooked the pieces of meat on the embers.

The word Souvlaki is a diminutive of the Greek Souvla (spit), itself borrowed from the Latin word Subula. But the origins of souvlaki date back to ancient Greece. It was known with the name Obeliskos (declare in memory of Obelos –spit), mentioned by among others in the works of Aristophanes, Xenophon, Aristotle etc. A meat and bread recipe which resembles the way pita souvlaki is served today with pita bread was also attested by Athenaeus in his “Deipnosophistae” and called the plate Kandaulos. However, excavations held in Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini by professor Christos G. Doumas, unearthed stone sets of barbecues for skewers (Greek: Krateutai) used before the 17th century BC. Even later on, during the Byzantine era, references survive describing street vendors selling souvlakia with pita in Constantinople.

It is quite common these days to see local vendors selling skewer with pita bread on streets of Istanbul. It has a strong Roman reference. According to Roman archives (1st Century AD) there were availability of skewer with entrails.

The journey of Souvlaki in Greece started in 1924 with the hand of Isaac Meraklidis who arrive Athens from Egypt and started the first ever Souvlaki restaurant named “Aigyptiakon” in Nikaia which is still continuing. This restaurant is located at Vrachias Street on the corner of Monastiraki Square and it belongs to Mr. Spyros Bairaktaris who is the fourth generation of Mr. Isaac Meraklidis. Isaac was actually an Armenian from Adana. Kebab is considered not only as a food for Armenian people rather it is considered as a religion. When Turkey wanted to invade Adana, Issac moved to Egypt as a political refugee and lately ended up in Athens changing from his real name to Misak Anispikian. 

Souvlaki in the Northern part of Greece is known as ‘Kalamaki’ which is introduced by Livadia in the ‘50s. Kalamaki means a pipe like straw instrument and probably this term is given to justify the whole created in the chunks of meat because of the skewers.

Between 1950 and 1970 the largest waves of immigration took place worldwide. There are many a people moved from Greece to the rest of the country and they took their favourite recipe of Souvlaki along with them for purposes either to enjoy the delicacy or to opening a shop and survive by selling the dish. And Souvlaki turns out to be hot selling dish worldwide.

Commercialisation of Souvlaki-Pita was started in 1952 by Papadopoulos brothers (Antonis and Kyriakos). They started production from an wood oven wherein they can prepare around 200 to 300 pita bread per hour.

There are many a variation available these days worldwide which is of similar style of Souvlaki. But honestly speaking, enjoying an authentic Souvlaki at the beach of any Greek Island is like travelling to the heaven. The traditional Greek spice marination, ethnic tenderness of the pit roasted meat, crunchy availability of crispy greens, moistness from the classic tzatziki and the robustness of the pita bread creates a magic inside the mouth. Long live SOUVLAKI.

Dharwad is the administrative district of the state Karnataka in Southern India and is the cultural headquarter of North Karnataka. The word “Dharwad” means a place of rest on a long journey or a small habitation. For centuries, Dharwad acted as a gateway between the Malenadu region and the plains, and it became a resting place for travellers. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word “Dwarawata”, ‘dwara’ meaning door and ‘wata’ or ‘wada’ meaning town. Another theory is that during the Vijayanagara rule of Dharwad there was a ruler by name "Dharav" (1403), and Dharwad got its name from him. There are some inscriptions that refer to Dharwad as Kampana Sthana.

Dharwad’s strong connection with Uttar Pradesh remains a puzzle. Dharwad along with its twin city Hubbali (Hubli) is the second largest urban agglomeration in Karnataka. This region was part of the Bombay presidency before merging with Karnataka (then Mysore state) in the 1950s.

According to the modern scholar Hampa Nagarajaiah ("Hampana"), ancient Kannada poet Pampa who is also called Ādikavi ("First Poet") was born in Annigeri, a town in Dharwad district. The Dharwad district has contributed to some of the greatest exponents of Hindustani music including Sawai Gandharva, Mallikarjun Mansur, Bhimsen Joshi, Basavaraj Rajaguru, Kumar Gandharva and Gangubai Hangal. Dharwad is an unlikely outpost of the Kirana gharana. Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was a frequent visitor to Mysore Darbar, where he had been conferred the title of Sangeet Ratna. On the way to Mysore, he used to stay with his brother in Dharwad, where he taught his most famous disciple, Sawai Gandharva. Sawai Gandharva in turn was the guru to Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi and Basavaraj Rajaguru. Jnanpith Award winners D. R. Bendre, V. K. Gokak and Girish Karnad trace their origins to Dharwad. Kannada writers and critics Kirtinath Kurtakoti and C. P. Siddhashrama are from Dharwad. Noted Marathi writer G. A. Kulkarni also lived most of his life. Actresses Shanta Hublikar and Leena Chandavarkar were born here. Sucheta Dalal, the Mumbai-based financial journalist, who exposed the Harshad Mehta scandal studied in Dharwad.

Epidemic created lots of historical evidences including Oberoi’s most prestigious hotel – The Oberoi Grand Calcutta. Like the same a small sweet was created during the famous epidemic in 1896 in Bombay Presidency states of India. Uttar Pradesh was extremely badly affected with plague which forced Mr. Ratan Singh Thakur (a pedha halwai of Uttar Pradesh) to move from his mother place ‘Unnao’ to relocate to ‘Dharwad’ district of Northern Karnataka. He and his entire family moved to Dharwad not only for their life but with an understanding of earning bread and butter for his family. He came along with his secret recipe of pedha. Mathura pedha of Uttar Pradesh was already famous by that time so he thought of creating something new but in the same line of pedha. He somehow managed to get some place near to Line Bazar area of Dharwad and started making this unmatched desert. The recipe kept secret by his family members as usual and even photography is also not allowed inside the kitchen. It is a mildly sweet, caramelised version with its trademark coffee brown hue. There is an evidential certificate available to the family (especially to Mr. Babu Singh Thakur) issued by Governor of Bombay in 1913 that virtually put Dharwad Pedha on the map. Thakur’s pedha is considered to be the original version but there are other sweet shops who claims that they create the original Dharwad’s pedha. Taste and texture is enough to prove the originality as usual. According to the locals, the quality of khoya and dusting of finely powdered sugar makes the major difference.

As a chef, my culinary sense suggests that the temperature control process by the sweet makers are the key ingredients for this unparallel dessert. No usage of thermometer, rather just the glance through eyes of the head chef is enough to judge where to stop cooking or at what stage the finest powdered sugar to be added to get the texture.

Chef Binoy Mishra is considered as one of the most dedicated researchers about Dharwad Pedha claimed that there are other evidences which needs to be studied while understanding this mouth-watering dessert. Mr. Ayodhya Prasad Mishra, a pedha halwai from Varanasi was called to prepare pedha by the Jahagirdars of Hebbali (a village near Dharwad) in 1890. This was to enjoy this beautiful sweet at the location as Dharwad pedha already started gaining the popularity through the hand of Thakurs’. Although the making process of Mathura pedha and Dharwad pedha closely matches, still there are faint differences between both the makers product.

Comparison clearly suggests that Mishra pedha which is located in Dharwad at a very prominent area is having a taste of over milky substance, minutely grainy, hexagonal shape. Whereas Thakur pedha is melting in mouth, no overly milky, absolute smooth, hint of salt, rolled in powdered sugar in such a way that no sugar will fall aside from the pedha. Caramel is present in both the pedha which is obviously because of the cooking technique whereas sugar turns out to caramel but people believe that Mishra pedha uses caramel colour to get the colour whereas Thakur pedha gets the colour naturally 

Remember the famous football club in USSR – Dynamo Kiev? As the club created some most valuable players for the world of football, the country of Ukraine created a dish which is ever famous throughout the world and must be of the first choice for many a people. Yes, I am talking about the dish called Poulet A La Kiev (Chicken in the style of Kiev – the capital of Ukraine).

USSR disintegrated in the year 1990 when Mikhail Gorbachev was the President. In the evening of that day there was an assembly took place wherein Mr. President gave a speech to announce that “We have figured out we live in one world, in one civilisation.” At this occasion a dish which is served to all the dignitaries to show Russia’s Internationalism and Consumerism is ‘Chicken Kiev’.

Probably this dish has the shadiest history and at the same time the most politically disputed too. The argument of who created the dish – French or the Russians are never ending. So the best answer could be eating the Kiev and understand – fun apart. During 1700s, the then Soviet Union aristocrats and bureaucrats have a thorough fascination about French culture, food and their living style. Referring the bible of cookery La Rousse Gastronomy it is said that “Since the 18th century Russian chefs have adopted many techniques of French haute cuisine and combined them with the local culinary tradition. The adoption was furthered by the French chefs, such as Marie-Antoine Carême and Urbain Dubois, who were hired by Russian gentry”. Apart from Russia chefs used to go to France to get trained.

According to the famous food writer of Russia, William Vasilyevich Pokhlyobkin (August 20, 1923 to April 15, 2000) – the best example of the dish which has been traced in 20th century at St. Petersburg by the name of Kotlety Novomikhailovskie. It has a similarity of two dishes named Boyh Côtelettes de Volaille (Poultry Cutlets’) and Poulet à la Maréchale (Chicken wrapped in breadcrumbs and fried). Both the dishes are of French origin but popularised in Russia and probably this could be the best example of how Russian chefs get trained under French specialists – as stated by William Pokhlyobkin.

According to another historical evidence - Nicolas François Appert, a Parisian chef who devised a method of preserving food in bottles and won 12,000 francs from Napoleon Bonaparte for his efforts, is credited with creating the forerunner of chicken Kiev in the early 1800s. Appert’s renown was boosted by his French army-feeding exploits and one of his dishes, Suprême de Poulet, was a particular hit. A chicken breast pounded thin and rolled around lots of herb butter then fried, the dish made its way across Europe. Russian chefs, overlooking Appert’s Napoleonic associations, adopted it.

Subsequently, the French name was lost with the fall of Tsarist era, as Soviet Union turned anti-bourgeousie, giving rise to a need for simpler, proletarian more ‘Nationalist’ terms. There is dispute though about who changed the name of the dish. Ukrainian chef Viacheslav Gribov argues that the reason for the name change is because chefs in Kiev changed the recipe. Others insist the name was coined by American or British restaurants as a way of attracting Eastern European immigrants to the restaurants.

According to Pokhlyobkin, Soviet chefs revived the recipe for a banquet welcoming Ukrainian diplomats home to Kiev in the 1940s and renamed it Kotlety po Kievski – Chicken Kiev. The actual recipe found in the Kiev’s Hotel Dnipro suggest calls for only butter inside, and if done properly, a bit of butter remains un-melted when served. "We don't just learn how to make the dish; we also learn a special way of serving and cutting it to avoid butter splashing out," – Chef Gribov (Executive Chef Hotel Dnipro). But some of the version contains cheese inside and some stuff the chicken fillet with butter, garlic and parsley. This actually shows the relation of French with the Russian. Maitre D’hotel Butter are solely French and use of Cheese as stuffing is also of French origin. This has been applied by the chefs of Russia in few of their dishes especially in Chicken Kiev. 

According to Ukranian style of cooking this dish, they keep a small wing bone attached with the hammered fillet so to create a shell. Whereas making Kiev without the bone is created by the Americans. It is difficult to serve a dish as frozen product with the bone attached – Chicken A La Kiev was the first packaged frozen dinner that was sold by Marks and Spencer’s in the supermarket in 1979, a perfect example of capitalism.

A country may be divided because of several issues but how it is possible to break the heart-to-heart relations. So this happened with West Bengal and Bangladesh. We have not only shared the national poet for our national anthem rather we have shared many a food which has a better version once upon a time at the eastern side of the then undivided Bengal. Such one delicacy which we are going to reveal is Chamcham – rather Porabarir Chamcham.

A village in Bangladesh especially in Tangail district got its name because the houses of sweet makers were burnt for some unknown reason and the village become famous as ‘Porabari’ (literal translation ‘the burnt house’). Chamcham of Porabari was considered as “King of Sweets” once upon a time and it was a sweet with which the freedom fighters celebrate when they succeed on completing a mission. It is burnt brick coloured from outside and inside it is juicy and light pink. Matchless with its unique flavour and taste.

It is said that no one in the world can make Porabarir Chamcham if he doesn’t have one particular ingredient which is the water of Dhaleshwari River. One Mr. Dasarath Gour from Bihar region went to undivided Bangladesh and especially in Tangail started making this sweet in 19thcentury.

Porabari was a very busy port during British era where ships and steamers loaded with goods anchor everyday for transportation. Which automatically refers increase of population and the visionary businessman obviously took the opportunity which Dasarath Gour did. He selected the place and started showing his skill and at the same time mother nature supported him with the supply of water from the river Dhaleshwari. Slowly around 200 more families of Porabari took up the craft to produce the same sweets started by Dasarath. Mostly these people lives in Panchani Bazar which is also known as Mishtypotti (Sweet makers colony) of Porabari. Evidences from aged people suggests that after launching of these sweets by Dasarath, within a few years there were around 40 more shops selling the sweets. But the authenticity of Dasarath’s legacy continued through the hands of Narayan Chandra Gour – Rajaram Gour – Madan Lal Gour and then Shib Shankar and Kushai Dev at present. In 1940 two brothers from Assam came to Tangail namely Ramendra Thakur and Tirthobasi Thakur and started making Chamcham but this product was nowhere similar to the product of Gour clans.

Porabarir Chamcham and eminent peoples attachment is inevitable. Names such as Promotho Nath Chowdhury, Principal Ibrahim Khan, R. P. Saha, Nawab Ali Chowdhury, Wazid Ali Khan Panni, Magician P. C. Sarkar, Husen Shahid Suhrawardi, Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Haque, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani are of dire attachment with this traditional sweet.

Thing changes with time. The famous Porabarir Chamcham started to lose its stature during 1960. Reason include formation of larger ports in Dhaka and more closer areas to Kolkata and secondly the triangular political tension between India-Pakistan-Bangladesh. All on a sudden Bangladesh saw huge vacuum in population which directly affected the business class people. Today there are only three shops remaining in Porabari who are still creating the magical delicacy of Dasarath Gour. There are around 10 to 12 families who are producing this sweet and selling it across the country.  Adi Porabari Mishtanno Bhanadar is situated in Panchami Bazar and the present owner Mr. Ganesh Chandra Gour claims that they are still holding the family business despite of many ups and downs. The demand of this sweet goes at high peak during festivals like Eid, Durga Puja and Poila Boisakh (Bengali New Year). Many a sweet maker of West Bengal tried to produce the same but unfortunately nothing went even closer to the taste of Dasarath Gour. Research shows that the main reason is the ingredients and the sweetest water of Dhaleshwari River of Porabari. 

Newa people are one of the oldest tribes of Nepal and their cuisine is known as Newari cuisine. They are indigenous of Kathmandu valley of Nepal. This newar people have fine-tuned the world of gastronomy with some magical flavours. They have huge array of dishes and their creation with each one item is humongous. Only with Boeuf (water buffalo) they have 118 varieties of dishes. The newari staple is beaten flatten rice (chiwra/poha).

There are many a hidden gems available in each territory. But most of the tourist place gain major popularity because either of a particular tribal cuisine or for a particular influenced food such as momo in Kathmandu. But even in the tourist infested areas there are some places wherein you get treasures of foods. One of such places in Kathmandu is Shri Trishakti Newari Restaurant - located at the back of Jyatha Complex shopping mall, right off Amrit Marg (parallel to Thamel). They have some typical Newari food which are awesome in taste and with mesmerising flavours.

But I was searching for something different!

There are number of tripe dishes available in the world and huge list is easily available in Wikipedia. Some most famous tripe dishes which I have tasted in India and Pakistan could be ‘Chakna’, ‘Laray’, ‘Vajri Khudi’, ‘Ojree’ etc. But, the traditional Newari dish ‘Sapoo Mhicha’ literally means ‘Tripe Bag’ is the one that I was looking for.

One of my friends Mr. Rkesh Thammil, took me to another speciality Newari Restaurant – ‘Nandini Food Court’ which serves this delicacy with many other varieties of Newari foods. Down the street north of the city’s medieval palace and past a series of brick houses, Bhinmaya Maharjan, who runs Nandini Food Court, opens a set of three wooden doors and lays out the straw knitted carpets—and brooms for sweeping. This is how the popular eating joint, located in the Swotha neighborhood, bids good morning to locals and visitors. The restaurant, which serves Newa cuisine, starts to draw crowds as the sun climbs higher.

Sapoo Mhicha, Sapoo Mheychā, or even Syapu Mhicha: a delicacy to each of Patan’s family and each of them has different flavour for their own Sapoo Mhicha.

For a first look you might feel little strange about this dish. A pouch of Buffalo leaf tripe, filled with bone marrow which forms a small bag/pouch – boiled and then deep fried with the thread on and to be eaten in one bite so that the burst of bone marrow fat is inside the mouth is an experience. This dish is extremely supportive during the winter accompanied by Ey-laa thon (a mixture of fruit and rice beer). A traditional serving style of this dish is in a ‘Bwoota’ (a bowl made out of leaves).

There are many a variety of sapoo mhicha available in that region. Another very famous restaurant ‘Kwacha’ at Kulimha Street towards Bhelchhen run by Surendra Byanjankar serves this by shallow frying sapoo mhicha with fresh tomato-chilli-onion coulis. Sapoo mhicha traditionally features as the main course in a ‘Bhoye’ – an elaborate Newa feast. While other Newa delicacies like chhwela and momo often feature in restaurant menus across and outside Kathmandu, sapoo mhicha is an increasingly rare sight, in part because the dish has an intricate recipe and takes a long time to prepare. 

Unbelievable to know that the dumplings were created actually to treat frostbite of ears. Hence it was not invented as food rather as medicine. Dumplings or “Jiao Zi”, is invented by a “Medicine Saint” of China known as Zhang Zhongjing. He was a medicine practitioner during the Eastern Han Dynasty some 1800 years ago. It was noticed by the doctor that in one particular season most of the people of that region was suffering from a disease of frostbite of ears. He decided to treat and created a wrap made out of mutton, chilli and some warming medicinal herbs in dough skin. “Doctor Wang Lingxiang” – another medical practitioner of that same region and of that same era wrote in his book of medicine that the materials used by Doctor Zhang to treat ear frostbite was actually to help to keep the body parts warm and to promote the blood flow and then thaw the cold ears. He praise Doctor Zhang a lot in his book and also said that this invention of medicine not only helped a person medical condition rather it is a good food too if it is boiled and eaten. Thus it is well accepted by the ordinary people of China.

“Jiao’er” – means the shape of ear in Chinese language. Hence earlier the name for this particular item was Jiao’er and later on it changed to Jiaozi. Zhang used to distribute them during New Year’s Eve. Today even Jiaozi is still a must during winter in most of the Northern China villages, especially during Spring Festival. According to Patricia Bjaaland Welch, author of Chinese New Year, Chinese New Years is a “… period of saying goodbye to the past and preparing for the future…” (Welch 4).

Jiao Zi has multiple meanings. As earlier described, it refers to ears, the other meaning of the word is “Paper Currency”. During Song Dynasty of Norther China, merchants in Chengdu province use to distribute a paper currency known as Jiao Zi. Earlier in ancient China, Yuan Bao was used as a currency which is replaced with Jiao Zi paper money during Song Dynasty.

According to (Beijing Trip), Jiao Zi looked like shoe shaped gold and silver ingots known as yuan bao. In the Chinese culture, Jiao Zi are made during the New Year to resemble the gold and silver ingots. People in Henan and Sanxi provinces enjoyed boiling dumplings with noodles and serving them together. “They name the serving ‘golden threads piercing through silver ingots,’ or ‘silver threads stringing together calabash.’ Golden or silver threads mean noodles while silver ingots and calabash refer to Jiao Zi” (CCTV). Eating the dumplings during the New Year is a metaphor for eating money; when people eat Jiao Zi during the New Year celebration, they hope that it will bring prosperity and good luck for the forthcoming year. 

The other meaning of the word “Midnight or the end and the beginning of time.” This is why the Jiao Zi are made the midnight of the last day of the passing lunar year. Another meaning of the term comes from the literal translation to “Sleep together and have sons”which is a long-lost good wish for a family. Not only does the shape of the Jiao Zi resemble the golden ingots, it also represents a crescent moon and symbolizes the hope for a year of plenty. Occasionally people will add specific fillings to select dumplings in order to symbolize certain wishes. Those who receive sweets will have a sweeter life, peanuts symbolize long life, and dates and chestnuts represent the imminent arrival of a son. 

Rich families in ancient times added gold, silver, and other precious stones in their dumplings. To get one of these dumplings was considered good luck. Later this transitioned to adding coins in the dumplings. Copper coins, for example, meant that one would never lack money. In contemporary times, only a few coins were washed and add to the batch of dumplings, the person who discovers the coin would enjoy good luck and make a lot of money in the coming year.

Legend believes that the origin of dumplings originated in China in 225AD. But some 2600 years back, when Confucian thoughts are at the peak in China a book written during Zhou dynasty (1056 – 256BCE) mentions the first recorded recipe of Jiao Zi (Dumplings) – “Use two portions of rice and one portion of meat; fold them together and then fry.” They can be served either as an appetizer, a side dish, or as the main course, always with a side of soy sauce-based dipping sauce. Jiao Zi dumplings can be classified into three categories: boiled, steamed, and pan-fried, but when it comes to folding techniques, there are many, and the most popular one is known as pinched-edge fold, which results in crescent-shaped Jiao Zi. 

Muligutwanny or Mulligatawny or Mulliguthwanny – there are lot of confusion available for this The Then India originated International soup. Origin of the word soup comes from the old French language where the “soupe” was a slice of bread, other says it comes from the Sanskrit word “Su – Pa” means well fed. This is taken from the very first French cookery book “Metare” given by Philips VI and Charles V. in 1932 a famous Chef Guillare Tirel who wrote a book “Chef de Cuisine”. A restaurant in Paris still has this name.

According to the classification of soups – International soups are soups which are nationally made and internationally popularised.

Few of the examples include:

1. Gazpacho – Spain

2. Minestrone – Italy

3. Madras Soup – India

4. Shark Fin Soup – China

But when we talk about this particular soup “Muligutwanny” – it is considered to be originated in undivided India. It has extreme Tamil flavours which always created a confusion with Sri Lanka and India. It is yet not decided that which country holds the pride for this soup – rather it is best to understand that this is a Tamil soup. The East India Company officials were extremely fond of this soup which was hearty at that time and a different aroma built in the soup when they tasted it in Sri Lanka which is also a Tamil dominated country. The word Muligutwanny refers to two different word ‘Mullaga/Milagu’ means peppery and ‘Twanny’ refers to water. Hence the soup means a pepper flavoured water.

It became popular with the British stationed in India (employees of the East India Company) during colonial times, during the late 18th century and later.  When they returned home, they brought the recipe back with them to England, and to other members of the Commonwealth, especially Australia.

Recipes for the soup appeared in many Victorian publications. The Nabob's cook book from 1870 has a recipe featuring 'fowl'. It also contains a recipe for a 'non-soup' version.

Cassell's Household Guide from 1869 contains a bit more history, particularly in preparing the dish, and you can't help but admire the line 'kill, singe and empty a chicken' in the recipe method.

Even French cookery adapted for English families by Frances Crawford, published in 1853, contains a recipe, though she adds at the end...

It is believed that the Mulligatawny was concocted by Indian cooks to serve the British need to have a soup before meal. Given that there was no concept of a soup in traditional South Indian cuisine, ingenious cooks are said to have adapted one dish – closest to a soup – the rasam.

While we don’t know exactly when or where this soup was invented, the earliest known reference to it is an English (military) song from 1784 CE. Composed by an anonymous British soldier during the second Anglo-Mysore war fought against Tipu Sultan, the first reference to the Muligutwanny wasn’t very complimentary. As the soldier laments about his bad rations and uncertain fate he says –

“In vain our hard fate we repine,

In vain on our fortune we rail,

On Mullaghee-tawny we dine

Or Congee in Bangalore jail.”

This verse iterates that the Mulligatawny was commonly served in the British army barracks in the late 18th century CE. Interestingly, though it seems that it wasn’t delicacy, the Muligutwanny seems to have been popular enough to travel far, to England and the distant corners of the British empire.

As the empire expanded, Indian food was gaining popularity in Britain. In 1809, an Indian immigrant to Britain,  Dean Mohammad had opened the first Indian restaurant, ‘The Hindustan Coffee-House’ in London. Aimed at ‘the Nobility and Gentry’, the Coffee House served Indian dishes adapted to English tastes. This included the Muligutwanny soup.

In the book ‘The Cooks Oracle’ first published in 1817 and compiled by Dr. William Kitchner, an English gourmand there is a special reference to this soup. The book mentions the growing popularity of this ‘newly invented’ soup in England but claims it

‘many not yet charm enough to seduce a restaurant goer. It is a fashionable soup and great favourite to our East Indian friends’.

Dr. Modhumita Roy from Tufts University, in her award-winning research paper “Some like it hot: Gender, Class and Empire in making of the Muligutwanny Soup” writes that so popular was this soup with British civil servants from Madras Presidency that ‘Mull – short for Muligutwanny – was applied as a distinctive sobriquet to members of the service’. Roy points out that it was only later, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the arrival of the British memsahibs, that the curries prepared by Indian cooks began to be looked down upon. The Muligutwanny soup fell from favour only to replaced by the regular English roasts or pies.

Ironically, while the soup was no longer popular on the tables of the British Raj, it became a popular household dish in Britain. By the 1850’s, tins of Muligutwanny soup began to appear in shops and you could even buy a soup mix for just 4dimes. Such was its demand, that the American company Heinz began selling tins in Britain and even in the United States. Contemporary cookbooks began giving their own recipes for the soup, often adding exotic ingredients such as rabbit, pheasant and wildfowl.

The Britons loved this soup so much that they carried tin cans of it with them to remote corners of the world. The noted British explorer Dr. David Livingstone, for instance, took tins of Muligutwanny with him on expedition into the deep interiors of Africa. He writes in his travelogue –

“After the gruelling 40-day trek (in Africa), on 6th October 1859, I arrived back to the ship. We made soup from the Muligutwanny paste which we carried in pouches.”

Amazingly the popularity of the Muligutwanny soup that was so intrinsically linked with the British Empire, also ended with the Empire. Once considered exotic by the Britons, it became simply ‘old fashioned’. The younger generation of Britons had moved on. Salman Rushdie, in his book Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991dismisses Muligutwanny soup as something that.

‘tries to taste Indian, but ends up being ultra-parochially British, only with too much pepper’.  

A terrified night which no Nepalese can forget in life – 25th April, 2015. Severe earthquake struck at the heart of Nepal and massive devastation took place. Obviously, the country and people settles down soon but there are many a people who started doing a lot of analysis. I have also done a small analysis and for a positive finding. It is absolutely my opinion that may be after this massive devastation, the countrymen suffered a lot – physically, mentally and financially. And probably this is the time when this famous street food of Tibet flooded in the market of Kathmandu. Originally this dish is known as ‘Liangfen’ which literally translates to cold noodle. And now it is most commonly known as now ‘Laphing’

Kathmandu is a place of mixture. Cultures, tradition, religion and cuisine everything mixed so profusely here which is rarely seen in any other place. With Newar population in majority, it is quite expected that street food will definitely be the dominating Newari cuisine. But the actual scenario is different. The chatpata Delhi chaat or the best of Bengal’s Fuchka (golgappa/panipuri) or Bihar’s famous Littli Chokha or the typical spicy cholia and sour aalu tama – all are available. At the same time the famous Tibetan snacks are also widely available such as Momo, Thupka, Laphing etc.

Looking deep into the research this dish is originated in the Northern Provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi in China. It is called ‘Liangfen’ and generally eaten during the summer. These mung bean strips are thick and translucent, unlike noodles that are usually thin and stringy. From China, liangfen made its way to the Tibetan plateau, where it turned into laphing. And from there, it was only a matter of time before it came to Nepal through Tibetan refugees.

Laphing is not only delicious but it could also be beneficial for health because research have shown that hot chilies are good for health and can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. It also helps to prevent diabetes and boost metabolism. Likewise, spicy food has the capability to prevent cancer. Moreover, spicy food like Laphing will raise your body temperature during chilly winter days.

Laphing is made from starch extracted from potato, mung bean or wheat flour. The extract is cooked overnight and left to settle, after which it is cut into long pieces that resemble noodles and dipped in a sauce made from vinegar, garlic water, soy sauce, salt, red chili paste, and sesame oil. But laphing purveyors have adapted the noodles to suit local tastes. A dry rolled version is available, along with more Nepali condiments like instant noodles and chips.

All in all, this cold dish takes one’s taste buds by storm, and is a rare culinary experience. Couple that with the rich history and culture behind the food, and it makes a mandatory Kathmandu experience. The noodles are cold, flat, jelly-like and they come floating on a mixture of vinegar, dried chillies and soy sauce. The taste is peculiar, the texture slippery. The noodles themselves are tasteless but the spices pack a punch. Together, they make for a most interesting combination on the palate. For Kathmandu residents, used to steaming hot noodles in a broth, laphing came as a surprise, and it has taken the city by storm.

There are plenty of Laphing eateries available in Kathmandu, especially in the Tibetan dominating regions like Boudhha, Swambhu and Tibetan Camp, Ekantakuna. Basically there are two variants of Laphing – Plain Laphing and Soup Laphing.

Mr. Tamdi Tshering, owner of Cool Brother Laphing, Ekantakuna is mostly packed by the college-goers and the office workers. His speciality to attract the crowd is by rolling a sheet of noodle with his magic spices and then cutting it into thin trip to formulate noddles.

Mr. Suraj Shrestha, owner of Sophia Laphing Café serves another attraction of Laphing. Hee adds Buff Keema and Chicken Keema in hi Laphing which reminds Tibetan delicacy Momo very much when eating a bowl of Laphing. A touch of fusion cuisine seen in his eatery.

A dish which is still not known to many of the food lovers of the world and which is kept as hidden by the Tibetan community people for many a year, all on a sudden explode in the market and opened a new horizon of enjoying cold food to overcome cold. According to people of Boudha to Banehwar, Swambhu to Sinamangal, Laphing is addictive. Once you get hooked, there’s no going back. 

KALAKAND – the origin of the word can be traced through many a way but the authenticity of the most loved sweet of India cannot be traced. Dividing the word leads to KALA which is the name of Lord Krishna and QAAND which has an Arabic root meaning Sweets. Gandhari, the famous epic character of Mahabharat was from Kandahar which is in Afghanistan now. She was the princess who married King Dhritarashtra of Hastinapur and by virtue of relation she turns out to be the aunt of Lord Krishna. She was an earnest devotee of Lord Shiva. But Lord Krishna allowed Gandhari to understand his Godly capacity, time after time which Gandhari understood and accepted. Hence whenever Lord Krishna came to Hastinapur a special QAAND (sweet) was prepared for their favourite KALA (Lord Krishna) which got its name as Kalakand. Referring to Mahabharat especially Udyog Parva, where Lord Krishna visited Hastinapur to inform King Dhritarashtra about the successive completion of Pandav’s exile, wherein Mata Gandhari instructed the kitchen team to prepare a delicacy of 108 items which must include 51varieties of sweets and it must have the most famous QAAND for his favourite KALA.

According to various other historical evidences it has been noted and accepted that city of Alwar of state Rajasthan is the origin of this famous sweet Kalakand. It came as a surprise to me to understand that “Alwar is a milk-surplus area”. This beautiful small town of Rajasthan is much greener than any other part of Rajasthan which automatically changed the nature of milk received from the cattle.

There are almost 200 shops in Alwar with over 5000 people associated to prepare this sweet. Number of famous sweet shops sell kalakand; Nandu Milk Cake Centre, Sudhama Milk Cake, Mansingh Kripaldayal Sweets, Sanjay Sweet House, Deendayal Aggarwal & Sons.

But the entire world must know that the pioneer is Baba Thakur Das & Sons, located in Hope Circus at the Kalakand Market of Alwar. Their exists since 1947. Baba Thakur Das ji came from Pakistan after partition. He was a halwai (sweet maker) in Dera Ismail Khan Gaon in Pakistan and, when he reached India, he was sent to Alwar. This particular sweet was also known as ‘Palang Tor’. “Then the sweet was made on the footpath. When Dadaji put the milk to boil, it curdled. He let it thicken and filled the thickened sweet in a mould. When it was opened, it emerged with a delicious brown centre. When people asked Babaji what it was, he said, ‘ yehi to kala hai’, meaning that is the skill. From that time onwards the sweet came to be called Kalakand.”

After partition people did not accept this sweet with an open heart. As Baba Thakur Das ji came from Pakistan, people generated a thought that may be some kind of meat is put inside to get the brown colour. That was one of the reasons why Thakur Das ji started making it on the footpath, in front of everyone. The hallmark of the cake is the wonderful brown layer inside. Strange but true, they have not lost any worker till date – if a person dies, his family member who knows the process to make this sweet, only then are they  allowed to work.

Approximately 5litres of milk produces 1.6kgs of the sweet.

Remember the famous movie of 1975 “Mounto” and its most famous song ‘Main to Ayee Hun Jhumri Talaiya Se’ by Asha Bhonsle Ji. Probably Jhumri Talaiya became famous because of Vividh Bharti radio casting. It is a town situated on North-Western region of Koderma district in Jharkhand. It is one of the major mica mining centres. But the mineral lost its importance after the discovery of cheaper synthetic substitutes and the collapse of USSR which was its biggest importer. Jhumri Talaiya, however, has still managed to retain its uniqueness through its sweet named "Kalakand". This particular sweet has given Jhumri Talaiya a new Identity. Question arises that how a single sweet can be famous and considered as a place of origin for both the places? It is reported that Bhati Brothers who also used to work closely with Baba Thakur Das Ji in Pakistan came to India after partition. Baba Thakur Das Ji was sent to Alwar whereas Bhati Brothers were sent to Jhumri Talaiya and almost at the same time Bhati Brothers started to produce the same sweets. The only difference between Alwar and Jhumri Talaiya Kalakand is that Jhumri Talaiya Kalankand is a little dry. A similar sweet is available in Southern part of India which is known as “Therati Paal”. Ajmeri Kalakand is also very famous. These days there are variants of kalakand is also available such as Anzeeri Kalakand, Pan Kalakand, Gul-kaand etc. 

In the bone chilling winter of a very interior village in Kashmir where you feel absolute necessity of fire always around your body, a food which you can savour and say internally “I feel warmth” – is Yakhni and Qehwa. First one is one of the speciality foods of Kashmir and the second one is the most famous non-alcoholic beverage of Kashmir.

Without taking the name of two of the most respected persons who worked most passionately throughout, this write up would be incomplete. One is Mr. Rocky Mohan whose Kashmiri Recipes are considered as Bible and Chef Rahul Wali who is presently promoting authentic Kashmiri cuisine throughout India. Both of them are master into their field and I owe lots of respect towards their work. From their various write up, discussion and research I have understood one thing for sure that to enjoy Kashmiri cuisine your taste buds have to be absolute alive and you must be ready to enjoy Kashmiri food at any exorbitant situation to understand the food’s beauty.

Yakhni is a yoghurt saffron based mutton broth, which is made using meat and aromatics. The list of spices used includes fennel seeds, dry ginger powder, cinnamon, cloves, black and green cardamom. Yoghurt is another ingredient which acts as a binding agent, bringing these flavours together and giving this its unique flavour. Yakhni is an integral part of the Kashmiri cuisine in India, which has arrived through Pakistani and Afghani cultures and spices.

Considered as a gateway for the Mughal invaders to reach India, Afghanistan is the origin of Yakhni. Apparently, Yakhni has made its way in India through the Mughal invaders, which was used as a substitute for Biryani. Yakhni came to be known in Kashmir during Akbar's rule. Yoghurt-based meat curries were part of Persian cuisine, and the Emperor introduced this style of cooking to his new state when he annexed it in 1586. Akhbar in fact influenced various regional cuisines of northern India, which have now evolved to become exclusives cuisines by their own right.

Yakhni dishes are also seen in Greek and Turkish cuisines, but what sets the Kashmiri Yakhni apart is the absence of tomatoes. Certain recipes also avoid onions and garlic since the Kashmiri pundits didn't use those ingredients in their cooking. At a time when almost all Indian curry recipes included turmeric, onions and tomatoes as base ingredients, Yakhni was a class apart san their addition.

Yakhni known in Pakistan and India as an extreme flavourful stock which is used as a base of various other dishes. Akhni is a local term used in Bangladesh which is quite similar to Yakhni but it is basically a broth which they prepare along with meat for making of Biriyani. In Arab, Greek, Palestinian, and Turkish cuisines, it is a stew of meat, fish, or vegetables in a browned-onion base with tomatoes and olive oil. In Romanian cuisine, the term Iahnie de Fasole refers to a style of baked beans, often cooked or served with smoked meat and sausages.

Yakhni can change the food habits. Strange but a true fact. Tamil Brahmins are rigidly vegetarian and my very close friend Mr. Madan Sundar Rajan recalls that his family was also the same. His father Late Mr. K. R. Sundar Rajan, a very famous political journalist once upon a time was working as the Srinagar Correspondent for All India Radio when he met with an accident and was admitted to Srinagar Hospital. Mr. Sheikh Abdullah came to meet him and spoke to him for some duration. While leaving he called the medical team and guided them to give Yakhni to the patient which would help to recover him faster. That changed the taste bud of Mr. Rajan and a Tamil Brahmin turns into a strict non-vegetarian. Hence, according to logic, Yakhni can be considered as taste changer.

Photo Source: Google Image 

Meghalaya aka Adobe of Clouds whose Capital is Shillong. The home of three Mongoloid tribes, Meghalaya has a unique cuisine of its own, different from other states in the north east of India. It is covered by plateaus and is also blessed with mists and rainfall throughout the year. The population is majorly Christian belonging to their respective and different ethnic groups. It is locally called the Scotland of India for its fantastic locations like the double-decker Living root bridge in Cherrapunji and few large caves. A traveller can take so much with him/her from Meghalaya in terms of memories and knowledge of history. Do visit Mawlynnong – the cleanest town in Asia and let the appeal of living root bridge cast a mysterious spell on you. Meghalaya is known for the Living Root Bridges. Indian Rubber Trees with their strong, flexible roots are guided across rivers and streams with the help of bamboo, which dies down, leaving the living root bridge behind.

The common food of the people is rice with meat and fish preparations. Besides rice, they also eat millet and maize with a number of vegetables and roots. They rear goats, pigs, fowls, ducks and cows and relish their meat. They observe food taboos, for example certain clans do not take pork. The popular dishes are Jadoh, Ki Kpu, Tung-toh, and pickled bamboo shoots. Like the other tribes in the north-east, they ferment rice beer, which is a must in all the religious rites and ceremonial occasions.

The Khasi tribes are one of the major tribes of Meghalaya. They are mainly inhabitants of central Meghalaya encompassing East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, and Ri-bhoi districts. Their staple food is rice, but they are very fond of different kinds of meat and have no prejudice to consumption of meat of any kind on any day. They also take fish and dry fish as a part of their nonvegetarian diet. Their meal is incomplete without meat, and their most favourite meat is pork. They take meat preparations with rice, which is the centre of their meal. Their preparations are simple and not spicy. Dojhem is a tribal (Khasi) preparation of pork that uses a paste of black sesame, green chillies, and ginger-garlic.

Dohjem is a mouth-watering pork delicacy of the Khasi tribe from North East India. The recipe is exotic and prepared with pig innards. The meat is ultra-tender and utterly delicious, and the sesame seeds paste have added a deeper and nuttier flavour taste while the fragrance from the bay leaf peeps out flawlessly. The black sesame seeds and green chilly gives the delicate flavour and the fresh coriander leaves gives the delicate green colour to the dish.

I met Chef Arren who happens to be my student is a Khasi lady at Shillong who gave me more intrigue details about this dish. The kind of pork is usually available on those hilly area are fatty. Of course the fat of the animal helps in certain nutritional balance but the innards and the blood gives more energy to the people. Especially to those whose survival at time was hard due to the nature and climatic conditions. It was extreme to survive on a choice of food items where nothing can be grown because of such heavy rain and because of no knowledge of harvesting on the hilly areas, hence the tribal people started eating anything and everything available. Jadoh (Rice with blood of chicken/pork) could be an example of the food culture. These dishes are age old and once the tribal people came into limelight, it turns out to be a delicacy. 

"খোকা ঘুমালো পাড়া জুড়ালো বর্গী এলো দেশে

বুলবুলি তে ধান খেয়েছে খাজনা দেব কিসে "

A very famous rhyme in Bengali literature which literally translates that when the most naughty and craziest young lads go to sleep and the locality settles down in peace, the Maratha Guerrilla warriors attack - alas the peasants don’t have the paddy to pay the tax to the Government as that is eaten by the Nightingale birds (metaphorically it is the Maratha Guerrilla warriors). Truly this is a kids rhyme which is still used by the mothers to make their babies sleep but does this rhyme has any inner meaning?

It was in the middle of 1740 and 1750 when Bengal was attacked by the Guerrilla warriors of Maharashtra known as “Bargis”. The Bargis attacked the district of Midnapore and especially the town of ‘Kshirpai’. This town is in the western side of the Midnapore district and is also known as the rice bowl of Bengal. The main target to loot was obviously the rice from the peasants.

Mr. Edward Babarsha who was kind of a city Mayor, inspired all the peasants to fight back against the Bargis. And the Bargis got defeated! Overjoyed with the victory, one of the famous sweet makers of that region presented a sweet and named it as “Babarsha”. During that time the sweet makers of Midnapore were known as Babar(s). Another verbal historical evidence suggests that during Mughal Emperor Babar’s dynasty, there were Khansamas from Bengal and from Midnapore region who prepared this sweet and served it to the King. The King was happy and named it against his name.

A visit to Kshirpai of Midnapore and meeting a very old sweet maker who still loves to hear people calling him as Babar explained in detail about this sweet. According to him, the story of Edward Babarsha was the root to invent this sweet. This is a 250+ year old sweet which is slowly losing its market because of very less profit. This was a sweet during that old Bengal age which happened to be prepared from refined flour. And this justifies the rhyme mentioned earlier. All the rice was looted by the Bargis, so you had to prepare food with the substitute ingredients. Bengali people love to eat fried flour dishes and hence this sweet was prepared. This dish is made out of Refined Flour, Honey and warm Ghee. Earlier this sweet was sold for Rs.4/- to Rs.5/- per piece which gave a profit of around Rs.1.50/- and the demand was also high. But the price hike of raw materials forced sweet makers to sell it for Rs.15/- to Rs.20/- per piece with very less profit and people are becoming more health conscious of eating fried food. The young age people are also not taking the responsibility to learn the age-old techniques from their seniors and slowly this sweet is getting extinct as said by Babar Ananta Mohan Das (Age 94).

This sweet is almost similar to the famous sweet of Rajasthan – Ghewar. Probably the major difference between these two could be in the shape and serving accompaniments. Babarsha looks like an Imarti. Generally an iron mould is used to spread the batter which eventually gives the height to the dish. A honey syrup is sometimes drizzled over the sweet. One of the best Babarsha makers of Kshirpai is “Adi and Sasmol Mistanno Bhandar”. We are indeed losing our traditional foods. There could be many reasons attached with it but, being in the Chef’s fraternity it is our responsibility to motivate the old and experienced people to teach us their secret so that we can carry out their legacy. 

Probably China will never get associated with Fortune Cookie if there was no Pearl Harbour attack. According to the historical evidences and various historian, fortune cookies were produced solely by the Japanese Americans till World War II. According to an Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which states immediate closer of all Japanese American business, the Chinese American entrepreneur gets an opening to produce and sell.

Present scenario in most of the Chinese Restaurants during their mot famous Moon festival is to offer treats at the end of meal. Mint, hard candy, sugar candy, and even chocolates sometimes. But the most attractive one is a Pac-Man shaped vanilla flavoured cookie containing a mall paper slip either printed or hand written with a pithy fortune or aphorism.

According to Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food – during 1870 there was an availability of a product named “Tsujiura Senbei” or “Fortune Cracker in Kyoto, Japan. It is exactly same as the recent Fortune Cookies. These crackers are larger, darker and made with sesame and miso instead of vanilla and butter. According to another Japanese researcher Yasuko Nakamachi, who traced out a storybook from 1878 with illustrations of a trainee who worked in a enbei Store making Tsujiura Senbei along with other crackers.

As like all other foods, the fortune cookies fortune was also filled with controversies. Multiple evidences opens up different diagonals to focus. Whatever the case may be these cookies are so joyous to cherish, it hardly matters to understand its actual origin.

History No. 1

Hong Kong Noodle Company is owned by a Chinese immigrant Mr. David Jung who lives in Los Angeles claimed to invent the cookie in 1918. He was more concerned about the poor people toiling near his shop. He created the cookie and distributed for free of cost. To motivate those poor people he inserted a piece of paper inside the cookie with an inspirational quote from Bible written for Jung by a Presbyterian minister.

History No. 2

Makoto Hagiwara, a famous designer of Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park claim to be the inventor of the cookie. Earlier the Japanese mayor fired him. Later the new mayor reinstate him. To show his gratitude towards his friends who gave constant support during the hard time, he made this cookie and placed a thank you note inside. Later he tarted preparing it regularly at the Japanese Tea Garden. In 1915, they were displayed at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition, San Francisco's world fair.

History No. 3

In the mid-1900s an arrangement was incubated to change San Francisco's Chinatown from a ghetto into a charming vacation spot. San Francisco's Chinatown guaranteed travellers a genuine Oriental encounter. The city advanced their Chinese enhancements, display and design. Probably, expanded the travel industry prompted the innovation of the fortune treat to make up for the shortcoming of a pastry thing. To fill the travellers’ requests for a treat, a labourer in San Francisco's Kay Heong Noodle Factory designed a plain level treat during the 1930s. This plain level treat, while still warm, was collapsed around a little piece of paper on which a written by hand forecast or piece of Chinese shrewdness would be found.

History No. 4

During the thirteenth and fourteenth hundreds of years, China was occupied by Mongols. The story goes that the Mongols had no preference for Lotus Nut Paste. Along these lines, the Chinese public shrouded adages recorded with the date of their transformation inside the Moon Cakes where the yolk would normally dwell. Under the mask of a Taoist minister, enthusiastic progressive Chu Yuan Chang, entered involved walled urban communities to pass out Moon Cakes to different progressives. These guidelines facilitated the uprising that effectively permitted the Chinese public to shape the premise of the Ming Dynasty. Moon Festival turned out to be consistently celebrated. Some portion of that custom was the dropping of cakes with expressions inside them. It is believed that this legend is the thing that enlivened the Chinese 49ers dealing with the development of American Railways through the Sierra Nevada to California. At the point when Moon Festival moved around, they didn't have any customary moon cakes. So due to legitimate need they made do with hard bread rolls and the Fortune Cookie was conceived. 

History No. 5

The most recent history of the fortune cookies is that it started in Japan. A wood block picture from 1878 shows what is by all accounts a Japanese road merchant barbecuing, fortune treats. They can in any case be found in specific locale of Kyoto Japan, yet are bigger and more obscure than the fortune treat we know about. They are made with miso glue or sesame and have an appetizing flavour rather than the sweet, sugar fortune treat that is promptly accessible in the United States. The fortunes were never put inside the treats all things considered. All things being equal, they were gotten into the overlay of the fortune treat outwardly. This might be the most punctual fortune treat to show up in the exemplary shape.

Fun Facts of Fortune Cookies:

1. Fortune cookies aren’t actually Chinese. They’re based on a Japanese ‘good luck’ cookie recipe – meaning that we’ve likely been looking in completely the wrong place of origins for the treat.

2. In fact, you won’t find them in China at all.

3. Believe it or not, fortune cookies are bought and consumed in their billions each year. Around three billion, in fact, are produced and sold, with the US being the main market.

4. In fact, the biggest manufacturer of fortune cookies is based in Brooklyn, New York. Wonton Food Inc is thought to make more than four and a half million cookies a day!

5. Their original name pre-World War II is thought to have been ‘Fortune Tea Cakes’.

6. Believe it or not, there is generally only one fortune writer. The main writer of the majority of fortunes was Donald Lau, who was vice president for Wonton Food Inc.  There have been other writers who have taken up the mantle since the mid-90s.

7. What was Lau’s reason for retiring from fortune writing? Writer’s block – believe it or not!

8. There are thought to be around 15,000 different fortunes in Wonton Food’s database – how many duplicates have you found so far?

9. Fortune cookies have a surprisingly simple recipe. All you need is sesame seed oil, sugar, flour and vanilla.

On occasion, you may find a nonsensical fortune – due to mistranslation directly from Chinese. This isn’t a comment on the translation work – some Chinese proverbs simply do not translate well into English. 

Afghanistan is surrounded by its other brothers of “Stans” (Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). It is a small country away from India and China – not exactly a Middle Eastern nor quite Asia. This country was always utilised by many a people such as by Marco Polo to go to China; Arab travellers and the Britishers to go to India. Contribution to enrich the country cuisine taken from India for chilis, saffron, garam masala and pepper. From Persia, coriander and mint, while Mongolian influences take shape in dumplings and noodles.

Tradition suggests that women do all the cooking for their family and the guests. Daughters from the age of 12 starts helping their mother with homework and cooking. That way the tradition and the recipes pass from one generation to the next. An important expression of food culture in Afghanistan is the “dastarkhan,” a spread of dishes arranged on a tablecloth that might be laid on the floor. You will be provided a cushion to sit cross-legged upon.

An Afghan cultural tradition suggests that an woman's capability of making quality Palau shows her marriage prospects. So, it is easily understood that how much effort an Afghan lady puts in to master the recipe of an Afghan rice dish. The upper-class families of Kabul who have the capabilities of consuming caramelised carrots, caramelised onions, plump raisins and coveted nuts in their rice created Kabuli Palau. With time and agriculture especially the harvesting of saffron made Afghan people wealthier and mostly everyone started affording the Palau. Colloquially the name changed from ‘Kabuli Palau’ to ‘Qabili Palau’. In Dari language Qabil - means well accomplished. It also indicates that only a skilled chef can truly balance the various flavours of this dish. The most skilful part of cooking Qabili Palaus is to keep the rice grains intact from breaking and at the same time to develop the deep rich brown colour in the multi-step cooking process. A common mistake among ordinary people is that brown rice is used to get the brown colour of the Palau, but honestly speaking, the white long grain rice which is cooked along with caramelised onion and carrot and contributing the colour in the rice is the actual technique of creating this national dish of Kabul.

The meal might be simple tea and bread for the family, or it could be a feast running to dozens of plates including Kabuli pilao, kormas, dumplings, breads, salads and sweets. Different customs apply depending on the ethnic group but include the designation of a tea pourer, placement of the best dishes near guests, and the rule that one must never step on or over the dastarkhan. Afghans drink copious quantities of strong black or green tea (choi), spiced with cardamom or with sugar, milk or cream added depending on the occasion. Tea defines hospitality in Afghanistan, and it too is steeped in ritual. For instance, tea with milk (sheer choi) is usually served on more formal occasions, with lashings of sugar added for honoured guests. Accompaniments might be dried fruits and nuts and/or sweets such as sheer pira (a nutty milk fudge, also known as shirpera) and fried pastries flavoured with combinations of saffron, cardamom, rosewater and nuts. 

Chapati, phulka, roti- virtually no meal that is found India is complete devoid of this unique quintessential flatbread. It's equally as much an Indian gastronomic table vital as rice. Even though North India is usually proven to be notably fixated almost this amazing age-old flatbread, there is simply no doubting that it is considered one of the easy-to-take-to but among the confusing meals to create - both shape and softness wise.

But have you ever wondered when and how this unique repast important originate? There are numerous theories concerning the chapati's origin. One reveals how the roti emerged from Persia, was fuller and made of maida. This tends to even be feasible due to the trade route. According to Dr. Achaya, explanation to roti was in the shape of a bowl which could be used to hold the curry negating the need to carry utensils while on roam. Some school of thought suggests that ‘Chapati’ came from a word which is an amalgamation of “Chahiye” (in requirement) of “Pati” (holding pot). The modern day Paasti that is widely eaten in Marwat, Bannu, Waziristan and its surrounding areas with Penda may have some resemblance to the first iteration of rotis.

Further school of thought suggests that roti originated from East Africa. This belief came because of the huge production availability of wheat and the evidence of preparing non-fermented flatbreads. This could also be possible because of the trade route. In fact, stories suggest that the unleavened flat bread was a staple food among the Swahili speaking people of Africa.

Nonetheless, citing numerous older texts advise that chapati or perhaps roti existed within India during the Harappanculture also, anywhere agriculture must have been a a big occupation and people knew ways to cultivate wheat, bajra, millet and vegetables. Based upon Ramcharitamanas in 1600 century Ad authored by Tulsidas, roti existed in the past while it virtually resembled the katori. Furthermore, the word roti is comparable to a Sanskrit term, rotika stated in health-related book Bhavaprakasa, authored by Bharata Mishra in the sixteenth century, which means flat bread to ingest curries with. Actually, Vaishnav classic text speaks about the Jagannath or Krishna human being avatar Madhavendra Poori, who by providing chapatis to Lord Gopala in the 15th century, made it a kitchen essential - around the kheer and sweet rice.

Roti, that was manufactured from wheat is stated in Kannada literature among the 10th and 18th centuries. It talks of abnormal way of roasting the flattened dough. Adore baking between plates with glowing embers both below plus above that's the task of mucchala roti. The kivichu roti was roasted for a thava (tawa/griddle), which in turn is called as kavali contained Kannada with a bit of ghee, and eaten with sugar and nontoxic camphor. Chucchu-roti was prepared with palmyra (thale) blossoms. There had also been the savudu roti that had been baked under protection of a cup and the Uduru-roti, that had been made with the glass. These are strategies which remain to be applied in making the rotis nowadays.

So what is the true source of chapati or roti? While Ayurveda dates it back to the Vedic phase - whereby purodhashas, by where text pataha or parota inevitably emerged, was ordinarily stuffed with dry lentils or vegetables and produced as dense pancakes during yagnas and homas in Indian tradition - there is hardly any mention of the modest chapati. So it wouldn't be wrong to claim that roti or chapati could possibly have been a normal man's/trader's originality, which inevitably did reach the court due to its lightness and taste of wheat and ghee. In truth, the chapati is observed in Ain-i-Akbari, a 16th century paper by Mughal Emperor, Akbar's vizier, Abu 'l Fazl ibn Mubarak as among the great Emperor's favourite. Merely because contrary to the tandoori roti, the chapati available for a unique chew regardless if it went lukewarm. Indeed, eating a meal favourite was a tradition before also. Actually, Akbar, whom was seen to be a frugal eater and usually liked to eat solely, had taken such a liking for this' thin, roasted flatbread made of wheat, that he would generally ingest it as treat with ghee and sugar. A fondness which was eventually exhibited by the end impartial Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, whom was vegetarian and had followed with the greens as it changed him nimble and fit. It is said that during his reign, the palm size chapatis lastly became popular. "It was like a spoon and made for a wonderful a bite," a traveller to Aurangzeb's court had eventually noted.

By this amazing moment chapatis were identified look at each Indian dinner table, a lot so that it evolved into an everyday staple from the army and at each club put in place from the British. "It complemented the curry quite properly that chapati rather than rice grew to be a favoured combination." Slightly known fact would be that the phulka- roti roasted on the flame till it blowed up similar to a poori- was popularised during these army dining rooms, the spot that the British would typically favour it on the ghee laced chapatis while they sensed it has been paler for your stomach to digest and tastier. How accurate this story is arguable since all over the Freedom Battle of 1857, the Chapati Drive had produced the British sceptical on the recipe.
What started as a technique to earn food grasp to such afflicted from cholera in Indore - as chapati if made properly might endure the battering of weather and transport - had over the occasion end up being a sign to obtain individuals to revolt contrary to the foreign principle.

The story heads that shortly before 1857, when discontented rulers ended up being climbing an army resistant to the British quietly, Maulavi Ahmadullah, an eminent identity within the list of person and revolutionaries which thanks to his knowledge of English was transferred to infiltrate the British technique earlier, in his drive understood the strength of the chapati chain. Merely made, unmarked rotis/chapatis have been attaining to diverse homes carried by runners along with the individual whom acknowledged the supplying would privately build an alternative batch and spend it on. And thus the mastermind of Indian revolt eventually created a strategy the spot that the unleavened bread grew to be the messenger around the liberty struggle.

While at this time there was not a statement created or perhaps sign made within the chapatis, that typically changed British livid as they could not use justification of halting it or even arresting the chapati runners since they have been embraced by Police Chowkidars, it somewhat took over as the sign of National Integration. Funnily, vast majority of individuals who partook in this kind of pastime when later questioned concerning the function of chapatis along with its significance turned completely clueless. "They were following certain unsaid orders," said G. F. Harvey, the consequently commissioner of Agra, as decades down the line he recounted the incidents of 1857-58.

The Friend of India, an English newspaper, claimed in its March 5, 1857 edition that panic spread among British officers once they learned that the chapatis had prepared their way into every last police station in the place. Years later, in the publication Life During the Indian mutiny, J. W. Sherar confessed whenever the aim in back of the technique was creating an environment of incomprehensible restlessness, the test were effective.

Probably it had been the only real moment when a stack of freshly-made chapatis would get fright in a Briton's centre. Did it halt its recognition? Not in any way. In reality, it's declared chapati, that typically was rubbed with ghee, was obviously a staple while the Army of Tantiya Tope and Lakshmi Bai after they transferred present. Kunwar Singh, the doyen of guerrilla combat, as well would travel with couple of troops and would merely stop at hamlets to top off the sack with ghee laced chapattis, gur and water.

Another story of chapatis’ popularity dates back to 1574 when Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji reached Manikaran with his two disciples Bala and Mardana. After many days of walking, Mardana began to starve, but with no source to make food he had abandoned the notion till Guru Nanak made him to raise the stone and discover hot water spring beneath. He then directed his disciple to move out chapatis in the early spring. And then handful of minutes after they seemed on the exterior, flawlessly baked. Many consider that this could had been the initial poori too.