Greeks are similarly obsessed with clean, nourishing food being predictably only "Greek food". The Greek idea of diversity is bifteki or hamburger. Try Crete on a Half Shelf for a hilarious account of a Montreal Greek chef trying to convince Greeks of the virtues of Indian cuisine!
On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 9:24 PM, ss <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tuesday 02 Jun 2009 6:37:52 am Charles Haynes wrote: > > I was shocked - but it's because there's no demand for it. People just > > don't seem to be interested in trying new cuisines, in experimenting. > > Absolutely correct. > > But the Indian (read "Hindu" here - although the same practices are true of > non Hindus) view of life and heatlh gives food a very important place and > the > reputation of food as something that causes disease or maintains health > runs > deep among Indians. > > Indian food is "known" to be "healthy and nourshing" and tried and tested > (never mind the actual medical theory here) and foreign foods are always > suspect. To add to this pre-existing bias - India food tends to be varied > and > delicious. > > It takes a lot for an Indian to shift out of Indian food to foreign food. > The > fisrt step is to overcome childhood inhibitions imposed by home rules set > by > granny as to what is "heatlhy" food. Food are classified in various ways > like "Ushna" ("hot" is a mistranslation), or "sheetha ("cold" is a > mistranslation) Ushna (chillies, chicken) causes piles among other things. > Sheetha (banana, yogurt, coconut water) causes sore throats and cough. > > Indian foods are broadly classified as Sattvic, Rajasic or Tamasic - each > of > which cause certain boldily and personality changes. Brahmins tend to go > for > the Sattvic foods by tradition. Spicy hot food and some meats come under > rajasic food and are said to casue anger and distress. Tamasic food can be > some meats, onions and stale food. > > Sattvic vegetarian food prepared today in the brahmin household must not be > eaten tomorrow as it is then tamasic. it can be given to the servant, who > will eat tamasic foods. All foreign foods tend to get their > ingredients "wrong" and are rarely classifiable as good sattvic food. > > If a "foreign food" is accepted in India it will be Indianized and then > become "American chopchew" (chop suey) or Chicken Manjuri ("Manchurian") > > shiv > > > > > > > > > > >
