The Foods We Eat

It was my turn to cook today. I decided to make some dal (lentils) and aloo-matar (potato-peas) curry to go with rice. Like cruise-control, out came the rice and dal containers; potatoes, peas and coriander made their appearance out of the fridge and the trusted spice dabba showed up on the kitchen counter. I grabbed salt, pepper and turmeric powder bottles without a second thought, when it struck me: Whoever first thought of using this yellow powder in Indian food? I was going to use half a teaspoon of it in the dal and curry myself. It also reminded me of a joke one of my Indian friends had once shared with me: “If somebody were to ever cut open the liver of an Indian person after they die, they would find it painted yellow.” Seriously, Indians add turmeric to every non-sweet food they cook.

How did it all start? Have you ever looked at dried turmeric root, the thing that is crushed to make that bright yellow powder sold in grocery stores? They look like congenitally deformed human fingers. An ungainly sight really. If you are not turned-off by the looks, try biting into one. It’s bitter, pungent, powdery and overwhelmingly nauseous. Why did they decide to eat these bunches of roots at all? To top it, somebody came up with the brilliant idea of letting the roots get bone dry and then crush them to make the powder to use in curries; I will admit that the yellow powder does look regal. And then they discovered all the medicinal benefits of turmeric — it has in fact been touted as a ‘miracle drug’ with numerous health benefits in Ayurveda and traditional medicines across southeast Asia. Besides India, turmeric is widely used in Japan (popularly served in tea); in Thailand (used in cosmetics); in China (used as a colorant); in Korea (served in drinks); in Malaysia (used as an antiseptic); in Pakistan (used as an anti-inflammatory agent to get relief from gastrointestinal discomfort); and in the United States (used in mustard sauce, cheese, butter, and chips, as a preservative and a coloring agent). There are articles on the web that state that turmeric has been in use for over 4,500 years. But, whoever thought of it first?

Ginger root is another such ‘weird’ food we have been eating for centuries. It is, for all practical purposes, an uglier and fatter cousin of turmeric root. And it is equally, if not more, popular around the world for both its taste and medicinal qualities. Ginger and turmeric are not alone on the “Ugly Foods Poster”, it turns out. Pineapple, Jackfruit, Eggplant, Radish, Jicama, Custard Apple, Dragon Fruit, Durian and Lychee came to my head as I started typing the list of not-so-beautiful looking vegetables and fruits I have seen in the grocery stores. And then there are foods that we eat that are outright poisonous if not cleaned, cooked and consumed in a certain proper way. Puffer fish (aka blow fish) anybody?

Cashew fruit with its seed (that is mistakenly called a “nut”) that grows outside the fruit. The seed is normally surrounded by a toxic hull that must be roasted off before consumption.

Clearly, we need to thank all those forgotten souls — our ancestors who came before us — who figured out which fruits, plants or animals are safe for our consumption, which have medicinal properties and those that should be never mixed together. They are the ones who discovered that cashews must go through a rigorous roasting or steaming process to ensure they are safe to eat. And they are the ones who figured out Yew berries can be fatal for humans if consumed. I have seen these berries everywhere around where we live and they look tempting. I am glad I never tried them before I found out what they can do to humans.

Yew berries: humans should never risk eating this highly toxic berry; just a few seeds can cause convulsions, rapid collapse, and death.

I was trying to visualize how our ancestors must have figured out the list of fruits, vegetables and animals that they (and possibly their pets) could consume safely. They must have seen a fellow colleague, family member, or even their sworn enemies pop a sweet-looking berry in their mouth to satiate their hunger — only to wind up dead a few miles down the road. Poisonous fruit. Check. I wonder though the rationale for persisting with known dangerous foods (like cashews or elderberries or puffer fish), and investing in harvesting, boiling, roasting, and preparing them in a way that a non-poisonous use for the food was discovered. How many lives were lost before they found a “safe” way to cook them? Why would they invest in this fatal trial & error method when so many other types of food were available in plentiful? Or maybe there was no other source of food, making it their last resort?

And then comes the diversity of foods we consume. Roots of some, leaves of others; seeds of some, fruits of others; flowers of some, stems of other. Our ancestors must have had the philosophy of trying every part of every plant they could get hold of and then observe — dead, document; not dead, keep going at it. Wow! But we have had 10,000 years to evolve, something that my mind refuses to comprehend still.

The dal & curry did turn out great…with turmeric, of course.