Food lenses
I realized I really hate recipe testing. I'm not particularly good at photos, and even when I get a few good ones, I am not so good at uploading and drafting. But I am good at thinking about food. And I've been watching food shows, listening to food podcasts, reading recipes, and going to new places. I'm going to try to be a bit better about focusing in this space, and explore my thoughts on how my experiences have been shaped by food. So here's my rambling.
I've realized that my whole life is moderated and shaped by food. Workdays are punctuated by breakfast and lunch. The evening revolves around dinner, drinks, or happy hours. Childhood memories are a haze of nostalgic meals and the smells of spices. The different cities in which I've lived and trips I've taken are memorable because of what I ate there. And my whole relationship to being Kashmiri is through food.
My parents chose not to teach us the language, and my sister and I have only been back once for a death in the family. Now, it's probably not so safe for such an obvious westerner who can't speak the language, so there's a level of detachment between me and my cultural heritage. The only tie I have is with food, and even with that, it's been tenuous. After going to college (heck even in high school), I didn't really care much for the traditional stews that mom used to make when we were little. And good grief was I sick of rice! When I learned to cook in law school it was more likely to be traditional American or Italian foods than anything more traditionally Kashmiri. And even for the things I liked, there weren't Indian stores close enough that I could easily get sweets or samosas until I got a car, and then there really weren't any around in Norfolk, Virginia even when I had time to explore.
You can't really go out and go to a restaurant and pick up Kashmiri food. If I get lucky, I can find one dish on the menu at an Indian place that is similar, but it's not likely. A cursory google search for Kashmiri restaurants in the US mostly produced broken links, but a few options in larger cities like Boston or New York. But looking at the menus, I only see a few familiar names or descriptions--this is not my style of Kashmiri food. But, to be fair, I imagine the cuisine is highly regional even in Kashmir, as there are Hindus, Muslims, Indians, and Pakistanis living in close proximity who all have slightly different food traditions and very different dietary restrictions.
Lately I've been trying to bug my mom for some of her recipes to remember and recreate some of the dishes we would eatwhen I was younger. Things I can't name, let alone spell or pronounce. And since they were so standard for her, she doesn't always remember to describe each fiddly little step or potential spice since at a certain point she just goes by taste and feel. Some things like (just ignore the spelling on all of these): noon chai (salty pink tea), aloo paratha (seasoned potato stuffed flatbreads), the specific kind of paneer cheese my mom used to make (flat rectangles with crispy fried edges), sour tamarind eggplants, halva (semolina wheat pudding), carrot halva (sweet cooked down carrots) and yuchney (spiced lamb stew with yogurt sauce).
My parents came up for Christmas and mom finally taught me how to make yuchney. Of course I didn't take notes (should have)! It used to be classic holiday food, but it's difficult and time consuming to make the traditional way, and the Kashmiri version is rather different than other versions out there (or so it appears from the internet and comparing notes with my mom). I think I will dedicate my next blog post to that.
I've realized that my whole life is moderated and shaped by food. Workdays are punctuated by breakfast and lunch. The evening revolves around dinner, drinks, or happy hours. Childhood memories are a haze of nostalgic meals and the smells of spices. The different cities in which I've lived and trips I've taken are memorable because of what I ate there. And my whole relationship to being Kashmiri is through food.My parents chose not to teach us the language, and my sister and I have only been back once for a death in the family. Now, it's probably not so safe for such an obvious westerner who can't speak the language, so there's a level of detachment between me and my cultural heritage. The only tie I have is with food, and even with that, it's been tenuous. After going to college (heck even in high school), I didn't really care much for the traditional stews that mom used to make when we were little. And good grief was I sick of rice! When I learned to cook in law school it was more likely to be traditional American or Italian foods than anything more traditionally Kashmiri. And even for the things I liked, there weren't Indian stores close enough that I could easily get sweets or samosas until I got a car, and then there really weren't any around in Norfolk, Virginia even when I had time to explore.
You can't really go out and go to a restaurant and pick up Kashmiri food. If I get lucky, I can find one dish on the menu at an Indian place that is similar, but it's not likely. A cursory google search for Kashmiri restaurants in the US mostly produced broken links, but a few options in larger cities like Boston or New York. But looking at the menus, I only see a few familiar names or descriptions--this is not my style of Kashmiri food. But, to be fair, I imagine the cuisine is highly regional even in Kashmir, as there are Hindus, Muslims, Indians, and Pakistanis living in close proximity who all have slightly different food traditions and very different dietary restrictions.
Lately I've been trying to bug my mom for some of her recipes to remember and recreate some of the dishes we would eatwhen I was younger. Things I can't name, let alone spell or pronounce. And since they were so standard for her, she doesn't always remember to describe each fiddly little step or potential spice since at a certain point she just goes by taste and feel. Some things like (just ignore the spelling on all of these): noon chai (salty pink tea), aloo paratha (seasoned potato stuffed flatbreads), the specific kind of paneer cheese my mom used to make (flat rectangles with crispy fried edges), sour tamarind eggplants, halva (semolina wheat pudding), carrot halva (sweet cooked down carrots) and yuchney (spiced lamb stew with yogurt sauce).
My parents came up for Christmas and mom finally taught me how to make yuchney. Of course I didn't take notes (should have)! It used to be classic holiday food, but it's difficult and time consuming to make the traditional way, and the Kashmiri version is rather different than other versions out there (or so it appears from the internet and comparing notes with my mom). I think I will dedicate my next blog post to that.
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