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    Home » Books Reviews » Book Talk – The story of our food by KT Achaya

    Book Talk – The story of our food by KT Achaya

    Posted on September 12, 2014 · Last Updated on August 29, 2020 · By Srividhya G · 11 Comments

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    Image src: amazon

    As I mentioned, you will be seeing a couple of non-recipe posts this month and here is the first one.

    When I was reading the background of Idiyappam and its references in Ponniyin Selvan, I came across this book and got fascinated right away. My interest in historical novels attributed to my interest in the history of food too. So got this book and here I am to talk about it.

    Yes, I am going to talk about it. I am not an architect nor a historian nor a botanical scientist but just a foodie. That said, I am not reviewing this book. I am just sharing exciting facts from the book about our food.  

    The book is all about our ancestors, Mohenjo-Daro, Harappan culture, native grains, fruits, and vegetables of India and how the invasion over India affected our food culture.

    The author starts with a brief description of our ancestors and about ancient languages like Munda, Sanskrit, and Tamil. It was astonishing that the English words rice and curry got its name from Tamil words Arisi and kari. Basically, our story of food goes back to Aryan age.  Architects were able to find the grains of burnt wheat and husks of barley still lying in the crevices of the storage granaries excavations. These were the same grains that were eaten by people nearly 4000 years ago.

    The author then explains how weeds became food grains. The man used to look for weeds bearing a lot of grains tasted them and started cultivating them. Rice, Wheat, Barley, Millets, and Ragi were all once weeds.  Sugarcane and Banana are from India, which went across various territories. Mustard oil and gingelly oil were also native to India.

    Aryans impacted a lot in our food culture. Agriculture, being the chief occupation, they taught us the process of sowing, irrigation, seeding, transplanting, weeding, watering, defending against pests, reaping, and harvesting. Crop rotations and seasonal sowing were followed 4000 years ago. Boling, steaming and fermenting, frying foods were followed by Aryans too. Paneer, ghee, buttermilk, and even shrikhand find the roots from Aryans.

    “In the famous manual of statecraft written in 300BC, the Arthasastra of Kautilya, a balanced meal of a gentleman is described. This consists of rice 500g, dhal: 125g, oil: 56g and salt 5g respectively. This balanced diet mentioned so long ago is the same in essentials as the so-called recommended balanced diet which the Indian Council of Medical Research laid down in 1987!.”

    I really liked all the chapters where the author explains food and culture through other’s eyes. India had a lot of Greeks, Chinese visitors and then the Mughals who invaded. From the beginning, rice was the principal crop of the country. Mughals contributed new foods like biriyanis, shullas, kababs, pulaos. The author explains how every region in India prepared their food and what all fruits, vegetables, and spices they used.

    Then came the Europeans and Britishers who bought in tea and coffee for us but took a lot from us. Europeans observed Bengal as one the fertile and cheap lands and they had a proverb among themselves which said, “The kingdom of Bengal has a hundred gates open for entrance, but not one for departure.”

    Foods that we take it for granted like tomato, potato, papaya, groundnut, pineapple, coffee, tea all came via Europeans and above all chili from Mexico. Yes, India got introduced to chili just 300 years ago, till then pepper was used for spicing up the dish. But just imagine today, can our cooking be complete without red chilies or green chilies?

    This book was very informative and really a good read.

     

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    Filed Under: Books Reviews Tagged With: Book talk, KT achaya, the story of our food

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Traditionally Modern Food says

      September 15, 2014 at 12:29 pm

      Such a useful share Sri:-) mustard oil from India that’s a news..glad to read when English word for our key food (rice) is named after our Tamil

      Reply
      • srividhya says

        September 15, 2014 at 7:49 pm

        Thanks :-)

        Reply
    2. freakyveggie says

      September 13, 2014 at 10:45 am

      Looks like it is quite informative !

      Reply
      • srividhya says

        September 13, 2014 at 6:29 pm

        Yeah yaar.. Was so surprised to read about all the veggies that we thought was from India

        Reply
    3. Bingo's Mom says

      September 13, 2014 at 10:19 am

      I, sometimes, used to add pepper in coconut chutney instead of green chilly. My father told me that our traditional cooking had only pepper and not chillies. I didn’t believe him but now I am wondering from where he got that information. Need to ask him :-)
      Nice write up, Sri.

      Reply
      • srividhya says

        September 13, 2014 at 6:34 pm

        Thanks BM. Yeah check with him… If he knows any tamil books regarding our ancient foods, please let me know. That would be really great.

        Reply
        • Bingo's Mom says

          October 09, 2014 at 8:46 am

          He read it in Anandha vikatan it seems. There is a weekly article called ‘Araam thinai’ and he told now it’s available as a book.

          Reply
          • srividhya says

            October 09, 2014 at 6:49 pm

            Great. Thanks.. will get it :-)

            Reply
    4. Malar says

      September 13, 2014 at 10:18 am

      Sri, great post….I love ponniyin selvan to a great extent I wonder how did I miss reading about idiyappam :P Fact of arisi and kari , is quite fascinating :)

      Reply
      • srividhya says

        September 13, 2014 at 6:33 pm

        Thanks yaar. I am always fascinated by the feast that sendan amudan’s mom provides to vandhiyathevan. :-)

        Reply
        • Malar says

          September 13, 2014 at 7:13 pm

          Sri, I think I have to read ponniyin Selvan again not remembering many things ;) it’s been long , now I have time as well let me start :-)

          Reply

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