Food and Culture – A way to connect

India is a colorful country with many diversities. It has many religions, different types of cultures, various types of languages. A lot of festivals are celebrated. And one of the most important is diversity of food. We have various types of food culture for different regions.

Different cultures have different Aroma of food

Food is something which keeps us alive. Gives us all the nutrition and keeps us going. There are different cultures around the world which are somehow connected with food. It is something which specifically tells about the taste of people, their culture, and yes of course, the ingredients present in it defines people to some extent. Every different culture has its own taste. Some like it spicy, some like it plain. Many cultures are there with their own aromatic food.

Traditional food is passed on from generation to generation. Food includes various nutrients and vitamins to it and theses vitamins and nutrients helps in making a person more energetic and active. On the other hand, if we look that the nutrients intake is not enough and inadequately taken by our body the metabolic process in our body slows down or even gets stopped. 

Love your food

Food helps in developing different types of taste such as spicy, sour, sweet. These are all the characteristics of the food we eat. It is said that If a person prefers having spicy food, he is not much of enthusiastic person. Whereas, it is said that the people having bland food are full of life unlike their preferences. The healthy food choices such as fruits and vegetables are always associated with greater happiness and wellbeing. Healthy food choices are always the happy food choices and I have always noticed that when it comes to eating, the media mainly focus on negative aspects of eating behaviour such as intake of lot of calories , junk food etc.

Eating our favourite type of food makes us happy because there is some regulation of food always going on in our brains such as hunger and we tend to full fill it. Because this not only satisfies our stomach, but also satisfy our brain. It is very exciting for me to see how different cultures people have their different types of food and their taste. Immigrants bring their food to the country wherever they go. And cooking the food in their traditional way is the way they respect their culture, which is commendable.

Explore different varieties of food

We people now a days try to experiment different type of food style. According to the places we go. Not because we would like its taste, because we want to explore different taste more. As me belonging from a Punjabi background has observed that sarso da saag and makke di roti has its own importance. Similarly, every culture have their go to dish or food which is always prepared on special occasions.

During this pandemic of COVID 19, people got bored staying at home. Some enjoyed by playing games and some enjoyed cooking. I think when you cook yourself, it adds a different happiness to your life. You tend to think what you want to cook which flavours you are going to add, what will be the required ingredients for the food you are cooking etc. Cooking is also a stress buster according to me. I, sitting at home enjoyed cooking. I learned so many dishes and it’s recipes. One of the most interesting food I learned is “Tirangana Pulao”. Learning this dish was so exciting and I had lots of fun.

My recipe of “Tirangana Pulao” to represent me and my culture

I should thank one of my friends who gave me an idea to prepare some unique food on the occasion of August 15th India’s Independence Day. We all got so excited with the idea to cook this recipe. So, I tried making it with my friend’s help. Now I want to share this cultural themed recipe with you all.

The task was started, as I was asked to choose the right quality of rice with the right amount. The main task was to choose the ingredients in it. So, these were the ingredients for Tirangana Pulao

Ingredients:

• Rice (1.5cups)
• Salt (1table spoon)
• Almonds (4 cloves)
• Green cardamom (5 pieces)

For orange layer

• Orange carrot colour
• Turmeric -1/3 tbsp
• 1 cup basmati rice cooked
• 1 onion
• Salt to taste 
• spices according to taste

For Ghee rice 

• butter
• 1 tbsp ghee  click to learn ghee (clarified butter) recipe
• 1 tej patta (bay leaf)
• some black pepper
• some garlic gloves
• ginger
• salt to taste

For Green rice 

• 1 cup basmati rice 
• ghee, butter 
• onion 
• green chilies
• spinach
• salt to taste

How to Prepare

Take one glass of rice and boil it with a little bit of salt. Apply oil over it with brush after it gets boiled. Separate the rice into three containers.

For orange rice – Take a pan, add the grated carrots and the Indian spices which includes tez patta(bay leaf) moti elaichi (black cardamom) choti elaichi (green cardamom) salt, black pepper and add pre boiled rice in it. Mix well and cook for few minutes.

Same way of preparing ghee and green rice– rest of the rice is cooked in similar way in separate pans. For ghee rice and green rice according to the list of ingredients given above. Mix all the ingredients mentioned above and cook for few more minutes.

How to serve

After you have cooked all the three types of rice, take a flat container and put rice in it according to the tri-colour of Indian Flag. Present it by, garnishing with star anise in the middle.

So, when I explored this dish I felt in a different way. As we look into this dish, the colors added to the rice have some meaning. These colors talk about the person I am and the place I belong to. In my country’s flag Orange/Saffron represents courage and sacrifice. White represents truth, purity and peace. Green represents faith, fertility and growth. As for representing me as a person, Orange is a bright color and I prefer bright people around me. white colour itself speaks about peace similarly I am a person with peaceful mind and positivity. Green is always associated with nature and my nature is subtle and silent.

Therefore, food brings everyone together. Bonding is created over food. Cooking is all about people & culture around the world. Food is the common ground with universal experience

The food tip

So, there are some healthy food tips from my country and culture to beat the covid risk. I have been using these in my day to day life to boost my immune system.So, ideas are as following:

• Intake of citrus fruits such as Oranges, Grapefruits and lemon etc.
• Homemade Green vegetable soup.
• Intake of Kaadha with tulsi leaves and giloy and many other herbs.
• A pinch of turmeric in warm water or milk.
• A drink made from healthy spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom etc
• Green tea- as it contains only a small amount of caffeine, so, people can enjoy it as an alternative to black tea or coffee.
• eat one spoon of chyavanprash daily 
• Intake of citrus fruits such as Oranges, Grapefruits and lemon etc.
• Homemade Green vegetable soup.

With proper nutrition in food our body will be more healthy and will help in healing more quickly in case we are ill.

Have a happy and joyful eating. GOOD FOOD IS GOOD MOOD