Many decades ago, self-help guru Dale Carnegie wrote a best seller that has never gone out of circulation. Taking a few cues from him, here’s our own take on how to communicate effectively, make people like you, get others to see your side, successfully navigate almost any social situation…. no great words needed, it’s just about sharing your own special gastronomy.
Food communicates
Food is the very best language to talk to a multitude of communities! On moving to New York from India, immigrants Swetha and Venkat Raju missed the flavors of home but more than that, missed chatting with people. In a while they figured a way to connect. Now every Saturday they dish out varieties of dosa and idli from their stand at the Brooklyn Farmers Market to a long queue of New Yorkers. All are ardent admirers, some have become friends.
There are many such stories, but the thing is, how much have we as South Asians, communicated about our universe of cuisines and our distinct identities?
Reframing South Asians as diverse people
A whole bunch of young chefs and home cooks are annoyed about/affronted by the homogenization of South Asian cuisines, largely as naan, chicken tikka curry and biryani and are on the job, awakening palates to the enormous diversity of South Asian cuisines. They feel the need for change from anglocentric perspectives, which are deeply injurious to the distinct identities of South Asians and their proud culinary inheritance and histories.
Chef Samantray and chef Kota have a mission to awaken New Orleans society. “In India every 50 miles the people change, the language changes, the culture changes, and the food changes” says Samantray. Doing pop-ups over the course of 62 weeks, the duo achieved a rare distinction, serving 162 different regional dishes to customers. Bravo!
Too much ‘ghar ka khana’, not shared?
Have we been too timid or worried about sharing our ‘smelly’ delicious home food with neighbors and the society around us? Many South Asian children recall repeated slurs at school over ‘stinky’ lunchboxes packed with Mom’s cooking, and surrendering to a diet of boring sandwiches instead.
What we eat at home is good. Let’s share it largeheartedly, that has always been the South Asian way.
We can say with pride: our cuisines are remarkable. They are nuanced. They talk in many tongues of the influences of different civilizations. Ingredients, processes and flavors dance differently region to region, leading to distinct food languages.
Come and understand who we are.
Culinary politics can open doors and build bridges, in almost any social situation.
Who owns the cuisine? Transcending tradition
Chicago-bred chef Pervaiz Shallwani is all about integrating traditional flavors into American foods and taking it mainstream, like his Chaat-Dog, a desi chaat + hot dog. And it seems to work! “If you look at what we’ve designed as American food in this country, everything comes from somewhere else,” he says. “Somebody comes here, and either out of ingenuity or out of necessity, they take what they know and adapt to what is here.” According to Rupak Ginn, co-creator of PBS docuseries Spice Road, “it’s all about invention and re-invention, the essence of what it means to be American”.
Umaimah Sharwani, the founder of Paro, has created comfort foods that could easily be found in the pantry of any American.
While acting as custodians of food heritage, these individuals are manipulating tastes and palates, shaping a new food environment. Purists may be seething, but the younger generation sees immense opportunities.
In the great melting pot of the United States, there’s freedom to be creative.
Interesting reads:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/it-s-not-always-curry-desi-cooks-call-change-western-n1275855
https://www.eater.com/23963868/south-asian-packaged-food-products-peepal-people-doosra-paro
https://fastercapital.com/content/Food-and-Household-Services–Breaking-Bread-and-Breaking-Barriers–Diversity-in-the-Food-Industry.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/08/25/padma-gene-weingarten-indian-food/
