Founder @ Weekly_ft, Person @ indranilmitra.com Helping the World Eat, Explore, and Live Better. Contact me at my website: indranilmitra.com

Feb 5, 2016

Food is Life

I like food a lot. Actually, that’s an understatement. I LOVE food. It is my favorite thing ever. I don’t eat because I am hungry, or even because I am bored. I eat because I really like eating. At work and with many of my friends, I have gained a reputation for being able to out eat almost anyone, and that is something I am quite proud of.

Not only do I like eating, but I like cooking. There are two places that I really feel ‘at-home.’ One place is on a tennis court. The other, is in a kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of many homes, and to me it is a window into life and history.

Growing up, no one really specifically taught me how to cook. I would help my mom in the kitchen, but there were no formal lessons or anything. My mom’s mom is a fantastic cook and my mom is also really good. My dad is a pretty solid cook too, and his mom is a good cook as well. Again though, no lessons from anyone. I can’t even say I studied them or what they made. I just liked eating the product of their efforts. Now, I’d say I’m a pretty good cook. Good thing too; it really helps the whole love of food thing.

Right around the time I turned 7, I realized that I liked ‘working’ in the kitchen and wanted to do more. Of course I didn’t do much real cooking until I was a little older, but by the time I was in middle school I was playing around with different recipes and ideas in the kitchen. I would help my mom and would even ask if I could make something for the week. My first go-to was a simple chicken curry, being Indian and all. From there I expanded into stir-frys and also tried baking. I realized that I was pretty good at making desserts like cheesecake and rum-balls (me and one side of the family have a serious sweet tooth).

My mom and I would get home from work/school and watch The Food Network pretty much every day. We would gather inspiration from the shows and even made multi-course meals using Iron Chef themes. The one person who really got me into food on a deeper level was none other than Alton Brown. My parents are both scientists, and I love history. Alton Brown’s use of science and food history to show cuisine as being something beyond a recipe fascinated me. I looked forward to watching Good Eats.

That show, combined with my love for learning history, and of course my love for food itself made me look at food through a different lens. When I see food, I see where the ingredients come from. Some ingredients just make sense together; garlic and onions, eggs and pepper, butter and sugar. They work because they do. Seeing where things come from, from a historical perspective provide an amazing level of detail that I couldn’t have expected from just tasting things.

Food is pretty essential. We need it to survive. Literally, food is life. History shows us what works and why places eat what they do, because of how people obtained food. Coastal regions in Asia and Europe eat a lot of fish because it made sense to fish. China incorporated and then relied on stir-frying because wood became scarce in comparison to oil. Traditional Greek food is rather simple and vegetarian in nature because farming the rocky soil was difficult.

Understanding the historical background of food and the cultures the food represents not only allows me to better see my food, but it allows me to find good pairings that may not otherwise be seen. Indian food is often crossed with Chinese food, creating the standard Asian-fusion cuisine found in NYC’s Curry Hill (among other places). This is a great pairing, but it is easy to see why it makes sense. The countries are found in relative proximity, are both large, successful farming and fishing nations, and use similar spices.

What about Indian-Italian though? Growing up in New York and now living in NYC, I’ve had some good Italian food (shout out to Carmine’s!), and have a number of friends of Italian descent. Indian-Italian is not a pair that makes sense immediately, and it’s not one that I’ve found in a restaurant yet. Italy is far smaller than India in geographic size, is several thousand miles away, and had relatively little contact with India in the olden-days, especially in comparison to Portugal. Yet, if we analyze the cultures, it makes sense to cross the foods. Both countries have had civilization for thousands of years. Both countries value the family, and often have large families. Carbs and grains were abundant in both regions, Italy with rice, pasta, and bread; India with rice, naan, and roti. In a traditional sense, neither country ate a LOT of meat. Regions in both countries ate more meat than others, and access determined that in both. With the spice trade and contact with Portugal, it makes sense that Indian-grown spices made their way into Europe and of course Italy.

This is just one example of an uncommon pairing distilled from history. Studying history and cultures greatly expanded my understanding of food, creativity with food, and of course, it further increased my love for food. Food has sustained life for millions of years. I guess it makes sense that I love it so much.

What do you like to eat? Have a favorite restaurant? Share it below or in the comments on Facebook.

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