One of my friends posed a query sometime back.
Would encountering a South Indian chef in a Punjabi restaurant dilute the culinary experience?
The immediate response that I have is, yes it would. The reason, no matter how hard I imagine I cannot imagine a Sardar serving me a Dosa. But as I said this is a very personal and top of the mind answer.
However this is not just an interesting passing thought...As my friend put it, can this be extended into a more significant or broader context?... and suddenly quite a lot of questions pop out…
Would we then want Indians to be only Indian, Caucasians to be only Western in culture?
Do I being multicultural involve others being mono-cultural?
Is it prejudice or racism or just cultural conditioning?
And then I was reading this post about a stroll in a mall.
A metro city mall in India is as multicultural as it can get in most parts of the world, given our diversity. Though it is an in-country experience, you do find cross-cultural behavior at its best. This means a great deal of homogeneity has already happened.
Or going back to my friends question, are we now being culturally conditioned the other way? I mean to accept things normalized for the multitude.
If I am not bothered by a Sardar serving me a dosa, am I being culturally tolerant or am I homogenized?
Well… right now, I don’t care if it is a Mallu cooking me Pasta or a Tam serving me Paneer Butter Masala, I am bloody famished and I need food. When you are hungry, there is no culture vulture hovering over your food!
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21 comments:
Absolutely right. All this talk about food is making me hungry now.
;-)
oh my.............I jes added an extra line towards the end of "mall story".And then read this,started wondering if
.:a:. > Hope you had a good fill :)
Samudraa > Wondering what?
By the way, i read that added line in your post.. well..a nice twist..! :)
lol..that comment got posted b4 i cud finish it.Let me leave u wondering wot i was wondering ;)
Nope, I am still hungry!
;-)
reminds me of the Philosophy column/review? in a Brit newspaper. Only it was a firang serving Indian food.
August,hungry for words,must be!?
Ram,ive twisted the twist even more ;)
.:a:. > I envy your appetite!
Samudraa > That final twist of yours kinda straightens up things..??!
Anycase you have me in twists by keeping me wondering about what you were wondering ;)
u shud keep guessing the possibilities...u've 6 chance(ah,am so generous)and if u hit on the rite one,i will write a post and dedicate that to u!now how does that sound?
Samudraa > you sure are generous and a dedicated post is a such a nice offer.. but a tricky one, coz then i would have to wonder about what you would write as well..!! ;)
*puke*
Chennai Pages > yes.. isn't it..
J > was that due to overdose of vodka while breakfast ?
missed out on this comment......now too old for me to reply.And yeah u mised out the privilaged dedication ;)
No posts?where ve u been>?
Yes, anything new coming up soon?
Your scribbles on food really questioned my belief that i have had and followed about Indian restaurants in detroit.
Most of the time as i know the chef's here(some of them are on H1B visas), i consciously avoid ordering north indian food in restaurant where chef is from south and vice versa. Probably i guess it's time to stop being picky and refrain from stereotyping chef's
Samudra > :).. well.. hopefully i wud have a chance some other time.. hope i can, can't i ?
.:a:. > was caught up with work and travel over the weekends. should post one in next couple of days.
venkat > well its a personal choice. and i think there is nothing right or wrong.. i was only wondering about the thought behind the choice.
thanks machi, for dropping by..hopefully will see you around often
you are right it's a personal choice. I am not sure how far you can go with that. Couple of years ago i went to a South Indian Udipi restaurant here and called the nan(North indian bread) Non-Nan in front of the chef. I am not sure he took it lightly. Everytime i go there after that i look for anything weird in my food
I was reminded of this(may be not relevant).i was on a visit to a small town in TN and they actually served pizza with sambar and chutney.carrot and beans for topppings.They called it "pisha" in the menu :)
And about the second chance........well hmmm,lemme see!MAy be a tam poem,wot say?but yes u gotto guess that thing first.
I think it has to be analyzed from the perspective of producer and consumer. When we are consumers, and we desire to have a genuine cross-cultural experience, our sensitivities are heightened. We set the bar high for the producer to exhibit authenticity. I think this is normal behaviour, in our perception of experiences the producer's identity is intertwined with the product's identity. Needless to say the producers are also complicit, why else anyone would say "we serve authentic punjabi cuisine" ? However if we are really open, we should be satisfied if the product turns out to be genuine despite the colourations.
srinivasan > yes, you are right. my view is not about right or wrong / normal or otherwise, but more on whats happening on a, can i say, a subtler level when we are in such a situation..
by the way, you write in a vaguely familiar way.. do i know you ???
;))
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