Reading Notes: " Rice" a poem by Mary Oliver

Rice
By Mary Oliver


It grew in the black mud.
It grew under the tiger's orange paw.
Its stems thicker than candles, and as straight.
Its leaves like the feathers of egrets,
but green.

The grains cresting, wanting to burst.
Oh, the blood of the tigers.

I don't want you to just sit at the table.
I don't want you to just eat, and be content.
I want you to walk into the fields
Where the water is shining, and the rice has risen.
I want you to stand there,
Far from the white tablecloth.
I want you to fill your hands with mud,
Like a blessing.

Reading Notes: the Cultural and Social Context of Alcohol in Bhutan

From: Dorji, Lham ( 2012) " Alcohol Use and Abuse in Bhutan"  National Statistics Bureau, Thimphu 

In traditional Bhutanese society, people share drinks when they meet or depart. Alcohol serves as a consolatory treat during bereavement, as part of the relaxed atmosphere and pleasant sensation during festivals, a source of hospitality and as a reconciliatory agent during dispute. Festivals and other  important social events are organized with alcohol as a central enhancement substance.  The traditional offering of tshogchang to official guests as a welcome gesture is an example of the social function of alcohol. It symbolizes respect to the visitor and communal proclivity towards opulent hospitality.  

Alcohol has ritualistic and symbolic functions. It is used to please deities and as a vital substance of various offerings. In certain rituals, monks or lay monks, and nuns use alcohol thought Buddhist vows do not permit them to consume alcohol. In particular, chang used a libation offerings ( gser- skyems, literally 'golden thirst) connotes an elixir to quench thirst. Alcohol is a substantive drink consumed to quench thirsts in farming societies.  This seems to be the reason for drinking being often considered appropriate for those who are involved in manual toil than for those whose task involve mental exertion.  

Alcohol is used to ward off snakes and as protective substances from many evil, and as medicine to cure certain illnesses. Alcohol is a cultural artifact. The volatile, but valuable nature of the fluid has led to the production of a rich material culture like the production and use of chang palang, phob, etc to drink, store and transport alcohol.  

Alcohol is part of child birth observances.  Many mothers even consume alcohol as soon as babies are delivered to relieve pain and regain vigour. In many rural communities, children drinking is not been marked as a social taboo thought things are changing. It is likely that many children growing up in a drinking culture being to form their impressions about alcohol from an early age. This may be one of the reasons for their early acquisition of drinking habits.  

Reading Notes: Archery and Feasting

From : " The Clear Mirror of Archery in Bhutan" by Chang Dorji, Former People's Representative to the National Assembly of Bhutan ( 2001) KMT Press, Phuentsholing, Bhutan

"Except in times of sickness and death in the village, archery is usually played among friends and acquaintances on festive occasions like the New Year. The most preferred stake among archers is a feast. There are two types of feast. In one case, the winners take only their phorp and toray; in the  the other, butter and cooking oil while losers provide meat and other delicacies. However, both the teams have to supply rice and other provisions. This system is called the tashi gyal or the ' auspicious stake.  Usually the winners have to prepare the feast. 

The following day, another match called the zalog or ' returning the feast' is held. If the winner of the previous day wins the first match played for a score of five, the second match should be played for a total of ten scores, and the third, out of a total of fifteen. If again this is won, losers have to once again host a feast. Another zalog match can be played. The total score this time would be equivalent to the age of the oldest player of the winning team. However , there would be no stake for the feast if the same team  once again loses.  There is a saying that even a woman will eventually win a zalog, because the matches will be played until the loser wins. "

Reading Notes: Other people's recipes

I wanted to share to some recent-ish blog posts with recipes ( and great photos) of two Bhutanese dishes: Bathup ( homemade noodle soup) and Hoentoe ( buckwheat dumplings)

 The first is from a blog kept by Andrea, the Australian teacher in Bumthang who I have mentioned in a previous Reading Notes. She write about preparing a vegetarian version of Bathup. If you ( like me!) still prefer your noodle soup with some bones and mustard greens you can find our version on my blog here.

The second is from a blog kept by Matt, another Australian teacher working in Bhutan. He recently wrote about a trip to Haa where Hoentoe are made to celebrate Lomba. In my post on Hoentoe nearly a year ago I wrote about the pleasures of eating these delicious dumplings, Matt however is able to show and tell you how to make them!

More cheese please!

Bhutanese frequently use cheese in their cooking, particularly vegetable dishes. However many households are now more likely to use imported processed Indian cheese to cook with then the traditional Bhutanese datsi. Datshi is made from buttermilk and frequently described as cottage cheese, except a lot of the moisture you expect in cottage cheese is squeezed out as the cheese compressed into palm-sized white balls. Datsi is still available but quality varies widely. We are loath to eat it fresh unless it made by my aunt who still has her own cows and still make her own cheese.  

One quick and easy datshi dish we ONLY make with our aunt cheese, is fried datshi. Its a go-to-dish in our household when a meat-eater unexpectedly shows up for a dinner that is mostly vegetarian.

Recently Sonny and my cousin Bones who is currently living with us, let me photograph the process of making some emergency fried datshi.

The first step is crush the ball of datshi. You can either use a ladle to do the crushing like my cousin Bones or just use your hand like Sonny on the right.

The next step is optional, which is to finely chop some green chili. Bones removed the seeds to bring the heat down a little bit

The you want to melt butter in a deep frying pan to which you first add some beaten eggs. Then you add the broken up cheese.....

... and shortly after that the chopped green chili which gives the mixture a nice pop of green.

The mixture has to be stirred more or less continuously until it becomes a large sticky mass.  To serve you cut pieces off of it much as you would if you were sharing an omelet. 

Reading notes: "seasons by rice"

There is something magical about staying in one place long enough to watch the seasons change, getting that chance to notice the gradual changes as they happen, day by day.  Since I read it almost a month ago, I have been wanted to share this particularly beautiful account of watching the rice fields around Gaselo  a village in Wangduephodrang come to life over the course of a year. It comes from  Brick in Bhutan a blog by an expat teacher. The post includes some wonderful pictures of the rice fields in different season as well as some very evocative descriptions of the changes. Here is one of my favorite paragraphs just to give you a taste:

" Very soon, what appears to be random paddies turn a dense almost emerald green, vivid in the evening light against the brown winter backdrop of the empty fields. As it turns out these were densely planted with rice seeds and seedlings sprout very close together forming a thick carpet of a new green growth."   

Reading notes: Beer in Switzerland

I just wrote about beer from Southeast Asia when this interesting article on the beer industry in Switzerland popped up in Feedly.  For a brief couple of months in my early twenties when I was between ideas about "what" or " who" I wanted to be when I grew up, I worked as a waitress in a small town restaurant in Switzerland where I served a lot of beer and learnt that names for the different size glasses that the beer could be ordered in. At the time you could get a glass of beer, a glass of red wine or a glass of coke or a cup of coffee for the same price. Considering very little coke got ordered during my days as a small-town waitress I wasn't surprised to learn that Switzerland has the highest concentration of breweries per capita. Below is the great little graphic from the article ( which has several other very cute beer graphics-- worth checking out)  to demonstrate this fact, I suppose it is somewhat surprising that the Swiss beat the Germans on this.

However as the article also points out Swiss beer drinkers are not very adventurous when it come to what they drink, they tend to stick with what they know. In fact that restaurant I worked at only served one kind of beer.  The article is basically bemoaning the lack of craft beer in Switzerland but it doesn't really sound like the Swiss feel like they are missing out. Perhaps this is why its so telling that the main point of comparison for the article is the US which tends to be so novelty hungry.