Reading Notes:How "typical" is Kewa Datsi?

Frequently when Bhutanese live outside Bhutan are asked to cook a "typical" Bhutanese meal they will whip up Kewa Datsi- a stew-like dish with potatoes, chilli and cheese. However research on history of potato in Bhutan suggests that potato might be a  fairly new "typical" Bhutanese food. The below extract comes from the " The Potato in Bhutan" ( 2008) by Walter Roder, Karma Nidup and Ganesh B. Chettri.

"Potato consumption in Bhutan was low up to the 1970s. In the early 70s, when farmers started growing potato for export, they were generally reluctant to consume the tuber. Eating potato as a staple was socially and culturally unacceptable as many Bhutanese believed that potatoes caused problems of the lower abdomen, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea. Similarly, in the 19th century ethnographical descriptions of Tibet, potato  consumption was said to be " confined to the poorer classes" ( Rockhill 1891). Over the last four decades, the status of potato as a food or vegetable has changed tremendously. Today unlike in the 70s , potato is widely eaten as a vegetable and sometimes even as a staple food." 

Reading Notes: Bhutanese Eating Etiquette

From:  Tshering C Dorji and Rinchen Dorji (2005) "Living the Bhutanese Way"  DSB Publications, Thimphu

Under the Driglam Choesum or Za Cha Do(e) Sum, a code of standard practices was framed, based on three kinds of human activity: eating, doing things and walking. It is said that no matter how rich a person is, he should never eat sleeping and no matter how poor a person is, he should not eat standing.  Therefore, a person eats sitting properly.

A person can only eat that  amount of food which can be held within two fingers and a thumb of the right hand. He is expected to keep the drinks on the left side and the solid things to the right. A person should not pile bones in front or behind. The person keeps them inside his hemcho ( the pouch). Jokes are told about  a person who carried all the bones in his pouch and ate peacefully outside without having to fear an imposition of any discipline.

A person is expected to eat his food with closed mouth and not make much noise while eating. He is expected not to talk which he has food in his mouth.

Bhutanese in the villages usually crush the cereal into small balls and eat. The more compact the cereal ball, the more filling of the stomach, so they don't get hungry soon. Stories are being said that in the olden days the people judged a person whether he could work or not from the amount of breakfast he ate. If the person ate a smaller amount of breakfast, the person was regarded as a weakling.  

 

 

Reading Notes: Fishing in Haa

From: " Memoirs of a Political Officer's Wife in Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan" by Margaret D. Williamson, an account of her life and travels in the Himalayas during the early 1930's.

" Our final day in Ha, we watched an unusual way of fishing. One line of boys, beating the water with sticks, drove the fish downstream to where another line of boys were waiting in a 'V' formation. The latter than funnelled the fish into the wide mouth of a tapering bamboo basket" 

Reading Notes: Rumors of Poison

From:  Bodt, Timotheus A ( 2012) " The New Lamp Clarifying the  History, Peoples, Language and Tradition of Eastern Bhutan and Eastern Mon"  Monpassang Publication: Alblasserdam, the Netherlands

" A curious and macabre cultural feature  that deserves mentioning is the poison cult that existed and according to some sources continues to exist in certain parts of Eastern Bhutan and Eastern Monyul. Notorious areas are the Kurma area in Lhuntsi, Upper Tashiyangtse, the border areas inhabited by Dakpa, certain parts of Pemagatshel. Lish and Chuk in Dirang and the Kongpo area and Pemako in Tibet.  But practically every area has certain households suspected of poisoning guests. According to popular belief, one should never accept any hot food or alcoholic beverages from household with whom one is not thoroughly familiar. Those suspected of giving poison are always women- most commonly spinsters and widows. They are believed to poison a person in order to obtain his... 'life force.' There are several ways in which the poison is prepared  as well as administer. Whereas the usual poison used for hunting is made from Aconitum sp., the poison for the poison cult is home-made. During the new moon, the woman will paint half her face black and half her face white. She will carry an unboiled egg into the forest and whilst uttering secret mantras, she will bury it at the foot of a tree. During the next full moon, she will return to this place and collect the mushroom that usually sprouts from the egg. The mushroom will be dried and ground to a fine powder. The poison can be administered unnoticed, for example by keeping it under the fingernail and adding it to a cup of alcohol when serving it to an unsuspecting victim.  The victim has to be, in order of preference,  a king, a high lama, a minister, a rich man, a young man, her husband or her son. In absence of any of these she has to consume  the poison herself. Death comes slow and sudden, and often poisoning is not suspected. Households thought to be poisoners are usually outcast and stigmatized but at the same time also kept in respect out of fear that retribution might take place. Belief in the poison cult is still strong and in many cases people suffering from sudden and severe illnesses  are  thought to be /duk rek/ 'touched by poison.' Official policy is to discourage belief in the cult and the social stigma it entails." 

Reading Notes: Food and Immigrants ( in the US)

I enjoyed this recent article that I read on NPR's food blog The Salt about the volunteer work of women to make the feasts and meals that devotees (of several different religions) enjoy at the places where they worship.  It  includes some great pictures and highlights the work of these volunteers in several different New York City religious communities. The story comes from a very interesting project called Feet in 2 Worlds which is intended to bring the stories of immigrant  and ethnic journalists  from the across the US to wider audiences.   The site features a number of food related stories in a series it call Food in 2 Worlds which is quickly becoming a favorite read.

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!

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.

Reading Notes: The Matsutake Mushroom Festival

My job keeps me tied down to Thimphu for large chunks of the year ( thought admittedly for now I get a lovely long winter break) so I am always grateful to be able to read about other people's travels. All year I have followed this blog by an Australian teacher living in Bumthang with her family. She recently wrote about traveling eastward to attend the Matsutake Mushroom Festival in Ura.  Bhutanese collect Matsutake or Sangay Shamu ( Buddha Mushroom) to sell on the lucrative Japanese market where this particular mushroom apparently heralds seasonal change.  Her post on the festival is delightfully rambling ( its a little like listening to a work friend talk about their weekend over Monday morning coffee) so not all of the post is focused on mushrooms but  its worth a look for the absolutely wonderful photos of the festival in general and the mushrooms in particular.

Reading Notes: Asian Beers

A former intern recently wrote to "blame" me for her fondness for South-east Asia. I encouraged her to apply for a scholarship to spend a summer in Laos and she has wanted to return to that part of the world ever since. She recently took up a teaching position in Vietnam and has been blogging about her adventure there including this recent post about all the different Asian beers she has tried since she arrived.  As a firm believer that context and atmosphere plays a huge part in how we enjoy food and drink  her final piece of advice is spot on, she writes " If you decide to try one of these beers back in the states and think its horrible, don't blame me. Book a flight to Southeast Asia and grab a Beerlao in Laos, I promise it will taste a whole lot better."  

As well as inspiring a little jealousy and wanderlust, the post definitely also encourages me to consider writing about Bhutanese beers in the near future!

Reading notes: NPR 's dumpling week

All week the NPR food blog, The Salt, has been sending out great dumpling stories, many of which include fabulous recipes that I don't have the time to try.  Perhaps the most interesting post was one in which they attempted to document all the many, many,  many kinds of dumplings, what they are calling their "Global Dumpling List." And yes, momos are on the list but more interesting is their list of " disputable dumplings" that includes everything from empanadas to samosas. Why disputable? Because NPR put together a panel of "Dumpling Experts"  to help them decided what should actually be considered a dumpling!

Reading Notes: Instant Noodles

Summer holidays are behind me and I am back at work which means , once again, less time for original blog content. As if NPR food blog, The Salt, knew that I didn't have time to come up with my own content, earlier this week they put out a great post on the global popularity of instant noodles. Elsewhere on this blog I mentioned how my time at boarding school gave me a real fondness for instant noodles so it always gives me a twang of sadness when someone  is dismissive or worse, hyper critical of instant noodles.  In boarding school we ate instant noodles because we thought the school food was "gross," because they were easy to make ( we could even eat them raw, sometimes mixed into a bag of chips), because we could get them cheap and because it was easy to add things to them like chili powder, dried mushrooms, vegetable  and cheese to customize and improve the taste.  The NPR article points out that these are many of the same reasons that instant noodles are popular all over the world: 

 it's the multinational noodle companies' conquest of countries like Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico that really interests the anthropologists: Frederick Errington of Trinity College, Tatsuro Fujikura of Kyoto University and Deborah Gewertz of Amherst College. And it's here that they make one of their most intriguing arguments: Instant noodles do good by alleviating the hunger of millions of people around the world. These supercheap, superpalatable noodles, they write, help the low-wage workers in rich and poor countries alike hang on when the going gets tough."They're cheap and tasty and tweakable," Gewertz tells The Salt. "They're capable of being transformed to everyone's cultural taste."In Thailand, instant ramen is seasoned with lemongrass and cilantro. Mexicans can buy Maruchan noodle soup cups flecked with shrimp, lime and habarnero , among other flavors. Papua New Guineans have incorporated the noodles into rituals as cardinal as weaning babies and honoring the dead, she says.

  

Reading Note: Picnicking

As the weather warms up eating outdoors is such a treat ( except when it rains but that is another story). My family frequently eats outside this time of year, surrounded my mother's beautiful garden and at work we tend to gravitate to the tables outdoors at the campus canteen.  So of course this interesting post on NPR food blog, The Salt, on the history of picnicking was well timed!

What was perhaps most interesting part of the article was learning that picnic starts as something the wealthy indulged in. These early picnics required servants and nice linen, a "movable feast" more than roughing it out in nature and eating out of sandwiches out of plastic containers.

In fact they sound an awful lot like modern Bhutanese picnics where people tend to bring their pots and pans and actually cook out in the open. And the food is always special occasion food made for a large number of people.  I was once told by a group of  students horrified by my suggestion that we save money by making sandwiches, that there was no point going on a picnic if there wasn't meat and if it wasn't grand. Here is a picture of me at that picnic where my students cooked up  the most delicious feast.

Reading Notes: Portraits of grandmothers and their signature dish.

So, the blog Jezebel had a lovely post recently about a photography book focused on grandmothers from 58 different countries posing with their signature home cooked meal. The book was put together by photographer Gabriele Galimberti, the man behind the riveting photo essay of children around the world posing with their most prized possessions. Apparently he was inspired by his own grandmother's ravioli.

Scrolling through a more complete sample of his photos I am struck by how few of the dishes are familiar to me ( I admittedly plan to stay unfamiliar with the Caterpillar in tomato sauce!)  However what is perhaps most interesting to me is that glimpse these photos give into the kitchen where these women work their magic.

My Bhutanese grandmother died before we were born but my Swiss grandmother cooked many wonderful meals for us.  Our least favorite was probably cow tongue, which was baked whole and looked very much like a cow tongue even as she sliced it up for us.

Reading Notes : Six Basic Tastes of Tibetan Medicine

From : " Tibetan Medical Dietary Book: Vol 1 Potency & Preparation of Vegetables" by Dr. Yangbum Gyal, Clinical Research Department  Men- Tsee- Khang ( Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute of H.H., the Dalai Lama)

Sweet: Something that is tasty and clings to your mouth and make you want more like sugar, candy, cookies , ice cream, grapes, molasses, honey, etc.

Sour: Something that set the teeth on edge , pucker the face and make the mouth watery when it touches the tongue like lemon, orange, Kyuru ( Emblica officinalis), seabuck thron, raw grapes, curd, butter milk, etc. 

Salty:  It creates hot sensation and produces saliva when it touches the tongue. For e.g., salt, natron, etc.

Bitter: It taste bitter, clears the foul mouth smell and does not want to taste more when anything bitter touches the tongue. For e.g. Bitter gourd, dandelion, coffee, etc

Hot:  Something that burns the mouth, oozes out tears and produce heat when it touches the tongue, like chili, garlic, onion, Gingiber officinale, Piper longum etc.

Astringent: Something that give a weak sense of taste and sticks to the tongue and palate when in touches the tongue like, raw banana. 

Reading Notes: Collections of Honey.

In another life I worked for many years in a museum, backstage where all the artifacts were stored and cataloged and cared for. So understandable I have a soft spot for collections which is why I adored this recent blog post by  anthropologist Sarah Weber looking at what collections of honey in Palawan, Philippines could teach her about the flow of wild honey from forest to market to home. The answer? A lot! Particularly interesting was the way in which this museum-y approach allowed her to explore question about value and authenticity. What the post reminded me were the photos I sometimes see on social media-- particularly facebook- that people take of food that they purchased from various CSA ( Community Supported Agriculture) that they belong to and all the claims of value, purity and even perhaps a gentle moralizing implied in the photos ( often in the captioning of them).

Reading Notes: A week's worth of groceries

I cannot stop looking at this amazing slide show on the Huffington Post shows families from around the world sitting next to a week's worth of groceries. A friend sent me a link pointing out that Bhutan had been included in the slide show. The staggering amount of packaged food in some of pictures is even more shocking in comparison with the fruits and vegetables that dominate in other pictures.

The photos  are all from Peter Menzel and Faith D' Alusio's book " Hungry Planet; What the World Eats" which documented global food trends. The books was published in 2007 so its hard not to imagine the changes since then.