The Hungry Philosopher

Ma’s Kachchi Biriyani

July 1, 2014October 21, 2015Leave a comment

In a previous post entitled “Bored with Biriyani” I had mentioned this dish. Here is my mom’s version of the classic Biriyani. https://hungryphil.com/2014/06/05/bored-with-biryani/

2 lbs goat meat

1 cup yogurt

1TBS ginger

1TBS garlic

1TSP red chili powder

¼ TSP nutmeg

¼ TSP mace

½ TSP white pepper

1 TSP Fennel Seeds

1 TSP Postodana or white poppy seeds

1 TSP salt

8 small whole red potatoes

2 cups sliced shallots (onion) fried in ¾ cup ghee

½ cup combination of pistachios and almonds sliced

1 TBS saffron

¼ cup rose water

6 cups Basmati or Chinigura rice

4 cardamoms

2 sticks of cinnamon

1 bay leaf

½ cup prunes

½ cup dried apricots

Raisins

½ cup milk

½ cup “khoa”, dried milk

Red or Green fresh Chilies

* The key to this recipe is a large pot with a tight fitted lid!

1. Marinate (one hour to overnight) goat meat in yogurt and a grounded mixture of ginger, garlic, chili, nutmeg, mace, pepper, fennel, postodana, salt.

2. Boil potatoes until halfway cooked. Fry lightly in oil until roasted. Red coloring can be added.

3. Soak the dried fruit (prunes and apricots) in milk.

4. Soak saffron in rose water.

5. Fry onions and nuts and raisins until golden in ghee.

6. Boil rice until half cooked in 12 cups of water, cinnamon and cardamom, bay leaf and 2 teaspoons salt.

7. Add strained rice to meat (reserve the water) mix.

Add fried potatoes, Add fried onions and nuts and the ghee (reserve a bit for garnish)…….mix gently.

Add dried fruit and milk….mix gently.

Add ½ saffron and rose water (reserve other half)

Add dried milk powder or mawa

Add reserved water

8. Simmer gently in a tight fitted heavy pot until the liquid evaporates, rice and meat is cooked.

9. Garnish with green chilies, fried onions and remaining saffron water.

Serve with salad, achar/ pickles or raita.

Small Chairs and the Olive Garden Diet of Discomfort

June 30, 2014Leave a comment

Sometime during the late 1980s — no one can pinpoint the exact date — Ron Magruder, the president of the thriving Olive Garden chain of Italian restaurants, received a telephone call from a dissatisfied customer. The call had been patched all the way up to Magruder because it was so……different. The caller, named, Larry, wasn’t complaining about the food or the service or the prices. Instead Larry was upset that he could no longer fit into any of the chairs in his local Olive Garden.

“I had to wait more than an hour and half to get a table,” Larry told Magruder. “But then I found that there wasn’t a single booth or chair where I could sit comfortably.”

Magruder, a heavyset man easily moved to enthusiasm, was sympathetic to Larry’s plaint. And, as president, he could do something about it. He had his staff contact the company that manufactured the chairs for the chain and order a thousand large sized chairs. He then had these distributed, three each, to every Olive Garden restaurant in the nation. It was, as Magruder later told the eminent restaurant business journalist Charles Bernstein, a perfect example of his management philosophy: “We’re going to go the extra mile for any customer, no matter what the situation.”

………the chapter “World Without Boundaries” ends with the conclusion of this story.

About after two months after he first heard from Larry, the customer who had complained about how small all the chairs were in his local Olive Garden restaurant, Ron Magruder, the chain’s president, received another call. It was Larry again. He was calling in response to a follow up query from one of Magruder’s staff. The staff had been busily making sure that all of the chain’s restaurants now had at least three chairs that could accommodate the more amply endowed and had wanted Larry to report what he thought of their efforts.

Well, he was happier now. Indeed, Larry’s message was entirely conciliatory — even thankful. But it wasn’t because of the bigger chairs. It was because of the old small chairs. Largely because of them, Larry explained, he had been spurred to finally confront the extent of his weight problem. Why, in the seven weeks since he had spoken to Magruder, he had lost almost fifty pounds.

The tight little chair — that had been what Larry needed after all.

What a “Gift of the Magi” kind of story!

From a design perspective, the role of small and big chairs in supporting American eating habits are worth noting and from a personal perspective, the story made me change out of my “fat jeans” and into my uncomfortable jeans as incentive to loose those pounds gained over winter. I wonder if this new diet of uncomfortable snug clothing (or chairs) will work? It did for Larry.

The story comes from Fat Land (2003) by Greg Critser.

“Here too the gods dwell”……….

June 26, 2014June 30, 20144 Comments

Heraclitus was warming himself by a stove when a group of visitors arrived hoping to meet the great philosopher and was surprised to see him in such mundane circumstances. Responding to their obvious disappointment, Heraclitus famously announces, “here too the gods dwell.” His simple statement locates meaning…..”here”…….by the stove, by the fire, where we feed and warm our bodies. Heraclitus, reminds his visitors and us that the philosophical self-examined life is not lead apart from everyday needs. In doing so, he shatters the ideality and the celebrity of the tranquil philosopher. Heraclitus’ statement has been closely examined by many scholars, most notably by Martin Heidegger.

I simply invoke this statement as an ancient recognition that the “mundane” is the un-thought, unexamined, unattended, unfelt and that everything, everyone, everyplace harbors the meaningful. A philosophical life is not one of removed, meditative, tranquility apart from human struggle. On the contrary, a philosophical life begins with the simple gesture of warming oneself and attending to the warmth, the fire, the pleasure, the heat, the glow, the light that makes us see, ourselves among and against things in the world.

We can find moments of self-examination and awareness even when we buy a blender or when we boil a pot of pasta. It is ordinary and mundane when I buy the cheapest or most expensive blender with no thought to how it affects my life, it is philosophical when I consider where the blender will live in my home when not in use, why I need it, how often will I use it. Boiling a pot of pasta is ordinary if it becomes an mechanical exercise of producing an efficient dinner. It becomes a human moment when I consider the heat, the water, the pot, the family, the pasta itself, dinner time, the host of variables that converge when I make dinner. This attention doesn’t mean, I’m pausing to ponder….it just means that when I’m boiling pasta, I’m boiling pasta…..I’m attentive and in the moment. Food can be easily be relegated to mundane meaninglessness. That’s why, to me, Heraclitus’ statement that “here too (by the stove) gods dwell” seems so poignant.

Counting calories, intellectualizing, carefully designing menus to meet allergies, nutrition, brand etc, is not the attention I’m talking about. Anthony Bourdain describes the moment of awareness and successful eating in Medium Raw (2011), as follows,

If cooking professionally is about control, eating successfully should be about submission, about easily and without thinking giving yourself over to whatever dream they’d like you to share. In the best-case scenario, you shouldn’t be intellectualizing what you’re eating while you’re eating it. You shouldn’t be noticing things at all. You should be pleasingly oblivious to the movements of the servers in the dining area and bus stations, only dimly aware of the passage of time. Taking pictures of your food as it arrives — or, worse, jotting down brief descriptions for your blog entry later — is missing the point entirely. You shouldn’t be forced to think at all. Only feel.

I am guilty of taking pictures and blogging…..but I also remember many moments, the best moments when I completely forgot to do so and just enjoyed what was placed before me. Philosophical self-awareness includes the Bourdain receptive sense of giving yourself over to your needs and wants as it meets what is given. It may seem like a contradiction, how can one be both self-aware and self-negating? But that edge between thinking and feeling, control and reception is the philosophical moment of living of life of meaning, whether buying a blender or boiling a pot of pasta. Think and feel. Heraclitus, wasn’t just thinking. He was feeling the heat.

DHUA’S CHICKEN PULAO (American Kitchen Update)

June 24, 2014October 7, 20141 Comment

Chicken 1

Yogurt ¼ cup

Onion Puree 2 tbs

Ginger Paste 1 tbs

Garlic Paste 1 tsp

Mace ¼ tsp

Nutmeg ¼ tsp

Salt 1 tsp

Cardamom 3 or 4

Cinnamon ½ inch stick

Bay leaf 1

Shan Morog Pulao or Biriyani spice 1 tsp

Dried Plum/ Prunes 6 or 7

Butter / Ghee 4 tbs

Eggs 6

Potatoes 4

Onions/Shallots 1 cup (sliced and fried)

Saffron 1 tsp

Rose Water 1 tbs

Vinegar 1 tsp

Rice 2 ½ cups

Green chilies 7/8

1. Quarter chicken and marinate at least half an hour in yogurt, onion, ginger, garlic, mace, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, bayleaf, plums, Shan Biriyani spice and 1 tablespoon ghee.

2. Soak saffron in rose water.

3. Half potatoes. Boil potatoes and eggs.

4. Lightly fry eggs and potatoes (add yellow coloring, if desired)

5. Fry onions or shallots until golden brown. Reserve a portion of fried onions for garnish.

6. Add 1 tsp vinegar and another tbs ghee to marinated chicken and simmer for 20 minutes until liquid is reduced. Add ½ tsp sugar.

7. Rinse and strain the rice.

8. Heat on tbs of ghee, add rice and ½ tsp salt, cook until opaque.

9. Add 5 cups of hot water to rice. Cook until half done.

10. Add half cooked rice to chicken. Stir. Add more water if needed to fully cook rice.

11. Add potatoes, eggs and green chilies.

12. Stir in saffron infused rose water and garnish with fried shallots. Serve.

YUM! Thank You, Dhua for sharing your recipe!

RECIPE UPDATE!

I tried the recipe recently and here a few notes of adjustment for the American kitchen.

1. I used two cornish hens quartered and skinned instead of one regular roast chicken.

2. Instead of whole spices that my daughters do not appreciate biting into, I added 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and cardamom each.

3. I used 4 medium yellow potatoes (halved).

4. I added 6 cups of water. The rice was almost done by the time I added it to the chicken.

5. I added another tablespoon of ghee and simmered until the oil separated from the chicken in order to gently fry the pieces in the spices.

6. I also added 1 teaspoon of salt in the rice water.

It was moist, delicious and so aromatic with the spices, the rose water and the saffron. Truly a special occasion treat!

Jackfruit, revealed

June 23, 2014Leave a comment

First, a confession. (For those of you who enjoy jackfruit, I apologize if my comments offend you.)

I’m not the biggest fan of jackfruit……..something about the heavy scent, stinging sweet taste and slimy mouth feel. Occasionally, I have enjoyed a piece or two of the fleshy sweetness that seems to cross a banana, mango and a taste totally its own. Despite my ambivalent enjoyment, the jackfruit is a marvel. One fruit can feed many, the skin and husk is used as feed for livestock, the trees are beautiful and majestic, the seeds can be roasted and eaten like nuts or cooked like potatoes, and the wood of the tree is highly prized. No wonder its the national fruit of Bangladesh. Here is a demonstration of how its opened by Tofajjal Hossain in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

These giant fruits hang from the trunk of big trees. The thump when tapped and change in color to light green and speckled yellow show when its ready to eat.

The skin is prickly. Almost jurassic looking. The outside hints at the many pods hiding within.

First, he cut a line down the middle with a knife.

Split open to reveal in soft interior.

Once the interior is exposed, he scoops out the individual pods.

The seeds are dried, roasted and cooked.

Visually, the fruit is fascinating in its pattern, color and texture. The contrast between interior and exterior is dramatic, as is the cushioned natural packaging of each pod. In the context of poverty, it has the look of plenty, of generous sharing and of multiple uses. Despite its special taste, I am visually drawn. Perhaps, there’s a design lesson here………. in its ability to combine functionalism, surprise, sharing and transformation.

Eating Glocal

June 14, 2014June 14, 2014Leave a comment

My lunch in Dhaka, Bangladesh today. It was surprisingly good. Fried chicken meets South Asia…chopped, stir fried with onions, green chilies, cilantro and served with rice. Did it taste like something from KFC? Not really. But, the packaging insisted otherwise. By the end of the meal I was almost convinced that it was an “authentic” KFC experience. Share your experiences of eating “glocal.” What did you have? Was it good?

The Self-Examined Appetite

June 6, 2014June 6, 2014Leave a comment

“To put it concretely, I am suggesting that critical self-awareness about food relates in fundamental ways to central issues of personal meaning in the life course of any person. From childhood onward, our ability to control what we eat, or whether we eat at all, is the single, most basic aspect of life in which we have full power to assert autonomy. When a young child refuses food, or spits out something disliked, he or she is taking a first important step toward self-determination. Viewed in this philosophical light, every child’s highchair can be seen as the site of a small-scale struggle for existential freedom.”

This is one of my favorite quotes from How We Eat by Leon Rappoport (ECW Press, 2003).

The quote also reminds me of an earlier blog post (forgive the self-reference) about Yummy Wet Noodles.

Rappoport argues that food habits as a form of self examination negotiate competing ideologies of hedonism, spiritualism and nutritionism. Each food choice contains our philosophical comportment towards pleasure, morality and health. This choice changes in response to our existential struggles. For example, when we are young we look more to the pleasure of eating, as we age we become more attuned the needs of our dying body and in between, we struggle with social conformity. The child in a highchair throwing or sharing food is taking the first steps towards autonomy, in how he/she responds to what is given. How we eat, as the title of the book suggests, determines how we individually and autonomously receive the world and its offerings. In examining our food habits we examine our style of being in the world.

There were so many highlights in the book that I want to briefly mention. Related to childhood autonomy there is a section that follows the in utero development of taste, as well as breast milk as the medium of early tastes. There is also a discussion about gendering of food and the determination that chicken and oranges are bi-sexual. Marketing is a strange reductive activity. The discussion of war rations as possibly predictive of future trends, as well as historical references to Betty Crocker and others, made the book both entertaining and fascinating.

In the spirit of self-examination (and confession) I had a breaded chicken sandwich for lunch today. It was definitely a weak decision fueled by pleasure over spirituality or nutrition. I was looking for something, quick and easy in my freezer. It was easy to eat on the porch on a beautiful Indiana summer day while I read my book on how to eat. It made me think of my kids and nephews, who could live on chicken nuggets. I remember the moments when I popped a few in my mouth as I handed them their plate. Its a familiar taste. Certainly not a gourmet meal. Being self-reflective about what we eat doesn’t require a constant stream of deeply critiqued and crafted meals, it just requires receptivity, to yourself and your connection to others. Maybe, the chicken sandwich wasn’t a weak decision after all.

Bored with Biryani

June 5, 2014June 5, 20141 Comment

Seventeenth century Dutch traveler, Frans Jansz van der Heiden, describes Biryani, a rice and meat dish in South Asia, in his travel account, as follows:

“…..We were brought int a beautiful hall [and] there we were served a very rich dish, biryani. The guards told us that it was never prepared better for kings and princes than for us at that time. The prince of Bhulua probably ordered his people to do so because he privileges whoever is known to be Christian over his own people.

We were given this rich dish and as a result we quickly regained our flesh. But gradually the heaviness began to bother us and we longed for lighter fare that we could digest more easily. Biryani is very oily and filling. It is prepared, without water, from fine white rice, a whole goose or two chickens, and many cloves, mace, fine white sugar, cinnamon or cassia leaves, saffron, and many other spices. All these are braised together in butter, and in this way the goose and the chickens are cooked in the rice till they are well done. This dish was so filling that ultimately it began to upset us; in the end we would have been happier eating just dry rice with salted fish.”

from the Bangladesh Reader, edited by Meghan Guhathakurta and Willem van Schendel

The seventeenth century description of a dish still enjoyed today is fascinating. It also makes me wonder when does something life saving and tasty turn into something heavy and sickening?

A Food tourist takes a walk on the Socratic Side

June 4, 2014June 4, 2014Leave a comment

The Wok Shop in San Francisco

I’ve been on three food tours so far. First, Georgetown, D.C, second, San Francisco China Town and last week Chicago. I’ve learned a lot, tasted a lot, and enjoyed a lot. Food tourism might just be my new sport. There are a few practical advantages of a food tour besides the obvious excitement of eating cultural history.

First, a tour allows me to sample small dishes in various places without feeling guilty or sorry for the waiter.

Second, it allows me to follow someone around and focus on eating not locating.

Third, it allows me to meet interesting people happy to talk about their food experiences.

All good reasons to go on a food tour.

If you have dietary limitations, allergies or just don’t like trying new things, I would still encourage you to go. Here’s why: while food navigates the tour, the walk and associated stories themselves are well worth it. These discoveries are just as enjoyable as finding a new delicious taste. Like listening to owner of Wok Shop in San Francisco passionately defend the superiority of traditional Woks or looking at the Tiffany Domes in the Chicago Cultural Center while Jazz music floats in the air. These are moments when design and food, the aesthetic and the gastronomic touch in fantastically beautiful and delicious ways. Its better than walking through museums because we use all of our senses as the privilege of the objective eye diminishes. Food tours offer a taste of what might be a 21st century philosophical walk of consumption and shared meaning. The conversations during a food tour center around personal and shared nostalgia, vacation plans, personal taste preferences, favorite sports teams and so much more. The information shared is both public and intimate.

On a domestic level, The Philosopher’s Table by Marietta McCarty aims to help us engage in philosophical dinner conversation. Each dinner involves diners around a table with a question to consider and corresponding food. http://www.thephilosopherstable.com/

Here are a few images from my tours as provocation………to go on a tour and take a walk on the Socratic side.

Taste of Chicago: Tastebud Tours http://tastebudtours.com/tours/chicago-tours/

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Bertha’s Brownies at the Palmer House

June 2, 2014June 2, 2014Leave a comment

Behind this 19th century ornate peacock gate is an equally glamorous design and food history. A wedding present for Bertha Honore from Potter Palmer, the Palmer House Hotel is a piece of Chicago history. The ceiling includes murals of Venus, the goddess of love, framed by Neoclassical Empire style of glam and glitz. It burned down in the great Chicago fire of 1871, only to be rebuilt bigger and better afterwards.

Sure, the Empire style Hall by Bertha Palmer is an architectural treasure and a Chicago historical landmark. Referenced in Devil in the White City, the Palmer House is an exemplar of the gilded age before the crash, the depression, before the World Wars and the ravages of the 20th century. The historical legacy of the Palmer House is unquestionable and excite architectural and cultural historians. However, unbeknownst to most of us, we have an even deeper connection to the Palmer House. A gastronomic connection. I hope you can sense my tone of reverence as I say…..the Palmer House is the birthplace of the ….wait for it…..

The Brownie.

Yes. Let this knowledge sink into your consciousness and memories of chocolatey, dense, moist deliciousness. It is probably the most coveted dessert in our home, rivaling its cousin warm chocolate chip cookies. The brownie is America’s Proustian Madeline that conjures memories of childhood pleasure and freedom. A “to-go” version of this confection at the Palmer House comes boxed and wrapped with a ribbon. The packaging also includes a brief history and the original recipe. The taste can be described as dense yet delicate, with a texture between fudge and cake that melts in your mouth. The walnuts that compose the top layer have a light glaze. The recipe says its an apricot glaze but a fruity taste is hardly noticeable. It is a familiar (as in brownie mix brownies) but elegant experience between candy and cake. The “to-go” version is perhaps the best way to eat this little morsel since it was designed to be a part of a boxed and portable, working lunch for ladies discussing the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The Brownie represents a designed American cultural experience. We say as American as Apple Pie but I think the saying should be as American as Brownies. This Fourth of July, I’ll have to bake brownies. Let’s start a new trend and vote for the Brownie as America’s dessert. “Bite into a piece of history”………indeed!