“Tasty curry might have a fringe benefit,” headlines USA Today… today. The article is more specifically about the reported health benefits of turmeric. It’s not exactly a scoop, as a scientific paper on the topic was published two years ago and picked up by Manish in this January 1, 2005 post. Still, given the attention span of the typical USA Today reader (and who is that reader, anyway, other than the nameless masses of khaki-panted, cellphone belt-clipped, laptop warriors waking up each morning in the Marriotts of the land?), I suppose it’s information worth recycling from time to time. Plus we get a heart warming story to go with it:
Then Jayne took an Indian cooking class that emphasized fresh vegetables and curry spices.
She began to whip up an Indian dinner once or twice a week — and soon she noticed she wasn’t always looking for a late-night snack. And the curry in the food offered her a bonus: It seemed to ease the pain and swelling in her joints.
“I have arthritis,” says Jayne, 55. “But I’m moving better now.”
Preliminary research suggests Jayne may be right. A study in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism suggests turmeric, one component of curry spice, almost completely prevented joint swelling in rats with arthritis. Other studies have suggested that the spice could protect against diseases such as heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s…
Tipster Adi points us to the article as picked up on the news aggregator site RedOrbit.com, where we get the benefit of reader comments. Made-up Indian names, comparisons of desi food to the excrement of various animals, and discussions of desi body odor and penis size are all on the menu. I won’t reprint any of it here but those of you who think racism against desis is no big deal might find it instructive to take a look.
Meantime, pass the lime pickle.
oh i’m sure about that – eat enough of it and you can be sure mr/ms yellow teeth (cf #98) wont be getting any for a loooong time – it’s enough to make anyone’s loins throb with unconsummated yearning.
🙂
To put him to sleep right away? 🙂
Are you serious?
Shouldn’t I be getting more?
No. It’s an old Indian thing. Supposedly makes him more virile.
Yellow teeth may not be viewed as a bad thing in all cultures, hairy_d. Recently saw a drop-dead gorgeous Chinese bride who had the yellowest of teeth. She could easily have whitened it if she so wished.
Ah, what good desi movie is complete without this scene, MoS.
mistress sez
kurma sez
Indeed … but then not everyone has that canadian mojo dearies.
And, if a woman eats alot before making love, the resultant baby should be female. And vice versa for the man. Therefore I have seen some people (either wife or husband) fast or eat lightly on that day, and the other spouse feast sumptuously, depending on which gender they want the baby to be.
Don’t know how accurate the science is behind it all though.
Mistress of Raw Spices (MRS?):
No. It’s an old Indian thing. Supposedly makes him
more virilemore asleep.These ancient Indian secrets have their uses 😉
http://www.oliveoilsource.com/cooking_olive_oil.htm
If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, it discusses the smoke point of olive oil and its utility for frying. I’ve used olive oil for frying and have not had problems with it turning rancid. I think it my be a good option.
Thanks, SDM. I found that really helpful!
Mistress of Raw Foods: I don’t wanna get on your bad side but speaking as a gym teacher/personal trainer, the raw food diet is bad science. Please reconsider it for your health.
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060704_bad_raw_food.html
If your lactose intolerant it would give you gas. The romance!
Sounds fishy to me.
What a great excuse to take all the food !(and if the baby is a girl, you can always accuse the woman of secretly eating a lot and ending up with the “wrong” gender. Wah, wah.
It’s bulletproof, I’m sure. hairy_d, how did you get my picture? Anyway, please refrain from posting it here :-B. I’m trying to keep my identity secret, you know.
Coach –
Check out http://www.rawfamily.com and http://www.thegardendiet.com
Healthy as hell!
But of course, Deepa. I love food. And I love talking about it 🙂
I can’t imagine eating entirely raw foods. I do find eating more raw veggies and fruit, less meat in general and otherwise following a fairly basic diet has helped me a lot. There are definite benefits to incorporating raw veggies into your daily diet that don’t need justification.
I wish I lived in SF. I’m actually in Santa Barbara, which barely qualifies as CenCal, and some people say we’re totally SoCal. But I’m here and I have the NorCal/CenCal spirit! I mean, I hella say “hella” 🙂 And you best expect me to take up that offer if I’m ever in TO.
😀 nice. But maybe you’re just lactose intolerant? If so, try raw milk. Lactose intolerant people can drink raw milk because it’s the irridation/pastuerization of milk and other dairy products that kills the enzyme needed to properly digest lactose. Raw milk, obviously, retains the enzyme.
Well, if you did come over for dinner, you wouldn’t be sorry – for the food or for the coast. So go ahead, bring the chilis. I have to figure out something to do with this babaco and sapote that I bought for no other reason than because they looked funny. I’ll also figure out what to do with the four different varieties of avocados (Haas, Rincon, Bacon and Pinkerton), seven different varieties of rice (from Asian to African), five different varieties of onions (red, white, brown, cipolline and pearl), four colors of bell peppers (green, yellow, red and orange), five different kinds of squash (sunburst, spaghetti, crookneck, zucchini, and the very phallic butternut), four different varieties of potatoes (red, Yukon, Russet and Hanna sweet), raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, grapes (think California wine, y’all), three different kinds of tomatoes (roma, slicer and the gorgeous multicolored heirloom – good even out of season now), the purple cauliflower, purple garlic, Buddha’s hand, the yellow watermelon, bittermelon, tangelos, satsuma tangerines, fresh Tibetian goji berries, raw cacao, lots of fresh cashew butter, lots of cheeses from local farmers here and lots of spices like the ones I mentioned in my previous comment, among a whole bunch of other stuff… all organic, all in my kitchen right now.
(Damn effin’ straight I’m bragging. MD, I hope you’re still conscious.)
But seriously, come over, ’cause the flatmate is out, and it’s depressing cooking magnificent feasts for oneself. “Pathetic, party of one?” 🙂
i thought that you don’t eat buddha’s hand and just use it for it’s fragrance (that is what the food network said), and when my poppa bean bought it at my local farmers market, he said it tasted horrible (and this is the man who loves all weird fruit)
hairy_D, here’s the info on the entire haldi khandan. My peeps use Sangli type (from Maharashtra).
You can use the rind for zest. It’s also good candied.
That’s a mighty impressive list of things in your kitchen, Shruti.
I picked up sapote the other day from the co-op to try it out. Found it weird and threw it out in the end. Curious as to how you find it. (I’m sure someone likes it since it’s being sold).
I’ll also figure out what to do with the four different varieties of avocados (Haas, Rincon, Bacon and Pinkerton), seven different varieties of rice (from Asian to African), five different varieties of onions (red, white, brown, cipolline and pearl), four colors of bell peppers (green, yellow, red and orange), five different kinds of squash (sunburst, spaghetti, crookneck, zucchini, and the very phallic butternut), four different varieties of potatoes (red, Yukon, Russet and Hanna sweet).
So, Shruti’s world-famous arroz con potato-and-squash-stuffed bell pepper and sliced onions on the side (phallic butternut optional) is actually a dish that can be prepared in 67200 ways!
Tell me about it..I was plied with cups and more cups of bananas and milk during my wedding – all that on an empty stomach. I can tell you you don’t need to be lactose intolerant if you are a TamBram.
Milk and bananas???
Mucus. Mucus. Mucus.
NOT an aphrodisiac!
-sniff- when we were in college we would sweep up the rinds dropped off people’s trays, dip it in the old oil in the waste container and have that for meals. and this was on a good day. for dessert we’d lick off the congealed goo off the mcflurry cups. kids these days are so spoilt, no? -seethe – seethe-
note to self – when next in cali, land at Chez shruti and … pack stretch pants
I just don’t understand why milk is so important culturally in South India when more than 90% of South Indians are lactose intolerant.
Thanks, Shruti. Did not know that. Although…..why should one drink any milk at all?
thanks shodan… interestingly i thought it was a myth that some recipes that called for saffron could make do with turmeric instead … but the link you suggest pointed to the ‘kesari’ variety of turmeric – so i guess there must be some truth to it – although the thought of adding turmeric to desi mishthaan (sweets in hindi) in stead of saffron (or kesar)is a tad icky.
Many health experts claim that animal’s milk is meant by nature to be for – animal babies, not humans.
I think there is some truth in that.
Anyway, the cow has sociological significance in India, as does (or at least did at one time) cow’s milk.
It is a required offering for some Deities, and hence, for worshippers of those Deities, required prasad. Therein lies one sociological significance, of a religious nature.
There are others.
Hmmm… I thought it was the other way around, i.e., people found milk to be kick-ass. Therefore the cow became sacred.
Arrree Kurma Hinduism 101 baby.
:-D. What did you eat on the bad days? Who’s ‘we’?
I’m not sure what to do with the sapote either. When you’re at any natural foods co-op or farmers market buying weird food, it’s helpful to ask the people there (farmers, workers and customers – all very weird themselves) what they know about it, esp how to eat it. And speaking of the co-op and smelly desi food, I’m actually going to the co-op right now to get some Himalyan rock salt (the awesomeness that is kala namak and smells like sulfur). And maybe a pomegranate, because they’re so pretty. I’m sure somebody there will tell me what to do with my sapote. Maybe coach knows?
shrugg I dunno. I don’t drink it 🙂
Vat? I don’t get it. It says on the Wiki page:
I’m not sure how it answers my question.
Here’s my guess. Northies found milk kickass and there was a logical route to cow-worship. When Southies came in contact (occupation or otherwise, pick your favorite theory) with the Northies, they simply aped the milk-drinking practice and yesterday’s “weird, foreign ways” became today’s “our culture”. (cf takeover of ze South in the last 20 years or so by the Salwar Kameez)
The wiki page leads me to contemplate the interesting contrast between this and this.. Makes me laugh although I’m not so sure what’s funny.
hmmm…aren’t these also available in India? or atleast in south india? also known as chikku? I’ve eaten some here in the US and they’re kind a red on the inside, compared to the ones in India , which are brown.
Aha. Regarding #133, nothing like Chikku :). Took a closer look and saw that i was waay off!
I actually like it quite a lot. I think they are tasty. 🙂 But they are best when grown in your own garden.
Dunno about 90% of South Indians being lactose-intolerant (I am not), but milk-and-bananas on an empty stomach (rather, the re-percussions) sure is a great way to negate the smell of all the jasmine and rose which congeales around you as soon you get into the mandap – it’s worse if you are the groom – you have to wear a ton of the stuff around your scrawny neck balanced on some kind of rope that could only have been sourced from some medieval Iron Maiden-type apparatus.
I don’t think this is true. Lactase is an enzyme produced by your body, in your digestive system. All babies are lactose-tolerant because they make lactase. Those who become lactose-intolerant gradually stop making the lactase enzyme after the age of 4 or so (although the exact age can vary). Those who come from populations which remain lactose-tolerant continue to be lactase-producers. It has nothing to do with enzymes in raw milk, so far as I know.
As others have mentioned before, Manjal (turmeric in Tamil, Malayalam) along with black pepper and sugar in hot milk is still my standard remedy for sore throat. It never fails and I actually like the taste, especially with a lot of pepper. Of course piping hot rasam with or without rice is the other old standby for colds and sore throats.
Women in the south typically used turmeric paste ground from the root when the bathed, that the vicco turmeric tries to tap into. Here is the modern version. Manjal Soap: Essence of Turmeric
Don’t know about 90%, but usually Indians don’t just drink milk like Americans–it’s made into yogurt, paneer, shrikhand, khoa, etc–most of these processes, especially fermenting into yogurt, decrease the amount of lactose in the milk, making it easier to digest.
You should drink milk, or eat dairy products, if you are not a vegan, and especially if you are female, for calcium. If you are vegan or aren’t into milk you’ll have to get your calcium elsewhere, like tofu or cruciferous vegetables. Kurma, I think you’re right, Hindus revere the cow because it produces milk, among other useful things. Or at least that was the original concept when the Aryans herded their cows over the mountains all those years ago. One killed cow might feed your family for a week, but one live cow might feed your family and keep them warm for a decade.
Yeah but I wonder why this pearl of wisdom never occured to any other society on Earth? Including various african and european cultures which also depended on cattle? I can’t belive the amount of protein that gets wasted in India because of this avoidance of beef. It’s basically brahmanism, and ranks right there with the caste system in terms of damage to Indian society. But on the other hand, I agree that at this point it just wouldn’t seem like ‘our culture’ if people didn’t have that taboo.
Amitabh is right. Lactase is an enzyme found in the brush border cells of human intestines. Some people lose the capability to make this enzyme in adulthood, and are therefore lactose intolerant, i.e., they can’t break lactose into it’s component parts of glucose and galactose, that can be absorbed by intestinal cells. So the undigested lactose sits in the intestines, where it is consumed by bacteria that produce gas, or causes decreased absorption of water, hence the symptoms of lactose intolerance: gas and diarrhea. It has nothing to do with whether the milk is pasteurized, but milk products like yogurt don’t have as much lactose in them because bacteria have already digested some of it, similarly butter and cream are usually okay because they contain mostly fat.
Mate, people eat what they want to eat – if a culture does not want to eat something, so be it. The fact that they have survived as a culture is proof of the fact that they can do without that kind of food. There are lots of cultures which do not eat horsemeat/ dogmeat/ cats/ donkeys (unless in extraordinary situations) – why doesn’t that qualify as a wastage of protein then?
You make a good point. But those cultures at least have good alternative sources. In India, a lot of people just use daal, roti (or rice), potatoes, and dairy products as their protein source…which to me does not seem ideal, although I realise that if done correctly it does provide all the essential amino acids. Leave alone beef, there are many families that don’t approve of chicken,eggs, mutton, or fish either. How can malnutrition be fought with some of these attitudes? In my bua’s house in Delhi, they have a servant who has a 7 year old kid…I’ve sporadically seen this kid since he was a baby. I could not convince his dad to so much as feed him eggs! And the kid is just not growing the way a 7 year old should.
most beef protein usually rests and rots into a foul smelling keema in the kolon until it is suitably exuded from the rear, dear.
and this from a guy who trained 150k bikes, 23miles run, 4 miles swim a week for a particularly intense stretch a while back on a vegie diet and no supplements. ‘i need protein’ is a myth. but ymmv. women especially may need iron supplements.
You know, speaking of that kid…he’s a bright little guy, and when he was around 3 or so, I decided that I would try to get him admitted into a good, English-medium school, and I’d pay for the tuition, uniforms, books, etc. until he finished 12th grade. It’s impossible…good schools simply will not take servants’ children, period. The schools insist on interviewing not only the kid (and the kid better already know English at the tender age of 3), but also interviewing the parents (and no one is allowed to substitute for the parents in the interview). And since they’re trying to maintain a certain image, they only want kids from certain families. But I digress.
It’s difficult to comment on that aspect – not just because of the religion/ culture issue at play, but other more down-to-earth things as well. For instance, most families which cannot provide decent nutrition to their kids with the right amounts dal/roti/rice/veggies, would probably not be able to afford chicken/fish, which are usually more costly (especially so if you look at the quantity v/s cost factor). Or maybe, suddenly starting to eat meat after some years of life as a vegetarian may not be easy on their digestive systems.
However, I don’t see why you would absolutely need to eat meat/eggs to stave off malnutrition (they may appear in tables of a well-balanced diet we read in school because those tables were devised by some British doctor or the other – but ultimately, it’s all about getting in the requisite amounts of calories/minerals etc.). I don’t think meat-eaters are in any way better nourished than vegetarians -given that both sides can pay equal attention to the kind of nourishment the are getting.
Amitabh, #145, I digress too. I figured back then (when we had that discussion about English) that you might have had some experience like this in your mind. That story you wrote is really sad. Schools for kids are so class conscious, it makes me sick. I don’t so much mind it in private schools (go pay for your classism, right?). But the central schools (KV) which are excellent government schools also tend to admit only kids of central gov. employees (which is why they were set up). Then are the state government schools, but they are not English medium. So, ain’t no English medium possible for the poor.
Hmmm, that’s what I had always heard before hanging out with raw foodies. But you’re a doctor and raw foodies are not known for their sanity. You win, at least for now 🙂
Want more protein and the enzymes to digest it?
Raw leafy greens.
If you need more than that – peanuts.
Most of us are eating way too much protein, so “lack of protein” scare is a myth.
In India enough protein is obtained via lentils and nuts for the vegetarians.
Supposedly ancient Egyptians were primarily vegetarians also.
Anybody have any good recipes for paneer? I just do the milk boil and then add fennel, salt and lemon juice before separating the curds.
Where I run into problems is the pressing/solidifying. My paneer never firms up very well and crumbles too much when I cook with it. Is it a matter of waiting longer than a few hours? How much weight for pressing? It tastes OK but I can never get it as yummo as I’ve had it elsewhere. Friends/relatives are no help. They all can’t be bothered to make their own paneer…