A Feast for all Reasons

Imagine if you will, a thali meal. Multi-textured flavours 8212; some fiery and some sweet, some bitter and others piquant. In a world of f...

Imagine if you will, a thali meal. Multi-textured flavours 8212; some fiery and some sweet, some bitter and others piquant. In a world of fast food and one-pot meals, A Matter of Taste serves up a complex melange of writing that centers around food, or more specifically on the role that food plays in our lives and in our consciousness.

If on first impressions, one thinks that this is an anthology of food critiques, than think again. Roy8217;s banquet is like a fine dining experience that offers in cocktail-sized bites, a collection of great Indian writing where food or the lack of it plays an important part. Ranging from Gandhi8217;s hesitant yet curious experimentation with meat to Frank Simoes8217; more ebullient celebration of the Goan spirit both literally and figuratively, A Matter of Taste has something for every palate.

Divided into five sections, the book includes a cross-section of writing that spans not just the century but also 8220;the seven seas8221;. In Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyaya8217;s evocative 8220;Apu8217;s Trials8221; under the section 8216;Deprivation8217;, the young protagonist grapples with a lonely life of near starvation and poverty in Calcutta. Across an ocean is Jhumpa Lahiri8217;s homesick Bengali housewife in faraway America whose search for fresh fish highlights her alienation in a country full of strangers and foreign tongues. Tales of destitution and desperation go hand in hand with stories of feasting and intricate recipes. The hunger and famine of pre-Independence India finds many resonances, with selections like Sarat Chandra Chatterjee8217;s classic 8220;Mahesh8221; in which a much-beloved bull dies due to starvation. In contrast is the anticipation and festivity as several animals are sacrificed during more recent Id celebrations in Suketu Mehta8217;s 8220;Black Collar Workers8221;.

A Matter of Taste also serves as a way of taking us back to our childhoods and to places visited long ago. So many memories are rooted in smells, tastes and associations. If Salman Rushdie harks back to his childhood days of unleavened bread and Indian roti, so does the late Busybee in his nostalgic tribute to a nursery tea of bread and butter or maska-bun. Vir Sanghvi the only food critic, as it were, included in this collection reconstructs favourite meals eaten as a child and deconstructs street food like 8220;bhelpuri8221; and 8220;chaat8221;.

Religious prejudices and gender biases also find their way onto dining tables and into plates. Fasts are kept for sons, not daughters. Diets are prescribed even as personality judgements are pronounced. Boundaries are broken when meals are cooked for estranged husbands and a 8220;guest8221; is served unwittingly as the 8220;hosts8221; do not realise that he comes from the other side of the communal line. Food also becomes the medium for social change and for pushing politically correct causes, as Amitav Ghosh discovers in a swish New York restaurant while partaking of 8220;A Tibetan Dinner8221;.

Now that there8217;s finally a chill in the air, A Matter of Taste is perfect to curl up with, accompanied by either a cup of steaming tea or coffee. And the best part is that you don8217;t even have to be a 8220;foodie8221; for this to tickle your taste buds.