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Rural repast’s whiff of rebuff to low-brow fast food

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Enjoying a meal of fresh snails and oysters at home

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the face of global obesity, how the French diet sets an example in healthy eating

By Shailaja Paramathma

Even though the British ruled us for two centuries, we never really fell for their cuisine; our palate was just not cut out for their insipid fare. But when America, with its cosmopolitan appeal and cut-throat advertising nudged open our markets, the doors just flung open. With our new-found salaries and third world aspirations, we simply toed the lines leading to burgeoning fast food chains. Closer home though, the French, with their innate mistrust of anything American, smirked and pronounced their verdict on mass produced fast food—“industriel”.

Pride matters

France’s pride in quality food does not just come from the fact that they are European Union’s leading agricultural power but also from the fact that they take their culture and their past very seriously. In comparison, Americans talk of a past but you only have to visit an American-themed restaurant and you will witness memorabilia that only goes back to posters of black-and-white movies. The French, on the other hand, have a history; their really classy restaurants exist inside ancient castles and offer a fare from recipes dating back centuries.

It would be naïve to believe that every meal in France is gourmet, but it would also be foolish to discredit the individual wars that each French family fights on a regular basis against sugary aerated drinks, fried potatoes and tomato ketchup. In fact, this very anti-globalization outlook threw up a presidential candidate in 2007—José Bové. A sheep farmer and activist, Bové become a national hero and received tremendous international publicity when he forced a McDonald’s franchisee to move out of Millau, a small town in the south-west of France.

Posters from the presidential election 2007

Posters from the presidential election 2007

As does family

Assuredly, the French eat for pleasure, at home or in their quaint little roadside bistros. They take out time to eat and they do so in the company of family and friends. One of the first things one would note during midday in France, is the whiff of freshly-made bread wafting out of every bakery and a rapidly growing throng of people queuing up to buy it. The French eat at appointed hours and it would not be grossly irrational to say that at one in the afternoon all of France is buying baguette.

Lunch is the big meal of the day, not breakfast, and people in small cities actually rush back home every noon to cook and eat the afternoon meal together. A family meal in France may actually seem like a sacred ritual to an outsider because it begins with a portion of salad, leading to a meat dish, followed by a few varieties of cheese, and ending on a bowl of flavoured yogurt or a fruit. Generous cuts of freshly bought French bread do the round of the table at least twice. And finally, all of it is washed down with a cup of black coffee because well, no meal is complete without it.

Weekends and holidays see regular people turning into self-proclaimed chocolate cake queens, or fruit pie makers or barbeque experts. As summers approach and days become longer, small cities and towns see people spending their evenings around a bonfire cooking and sharing meals.

Prone to pattern

As a rule, no one snacks in between meals apart from very young kids who carry a snack to school, usually their only indulgence of the day. School lunch menus are decided and circulated to the parents every week and are made mostly from locally-sourced raw materials. So, veal, fish, pork, chicken and different salads, cheese and desserts are served depending on the season and availability. Children are encouraged to eat the same food as adults. Though a strong smelling sheep cheese like the Roquefort, for example, would be replaced by the mild Emmental for kids. Nevertheless, this little effort goes a long way in acquainting young palate to foods that demand an acquired taste. More importantly, these balanced meals are not just a step towards creating a healthy lifestyle but also towards a healthier environment.

Les Halles (Farmers’ Market) in Paris

Les Halles (Farmers’ Market) in Paris

Knowing one’s culture

For a French buyer knowing where a food item comes from is of extreme importance. Names of places are attached to food, cheese and wine. So mustard from Dijon or a variety of cheese from Comté or wine from Bordeaux are a promise that the product was prepared with the same kind of sincerity and love as it was, say a hundred years ago. These custodians of heritage also give the organic food fashion a new definition when during a meal they nonchalantly tell you exactly where the chicken you are eating came from and what it was fed.

Of course having such comprehensive information on the chicken’s past has to come from the farm. And that is possible because the farm comes to your doorstep once every week—Les Halles or the Farmer’s Market is the name for a weekly market that overtakes a part of the town, city or locality and is the place where the buyer comes face to face with the farmer. At Les Halles, the consumer can directly buy from the grower whose pride in growing and selling his product is as tangible as the product itself. It goes without saying that buying organic at these farmer’s markets frequently turns into an organic exchange of information between the grower and the consumer.

Connected to nature

French, especially those who spent their childhood in small cities, are a tad rural at heart just like the clichéd Hollywood movies depict them. On a walk in the mountains, they are likely to pick mushrooms from the woods or fragrant thyme leaves or even cherries, depending on the season. They will then pair the fresh pick with a meat, bake it, find a bottle of wine to complement the flavour, fix a small salad and voilà, a home-cooked meal is ready.

During summers, young people, mostly foreigners looking for a French experience, enrol for a voluntary program in a vineyard where they get the opportunity to harvest the juicy grape crop and spend merry bohemian evenings in the backdrop of the French countryside.

Local festivals also find their origin in crops. The Mirabelle Plum Festival takes place in the warm month of August amid plenty of sunshine and mild temperatures. And autumn sees much frolicking and cheerfulness during the Chestnut Festival, also known as the Fêtes de la châtaigne.

Fêtes des Châtaignes (Chestnut Festival)

Fêtes des Châtaignes (Chestnut Festival)

Look within

The French do well to turn their long noses up at fast food chains and processed food. In addition, they go the extra mile and passionately try to conserve their culture and old customs by keeping them alive on a daily basis. There is a valuable lesson to be learnt here for us Indians who gloat over words like “culture” and “custom” but understand their significance only one-dimensionally when there is a wedding in the family. It takes grit and determination to keep one’s culture alive and most of all it takes real pride. Easy availability of packaged food and its guilt-free consumption, round-the-clock snacking and indulging in high sugar diets, uncharted and largely unregulated use of pesticides by our farmers and general lack awareness about the quality and source of the items we purchase certainly point that we are heading the wrong way. Probably, the only thing keeping us from falling over the edge is the insistence of our mothers on cooking three fresh meals every day.

All photographs except Les Halles by Shailaja Paramathma

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Entertainment

Yashraj Mukhate collaborates with Amit Trivedi for Mann Dhaaga song

In a post circulating on Instagram Yashraj Mukhate talks about his experience of listening to Amit Trivedi’s music and recalls how he had always dreamt of collaborating with Amit Trivedi. He said his dream came true 2 years later in 2024 where he collaborated with Trivedi on the song Mann Dhaaga.

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Amit Trivedi is known for his soulful compositions which weave profound lyrics, captivating music lovers. His songs spark a deep desire in aspiring artists to collaborate with him. Music producer and You Tuber Yashraj Mukhate had immense admiration for Trivedi’s artistry. In a post circulating on Instagram Yashraj Mukhate talks about his experience of listening to Amit Trivedi’s music and recalls how he had always dreamt of collaborating with Amit Trivedi.

He said his dream came true 2 years later in 2024 where he collaborated with Trivedi on the song Mann Dhaaga. He wrote that he had been listening to the entire Dev D Album carefully in 2012. And he kept listening to it on loop for 3 weeks. He continued to listen to Amit Trivedi compositions in Aisha, Kai Po Che, Udaan, Lootera, Queen, Fitoor continuously. He said he could not stop himself and became a big fan of the music director. He said he started dreaming of meeting his idol one day and collaborating with him.

He recalled that he had to download songs from songs.pk and listen to them. He said the songs kept running inside his mind all through the day. He added that he even remembered Amit Trivedi’s ad jingles word for Fanta, Frooti, Dish TV and all of them.

Mukhate said he always dreamed of meeting Amit Trivedi and wanted to thank him for giving this experience. The post has gone viral on social media with 96,445 likes till now. Large number of social media user commented on the social media post where one user Parth said the Yashraj Mukhate was truly an inspiration. One user said his dedication had brought him to level. One user said a man should make all his dreams come true by going through one hustle at a time.

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Book reviews

The Sattvik Kitchen review: Relook at ancient food practices in modern times

If you are the one looking to embrace healthy food habits without compromising on modern delicacies, then this book is a must read!

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The cacophony of bizarre food combinations across the streets of India has almost taken over the concept of healthy food practices. Amid this, yoga guru Dr Hansaji Yogendra’s The Sattvik Kitchen, published by Rupa, is a forthright work that takes you back to ancient food practices and Ayurveda.

As the subtitle reads, The Art and Science of Healthy Living, the book endows a holistic approach to ayurvedic diet along with modern evidence based nutrition. From Basil-Broccoli Soup to Sprouted Green Gram Salad and Strawberry Oats Smoothie to Mixed Dal Parathas, the book not only provides you with the recipes but also stresses on healthy cooking tips together with nutritional benefits. 

Besides, Dr Hansaji Yogendra’s book emphasizes on the traditional methods of food preparation and the advantages of using traditional cookwares like iron and copper vessels. The narrative portrays a balanced approach, knitting traditional wisdom with contemporary scientific understanding.

The author, through her book, sheds light on the principles of Ayurveda and highlights the metamorphic potential of adopting ancient food practices. She explains how our body reacts to food in terms of timing, quantity, manner of consumption and seasonal considerations. The book adeptly reintroduces ancient home remedies tailored to address various contemporary health issues. 

Dr Yogendra, in her book, decodes the importance of nutritional knowledge to optimize both immediate and long-term health outcomes. It provides deep insights to understanding the intricate relationship between food choices and overall well-being, weaving Ayurveda with practical perception. 

The book not only celebrates food philosophy but also offers a practical view into weight loss, well-being, and the profound impact of dietary choices on both physical and emotional aspects of our lives.

If you are the one looking to embrace healthy food habits without compromising on modern delicacies, then this book is a must read! The book is a roadmap to navigate the challenges of the modern day kitchens. 

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Book reviews

The Deccan Powerplay review: Bashing Chandrababu Naidu and his legacy

Amar Devulapalli’s book The Deccan Powerplay cornersthe TDP strongman with every petty incident exaggerated a la Baahubali 

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Mike Marqusee’s War Minus The Shooting is a seminal book on cricket and its influence on culture and politics in the Indian sub-continent during the 1996 Cricket World Cup. Amar Devulapalli’s book The Deccan Powerplay, published by Rupa, sounds like a similar exercise with its clear subtitle, “Reddy, Naidu and the Realpolitik of Andhra Pradesh“. The ambitious sounding subtitle crumbles under the weight of belied expectations of a scholarly treatise on the political interplay between the Reddys, the Kammas and the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. One can blame it on one’s own hopes and excuse the author of the lapse since the book has just three people to discuss: YS Rajsekhara Reddy, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The chief protagonists here are YSR and his son, the incumbent Chief Minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy. The lone villain, and one crafty as a fox if ever there was one, is Chandrababu Naidu. The book devotes a chapter to the corruption cases against Naidu, for which he was arrested in September 2023.

In crafting the narrative, the other heavyweights of Telugu country are discussed in passing, as peripheral players. N.T. Rama Rao does get the starring role, as befits the Telugu star of yesteryear and the founder of the Telugu Desam Party. But even this is fleeting. The Congress, which ruled the state till bifurcation, is portrayed as a faction-infested animal — so what if YSR stayed in the party both as loyal soldier as well as a seasoned yet dynamic general?

The book sets out to demolish the halo surrounding Naidu as the man who brought Information Technology majors to Hyderabad, nay Cyberabad, by beating Bengaluru. His breaking with NTR is depicted as a shrewd, calculated gambit to displace the TDP founder, who was also his father-in-law. 

The book is replete with this and more Naidu nitpicking. Naidu took no bullshit from politicians or journalists. He gave it back to the scribes when needed, apart from his favourite media groups, one of the reasons they were not very happy kowtowing to him, 

as the book suggests. Instead they would make ostentatious bows to any political alternative merely for being less brusque than the now-out-on-bail former CM. 

The book picks apart every claim Naidu ever made and portrays him as an opportunist. The problem with this is possibly because Naidu preceded Jagan Mohan as the rump AP’s last CM and had presumably used every trick in his arsenal to discredit the younger contender.

With Assembly elections due this year, this book reads like a party pamphlet and comes across as a political weapon among the undiscerning. An Instagram handle could have been more useful to this end. But for such a grandly-titled book: the anticlimax is swift and painful.

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