In many beliefs, food acts as a link between the profane and the sacred. Religions tell their adepts what, how and when to eat. Taboos and sacrifices, health and healing, birth, death and initiation rites are somehow connected with food. The author of the Food and Science telegram channel Vsevolod Ostakhnovich fished out something interesting from a huge religious and culinary cauldron.
An Indian legend says that once the brother gods argued about the primacy. To determine who is more important, they decided to run three times around the Earth (another option is around the galaxy) on a peacock. One brother rushed to plow space, and Ganesha just walked around his parents, Parvati and Shiva three times, declaring that they are the essence of the world, and became the winner. Since then, prayers have been offered to him for new beginnings - apparently, when they want to get something, but at the same time they do not particularly run. Ganesha himself is also not athletic. He is traditionally depicted with an elephant's head and a nice belly, often with sweets in his hand.
This is laddu (laddu or laddoo) - a dessert made from chickpea or pea flour, ghee (clarified butter) and sugar. There are many varieties of this dish, everything is added there - from pistachios and coconut to watercress. Ganesha loves ladda very much and often keeps a whole pyramid of these balls on a platter.
Sometimes Ganesha is depicted holding a modak in his hand - a delicacy resembling manty in shape. They only make them from rice flour, and put various nuts, palm sugar, cardamom and poppy seeds inside. Ganesha-Chaturthi festival is held annually in India, when for 10 days pilgrims bring their modaks to the statues of the god. You, too, can pamper your inner Ganesha by making a modak yourself.
By the way, in Japan there is a similar god named Kangi-ten. He is presented with "balls of pleasure", which, judging by the description, really bring a lot of joy to eaters. They consist of a mixture of spices (sandalwood, cloves, pepper, licorice, mint and cinnamon, taken from two different places of the plant) and azuki bean paste, which is placed inside a rice dumpling and fried in sesame oil. These balls look like very beautiful khinkali.
Food in world religions: halal, pakka and kosher food
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In India, everything is complicated not only with the gods, but also with people. Despite the official equality of all before the law, the caste system still forms the basis of Indian society. For example, accepting food from a member of the lower class is defiled.
The upper caste (brahmanas) are usually vegetarians. They never eat meat, eggs, dairy products, and avoid onions with garlic: they are believed that bulbous ones kindle inner passions.
But brahmanas are the purest people (in the religious sense). Therefore, it is best to take them to work as cooks, because everyone can accept the prepared dish from their hands.
An interesting view of the Hindus on the metaphysical essence of food. Raw food is considered hot and is therefore cleaner than “cold” cooked food. Cow's milk and ghee are products derived from the sacred cow of the Hindus, so they cannot be contaminated by touch.
In some parts of India, food is divided into two categories:
- kacca - easily contaminated: whatever is cooked in water and without oil (rice, capati cakes);
- pakka - protected from impurity: this is food fried in ghee.
The logic, obviously, is that ghee is made from cow's milk, so the mystical powers of the animal are partially transferred to it and protect it from all dirt.
If you ask any person about beef and the attitude towards it in India, then, most likely, you will get a standard answer about a sacred animal. If you dig a little deeper, things get much more complicated.
For many Muslim Hindus, beef is part of their religious and cultural identity.
On this basis, they often have conflicts with Hindus, for whom the cow is an inviolable animal. In 2012, Ottoman University students organized a beef festival in Hyderabad city, demanding the introduction of cow meat dishes along with chicken and fish dishes in the local canteen. It all ended with stabbing and arrests. In 2017, in Kerala state, activists stabbed a calf on camera, and Indian Institute of Technology students staged a roast beef picnic.
Although India is formally a secular country and there are no official bans on the consumption of cow meat anywhere, several states prohibit the slaughter of these animals on their territory. The situation is complicated by the fact that beef is very cheap, so it is eaten not only by Muslims and Christians (for whom this is just the norm), but also by the lower caste - Dalits, untouchables.
More than 10% of India's population is Muslim. In Islam, everything that is permitted and permissible is called halal, and everything that is prohibited is called haram. This also applies to food. And everything seems to be simple, until you remember about supplements. Where are nitrates, oxalic acid, ammonium sulfate, glycerin? Are they allowed or prohibited? For Muslims, it is important how this or that ingredient was obtained: did the animal suffer during slaughter? Has it not died a natural death? Was alcohol used when making the supplement? If the answers to these questions are yes, then it is haram. But people don't always know such details about the ingredients in modern foods.
It turns out that there is a special term for such cases - mushbooh. It means doubtful or suspect. Ingredients of animal and vegetable origin or containing alcohol fall into this category: dyes, enzymes, hormones, whey proteins. Modern foods and supplements force Muslims to look for answers on forums: is it okay to eat, say, Mars, Snickers or Calve mayonnaise? The general rule is this: if you are not sure about something, then you better not use it.
And here is a site with current statuses for products and ingredients.
The system of food rules is also in Judaism. Kashrut is a system of ritual norms that also apply to food. The food of the Jews must be kosher, that is, meet certain requirements described in religious literature. Other food is called tref, that is, non-kosher.
There are many regulations and rules, it is not easy to follow them, and the world and technology are moving forward. Therefore, in order to keep up with the times in the United States in 1989, the first Kosherfest was held. This is an annual two-day B2B fair (you just can't buy a ticket and take a look, you need to work in this area) in New Jersey.
At the first festival, food was scarce and all dishes were traditional. We are familiar with a lot of this: stuffed fish, liver pate and cabbage rolls. But at the last event, canna-biscotti (biscuits based on hemp oil), Exodus cider, Kishka pastrami sausage and Whitley Neill gin were already exhibited. All of this was accompanied by celebrity autograph sessions, cooking shows and battles, technical demonstrations and the sale of recipe books.
Food in indigenous myths
It is interesting to look at the connection of peoples with certain products. For example, Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) have a special relationship with the sweet potato. They call it "kumara" and associate it with the name of the god Rongo, who is responsible for cultivated plants. His name translates as "peace", which is obviously necessary for a successful planting and harvesting. And in order for the sweet potato to grow well, the Maori stick long poles into the fields, symbolizing the connection of the earth with the gods. Previously, they were decorated with the dried heads of their ancestors, and sometimes stone sculptures of Rongo were placed around the perimeter of the field to help the plants become stronger.
Sometimes representatives of different nationalities evaluate their food in terms of what kind of energy it contains.
For example, the inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia, orang-asli, believe that all animals have souls, but of varying degrees of strength.
Therefore, they first feed their immature children with fish, frogs, small birds and snails. As the child grows up, rats and mice are added to his diet. By the age of 20, a person's soul becomes strong enough to be on a par with the souls of larger animals: monkeys, deer, turtles, anteaters. You can safely eat them all. An adult can add snakes, gibbons, and even elephants to their diet. Orang-asli pregnant women are protected and do not give them rats, squirrels, toads and small fish. But not because it is tasteless, but because it is considered dangerous: small animals will pass on part of their weak soul to the unborn child, and this can have a bad effect on his health.
In Papua New Guinea, there are Trobrians, who call themselves "Kirivina". Pregnant Trobrians are afraid to eat bananas and mangoes, because they think that the baby could be born similar to these fruits - for example, with hydrocephalus or a deformed belly. For this people, this connection between food and life is of a magical nature.
In addition, the Kirivina believe that magic cannot be learned on your own, it must be bought from adults. This is what young people do: they give old people banana leaves, yams or tobacco, and in return they receive several magic lines. They cannot independently compose a spell, since it is believed that no one can come up with new magic words. Therefore, the Trobriands have a constant exchange, and as a result, the elderly are provided with both food and the very medium of exchange - yam. This tuber is an instrument of influence for the indigenous people. Some just dump it in a pile in front of the house to show off. Such a yam rots, and then is replaced with a new crop.
The Mayans extolled corn and mentioned it in one of the main monuments of Indian literature - the Popol-Vuh manuscript.
This epic mentions the young corn god Hun Hunahpu, who annually dies under the reaper's sickle, and people who were created from the cobs of white and yellow corn. Even today, the Maya make a sweet drink of atole from cornmeal and present it to the gods every 260 days at the Wajxaqib 'B'atz' festival.
In North America, the Blackfoot Indian tribe revered the edible psoralea (Psoralea esculenta, steppe turnip). The Indians believed that psoralei came from heaven: the moon goddess Komorkis herself taught the Feathered Woman how to harvest turnips.
Activist Abaki Back asked older Indians how they ate in the past and mentioned an interesting fact in her report. It turns out that in the language of the Blackfeet, the Bible is called natoapsinaksin, this word is also translated as "the stomach of a bison." The fact is that this organ has many folds and resembles a thick book.
By the way, about the Bible. In Great Britain a recipe for the "Old Testament cake" was developed, where all the ingredients were encrypted: ¾ cup Judges 5:25, 1 tsp. Exodus 30:23 and so on.
It was suggested that such “riddles” be given to young parishioners so that they could set the table and learn the Bible better.
There are saints in the Taoist pantheon - the so-called "eight immortals", whose images can often be seen both in temples and in restaurants. In the drawings, they cross the Sea of Japan on a boat, fight demons, and in this they are helped by an arhat (a person who has left the wheel of rebirth).
This story also entered the arsenals of culinary specialists. On the Internet there is a recipe for a soup with the poetic name "Eight immortals, swimming across the sea, jumping around the monk". Apparently, some chef took inspiration from the story of the immortals and decided to make soup using shark fin, sea cucumber, abalone, shrimp, fish bone, fish bladder, asparagus, ham (these foods represent the Eight) and a piece of chicken (it symbolizes the monk). True, there are researchers who are eager to get to the bottom of the origins of this recipe (and cannot). They believe that this is just the fiction of another blogger … But this does not prevent you from cooking this soup for yourself.
Author: Vsevolod Ostakhnovich
