Thursday, April 9, 2009

Bread and water

"Man does not live by bread alone" Bible: Luke, Chapter 10


Bread and water are considered to be the simplest of foods known to man. This week I have pondered over the basic nature of the two and realised that perhaps there is more than meets the eye. Wandering around Adelaide’s Central Market I stumbled upon Claude, an enthusiastic yogic-water expert that owns a store specialising in every conceivable kind of water available. From waters that have been energized, activated and ionised to those with Chinese herbal properties or indigenous remedial additives to waters that claim to cure hangovers and waters that lull you into a deep, peaceful sleep, while I have my personal reservations and sneaking feeling that sales gimmicks play a large part, this store made me re-think the drink we so often take for granted.
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The second thing that rattled my brain: starch. Starch in some form or shape is ever present in every culinary culture. The Irish and Scandinavians love their tatters, Italians and Chinese simply can’t slurp enough noodles, Indians and the Arabs interchange rice and flatbreads, Africans and Mediterranean folk enjoy couscous and polenta and most of the white Anglo-Saxon part of the world, Americans and English specifically are patriotic about bread. With globalisation, it can be said that white dominance where bread is concerned has been achieved, resulting in a world that by and large have become bread consumers, relying on the fuss free slice of toast and quick and convenient sandwich to stave away hunger.
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While even Jesus proffered that man does not live on bread alone, if one stops to think about the diversity of bread, the endless kinds, types and varieties, it seems far from impossible. In the ever growing globalised consumer climate, we are constantly confronted with choices. ‘Would you like that on rye, whole-wheat, pumpernickel or sour-dough?’ This is perhaps the most common dilemma, involving obviously the type of grain, blend and baking process of the bread. But the conundrum doesn’t stop there; in fact that is just the first of many choices. Do you opt for a baguette, croissant, ciabatta, bagel, panini or foccacio – shape, taste and texture come into play next. Today bread options leave us spoilt for choice wondering whether to opt for something subtle, simple, special, familiar, exotic, rustic or artisanal, picking up bread has never been so complicated as it is today.
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Then there’s the bread that you use on a daily basis, the loaf that is always lying around in the pantry, usually sliced white bread if you live in the States and un-leavened whole kernel multi-grain if your Danish, but today cultural identities are not the only markers for choice, kids, men and women often have different preferences, every consumer picks a bread according to preference and lifestyle these days! Then there’s pairing the bread to match your meal – smooth pate or tapenade would require a bread offering a crisp contrast, perhaps with a touch of honey and embedded sliced olives or cracked pepper baked into it, while a slow simmered stew would go perfectly with rustic, crusty, chunky bread torn apart and dipped in to absorb the delicious broth.
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I say bread is making a comeback. Or maybe it never went out of style. Perhaps it has been underrated all along. On the other hand it could be my long distance relationship to starch that has made me disregard the importance of bread as a vital food source. This probably stems from the proactive meat regiment that I grew up under – not that I am complaining don’t get me wrong, I love red meat and thank God and my mother everyday for having introduced me to its brilliance, especially given the excruciating circumstances – forty days and nights of being parted from my first, true love – there have been no moo’s, puck-puck’s, oink’s or baa’s lately, (no meat) and this makes me appreciate how lucky we as humans are sitting pretty at the top of the food chain!
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While most South Indians devour heaped mountains of rice at lunch and dinner, this practice was absent at home growing up. Although my Keralite father relished raw, red rice typical to his hometown village Kottayam, he would eat very little rice prioritising stomach space for the fish curry, fried masala fish fillets, beef fry with curry leaves, and prepared vegetable side dishes. Yes all these various meats and at least three kinds of veggies made a daily appearance and became the stars of the show for my dad, no doubt the rice probably felt rather undervalued. My mother matched dad’s carnivorous habits, cooking dishes of chunky meat casseroles, rich meat sauce and pasta with a ratio of 3:1, thick juicy steaks and fried liver and kidney with onions for dinner, rarely did bread feature on the table. When we would eat out, the meal would be devoured in gusto to begin with, as kids do until I, like every other little kid with eyes bigger then their stomachs realise oh-oh … (this was pre-teenage two portion meal stage) At this point my mother’s words, and I can almost envision her in slow motion, head turning shouting, ‘leave the bread and veggies, eat the important stuff – don’t waste the meat, leave the rest.’ Nothing short of dramatic trust me, her words ring out as loudly as she pronounced them then. In fact her lesson about the importance of meat has become my Holy Grail.
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Food being my ultimate weakness on the flip side fitness and the gym are way of life for me. This translates into religiously working hard two hours a day, six days a week and I have been going at it non-stop since 2000. I can only imagine the walking, talking super-sized version I’d be if I didn’t sweat it out everyday eating the way I do. Part of trying to balance eating to my heart’s content and being able to fit into snug low waist jeans and bustier summer dresses have meant that I cut out the unnecessary. To me that was obvious – cut out the carbs (carbohydrates), since one, I’ve never been a big fan of starch and two, who isn’t ranting and raving about how carbs make you fat.
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While most normal bread eating folk desist from pawing the bread offered at fancy restaurants pre-meal that fill you up, I always indulge in a fair share of bread pre-dinner. Ok I’ll admit I hog it all. But I think it’s a knee-jerk reaction, I simply don’t have control, since I starve myself of carbs, when it’s laid in front of me, my body goes right in for the kill. Lately, the restaurant bread binging has escalated, spilling into my very own home. The reason or rather the culprit is my new kitchen, specifically the damned oven. Restaurant fine food calls for bread, because simply put the food is so good you want to soak up every bit of gravy/ sauce and bread is your best friend where that’s concerned. Trying to hone my culinary prowess has meant trying new adventurous recipes, bringing fancy food into the home, calling for bread to mop up every bit of goodness, and probably quietly adding kilos to my bodyweight and inches to my waist. Sigh, guess I will have to add on an extra half hour at the gym, I don’t think I’m ready to bid bread farewell just yet.

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