Mushroom Masala and a Lesson in Humility
Extracts from FoodSutra: A Memoir of the Foods of India.
From Chapter 3 Punjab and Delhi: Familiar Stalwarts of North Indian Food
A summer camp in a village
One summer in college, I enrolled for a National Social Service (NSS) project. As part of the college curriculum, we were required to do 100 hours of either NSS or National Cadet Corps (NCC) activities. NCC was run on campus but required waking up very early on Saturday mornings continuously for a couple of years. NSS had greater flexibility. You could collect hours doing a number of different types of social service projects, including participation in adult education, rural development, health awareness and blood donation programs. The program I chose was a rural development one, requiring a couple of weeks’ stay in a village for a road building project, with the benefit of completing the 100 hours curriculum requirement in one go. The village was in Haryana, north of Delhi. Haryana used to be part of the larger Punjab state, before the state was divided into smaller states in the 1960s. The village was close to Punjab and the food there was mostly Punjabi.
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My first taste of Mushroom Masala
Most of the meals during our stay in the village were otherwise standard fare of roti, daal and vegetables. One new dish that I first tasted during this stay was Mushroom Masala. This is a recent addition to Punjabi food, fuelled by the uptake of mushroom farming in India’s northern states in the 1960s and 70s. Mushrooms were grown mainly for the cities and export markets then and were still considered an uncommon ingredient. The dish itself was a typical vegetable curry, button mushrooms cooked in a gravy of onions, tomatoes and spices.
And a lesson in humility
The reason we got to try the dish in the village was that the village headman, influenced by his entrepreneurial son, had switched some of his land to mushroom farming. I remember having an enlightening conversation with him about mushroom farming. He and his family were doing were very well from the switch to mushrooms and he was deservedly proud of his son, who handled commercial aspects from Delhi. When talking about his son, he let it drop that his son had recently bought a Japanese car. The Maruti Suzuki had only recently been launched in India, an Indian-made car produced in collaboration with Suzuki of Japan. Owning a car was at that time quite a prestigious thing, even in cities, so I was suitably impressed. Since he couldn’t remember the name, I helpfully (and with a bit of urban condescension) prompted, “You mean the Maruti?”. His response was a put-down to last a lifetime. “No, no. Maruti is an Indian car. I mean a Japanese one, something which is called Tyotta (Toyota) or something”.
From Chapter 3 Punjab and Delhi: Familiar Stalwarts of North Indian Food
A summer camp in a village
One summer in college, I enrolled for a National Social Service (NSS) project. As part of the college curriculum, we were required to do 100 hours of either NSS or National Cadet Corps (NCC) activities. NCC was run on campus but required waking up very early on Saturday mornings continuously for a couple of years. NSS had greater flexibility. You could collect hours doing a number of different types of social service projects, including participation in adult education, rural development, health awareness and blood donation programs. The program I chose was a rural development one, requiring a couple of weeks’ stay in a village for a road building project, with the benefit of completing the 100 hours curriculum requirement in one go. The village was in Haryana, north of Delhi. Haryana used to be part of the larger Punjab state, before the state was divided into smaller states in the 1960s. The village was close to Punjab and the food there was mostly Punjabi.
*******
My first taste of Mushroom Masala
Most of the meals during our stay in the village were otherwise standard fare of roti, daal and vegetables. One new dish that I first tasted during this stay was Mushroom Masala. This is a recent addition to Punjabi food, fuelled by the uptake of mushroom farming in India’s northern states in the 1960s and 70s. Mushrooms were grown mainly for the cities and export markets then and were still considered an uncommon ingredient. The dish itself was a typical vegetable curry, button mushrooms cooked in a gravy of onions, tomatoes and spices.
And a lesson in humility
The reason we got to try the dish in the village was that the village headman, influenced by his entrepreneurial son, had switched some of his land to mushroom farming. I remember having an enlightening conversation with him about mushroom farming. He and his family were doing were very well from the switch to mushrooms and he was deservedly proud of his son, who handled commercial aspects from Delhi. When talking about his son, he let it drop that his son had recently bought a Japanese car. The Maruti Suzuki had only recently been launched in India, an Indian-made car produced in collaboration with Suzuki of Japan. Owning a car was at that time quite a prestigious thing, even in cities, so I was suitably impressed. Since he couldn’t remember the name, I helpfully (and with a bit of urban condescension) prompted, “You mean the Maruti?”. His response was a put-down to last a lifetime. “No, no. Maruti is an Indian car. I mean a Japanese one, something which is called Tyotta (Toyota) or something”.
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