Jonesing for mangoes - Part II... can wait
Since my last mango issue, it has been a difficult two weeks. Although, I got a lot done, I am still feeling useless. I was a giant weepy mess for a while. Earlier today, I fought with my parents on trauma, support, and privilege. Last night, I imagined it was raining indoors — I could almost feel the droplets on my face, until my sister calmed me down and told me it was just my anxiety. Sometimes I need soft, gentle reminders. Other times, I need to be told that things won't matter after 5 minutes or 5 hours or 5 years. It's time to let go.
I had to let go of previously planned content for this issue as well. Initially, it was supposed to be on the fruit's importance as a commodity, a historical perspective by way of George VI, its use in textile design and so on. I had to shelve that on Friday night and pivot to something else, a word I was reminded of, courtesy this excellent piece in Vittles.
On June 22, the same day my mango issue went out, the NYT came out with its hot mess of a piece on Thai fruit, that "sticky fingers and occasional disappointment" were the side-effects of eating fruits in Thailand (and sadly not from reading their piece??). Many food writers and journalists, especially those whose food cultures and cuisines have been repeatedly exoticised and reduced to clichés and weary tropes, (rightfully) wrote rebuttals on social media and elsewhere.
There is a lot I can say about NYT's (and others as well, e.g. Business Insider's tweet about tofu being "white, chewy and bland", which has since been deleted) fondness for dipping into tired clichés about Asian food. It doesn't come from a place of nothingness; rather it comes from a food hierarchy that is created by white media folks, and people who have the access and privilege to be able to classify food based on social status, attractiveness, cuteness, religion, accessibility, caste, class. It is also an erasure of food culture, and the expectation that certain food cultures have to be uniform to be understood and accessible. It is simply the reduction of a culture's 'cuisine' into a singular entity. Sharanya Deepak illustrates this in a piece for Popula; she quotes Rajyashri Goody, a visual artist and ethnographer of Dalit origins, who says that there is no Dalit cuisine. What is known as Indian cuisine is just an upper class, upper caste version that does not acknowledge the violent history of those it oppressed.
Hierarchy manifests in many ways. In India, labour, caste, class and food are intertwined in its history of structural inequality, which tends to benefit a section of people who make decisions on who gets to eat what, on whose taste in food matters, and in what ways some 'cuisines' have been globalised and some remain 'undiscovered'. It is also why fancily-named schemes fail because of poor implementation, leaving nine out of 10 people hungry, or why just a stimulus package isn't enough to be 'self-reliant'; public services are important and need to be opened, as development economist Jean Drèze has suggested. A number of households depend on the state government for drinking water, health care, food, primary education, and so on. Public services are essential, and there's no aatmanirbhar (self reliant) economy without addressing the needs of the poor.
Why is it that certain foods confer social status upon those that produce and eat those foods, while others do not? Why is jackfruit suddenly more attractive because it's (now) celebrated as a meat replacement and not because some of us have grown up in houses with rooms that doubled up as a place to store and ripen the fruits?
Who makes such decisions? What are the consequences of these decisions?
Editorials, rebuttals, podcasts, opinion pieces, angry Instagram stories notwithstanding, mainstream food media will always be tone-deaf, will exoticise, and parrot colonial thoughts, words and patterns unless the change is top-down, whether in the NYT or closer home in the halls of The Hindu. Unless there's a change in the actual hierarchy and structure, the hierarchy of foods will not change. And instead of learning about different cultures through their food and fruits, pieces like the NYT's — "to eat a pile of mangosteens is an exercise in disappointment" — are harmful and reinforce the same nonsensical stereotypes to its readers: that Asian food is a freak show and needs rescuing, simplifying, and explanation from white food media saviours.
Miscellaneous (but important)
- There has also been a lot happening in my state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. (TW) The deaths of Jeyaraj and his son Bennix in police custody, due to police torture, has been sparking anger since June 19. It's not only a reminder that the torture should make us seethe constantly, but also that we shouldn't have to be paying attention only because the treatment is gruesome. Not sharing all the details here because I have been guilty of doing that before and I have been reminded by thoughtful friends about who this voyeurism serves. Important, please read!
- One of my favourite writers, Kavitha Muralidharan has penned this pertinent piece on how for the Kuravar community, branded as a ‘criminal tribe’ in 1911, custodial violence is a way of life and death. Caste is an every day violence, especially when society is a source of trauma.
- I don't have a recipe this week! But if you're feeling cheated by this omission and want one (for that mango pickle, remember?), email me and I'll send it to you.
- Will exclusively listen to this song only for a few weeks.
- Two newsletters that have been like a soothing balm to the mind: Rachel Hendry's J'adore le Plonk, and Sarah Cooke's Deliciously Intense, Surprisingly Balanced. Such fun names!
I would love to hear from you — idea, shoutout, or just a chat about Shelf Offering. Reach me at seriouscheats@gmail.com.