An introduction to Odisha cuisine

-
The project I'm working on, entitled "Drivers of Food Choice in Eastern India", is all about understanding the factors that drive consumer preferences and food pairings through the culture and socioeconomic lens. I think that the best way to easily understand the food culture of Eastern India is to get immersed into it; and I had to opportunity to do just that when I went on an expert elicitation workshop in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha (one of the states in eastern India), with Matty, Jhoanne, Arindam, and Suva. In that workshop, we tried to understand the patterns based on the experts' in-depth knowledge on the topic.

And of course, we also got acquainted with the food the experts mentioned when we started to eat between sessions or outside conference times.








Most of the food we've tried were prepared by Hotel Mayfair Convention and Mayfair Lagoon, the conference venue of the workshop and the hotel where we stayed during the workshop. What can I say? My tastebuds were jarred with flavours and textures that are not typically found in combination in the Philippines. Indian cuisine has a certain attitude, a certain character, that is difficult to explain. Other people have tried to explain the flavour pairings in context with European standard... and they end up saying that Indian cuisine breaks the rules... 

I think that Indian cuisine has its own rules. It doesn't follow European or American norms of flavour combinations. It's so ancient that it is fully embedded in the culture of the nation. The food I've tried were all delicious! So despite the "illogical" nature of the cuisine, it works and makes Indian food distinct from all others.

Now that I've had a taste of Bhubaneswar food, I'm raring to try Kolkata food. I've heard that it's more cosmopolitan than what I've had so far.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more