Mmmm...agriculture! That’s really what makes us who we now are. Again, disproving the old theory that it started in the Fertile Crescent (read: Iraq) and then spread slowly around the world, here’s a cooking implement from Indonesia, one of the many places where agriculture seems to have spontaneously developed, following the global warming after the last ice age. Modern theory says agriculture may have given us a competitive advantage over other species: we chose grains and roots that no other animal would bother to eat (wheat, barley, corn, rice, here in New Guineau yams and taro) because they were way too much work. With most of these grasses you have to smash each individual grain to get it out of its husk, and you have to mush the roots carefully. (Irrelevant sidebar: we saw the coolest, working, old-fashioned mill in Winchester, while in England on this trip.) Although you could have ground wheat into flour with this pestle, it was more likely used for seasonings, the way we use mortars and pestles today. MacGregor checked in with this Indian woman who’s a chef in London, who has an heirloom mortar and pestle her mother had given her before she left India; she speculated upon the special place a tool like this would have had in a family, the alchemical magic it could work, for instance, smashing up mustard seeds to release their full pungence. Reminded me of the chemistry lesson I had the night after wandering around the Museum, downstairs from Soho’s swankiest Indian restaurant, at its swankiest cocktail bar, and the brilliant cocktails this ambitious 20-something kid (who’s obviously been studying it for a long time) was putting together.
No comments:
Post a Comment