BENGALURU: At one time or another, you may have tasted some awesome version of a very familiar dish at someone’s home or at a restaurant, been so thrilled by it to remark how this one was so different from what you usually get, and ask what the secret ingredient was. Maybe you were actually told something like Marathi moggu if it was a plate of bisi bele baath, or maybe that it was a piece of stone flower if it was a plate of biriyani, but chances are that often you would have heard, “The secret ingredient is love!” The mythology of love transforming the most basic of food into divine nectar is something that transcends all regional, racial or cultural bar riers.
Every culture celebrates love, especially parental love, as making even the most humble food taste divine. Adver t isement s around the world have exploited this idea to their commercial advantage. Even a packet of instant ramen aimed at single people cooking it in a kettle in a youth hostel, claims that the minute the magic masalas from the little pouches are added to the boiling noodles, the aroma will envelop them with the love of a benevolent parent. Never mind that the young person might actually be trying to break away from the family! All nourishment seems better when sold or consumed with love.
Of course, not all food is the same kind of love, if you think about it. Have you ever seen strawberries advertised as anything other than between romantic partners? Ever seen carrots sold as the food of lovers? Chocolate has hardly ever been shown as something parents give to their adored children, has it? When you think of chocolate and visualise an image, it is quite likely of people courting each other.
A bar of chocolate coated nougat is the focus of attention as a lover breaks through barricades in a cricket stadium and dances around bemused police personnel and the abashed cricketer who hit a six. Are foods really that specific in terms of their value to love and lovers? How come beer is a bunch of buddies, while wine is a prelude to love? Can curd rice, for example, be the focus of romantic attention? Can’t a beautiful blushing beet foretell a hot encounter? Certain alluded aphrodisiacal qualities aside, is it all just successful marketing? One way or another, certain foods, wines and all kinds of consumables, have been paired with romance successfully, to the exception of others, sadly. That said, free the love, if you wish to! Go ahead, woo your loved one with the food you know they love!