Asafoetida aka Hing and perspectives
Feb. 14th, 2012 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smittenbyuOver the many years of living abroad, sharing Indian cuisine with friends and strangers, one thing was always common, no matter where we went and who tried it, there was always one ingredient that the foreigner didn't like. It left the Indian often flabbergasted. How could the beautiful aroma of an ingredient smell so foul for another? I have yet to meet someone who doesn't find the aroma of roses foul. It's universal, and so thinks the Indian, the smell of hing must be the same!
It's a common scene. I have heard the same story recounted by so many different friends that goes like this: I would be cooking up a meal for a friend from so-and-so non-Indian country. The friend will insist to watch what I do. And as I put various spices to add to the flavor they stop me at hing and ask me what that is and request not to add it! The said-friend feels so proud to finally figure out what it was that they didn't care for so much!
N was in Kabul in the last leg of his travel before joining us. Usually he brings back some dry fruits which Kabul is known for and of course, Kabuli Channa. While he was due to arrive in a few days, in Bangalore, when my uncle and aunt were visiting, we were discussing how LG (the most famous brand of hing) has gotten so bad. It requires you to empty half the bottle of it to get the aroma of hing. In the good old days, a pinch of hing would fill the house with the aroma making whatever you are cooking up even tastier! These days it's used out of habit.
Then dad, who gets news in the field of agriculture, shared it's because of poorer production from Afghanistan for what you might think obvious reasons. Well, it's not obvious. Apparently, with the war against drugs mostly opium in the region, hing plant is also getting destroyed! I guess it's grown in the same fields or looks like the opium crop?
Well, a lightbulb lit in my head. I never knew hing only grew in Afghanistan. I asked N to bring some for all. Pure hing. Pure heaven. He brought barely hundred grams to share with various family members. Oh wow. The bag/suitcase he brought it in smelled for a week of it. The clothes he had wrapped the bottle in did too, even after some washes. The room he opened the luggage in also soaked in the fragrance of it all!
He shared that his Kabul colleagues made a big face when he had requested to get it. Apparently Afghanis themselves don't use it. They only use it for stomach upsets. Well, we do too. Indians believe strongly in preventive care, you see!
So, when N asked if we should bring some back to the US with us, we decided against it. Lord knows, what the customs will think and our neighbors will wonder! But our family members are still thanking us for the little bit of heaven N got for them!
It's amazing how subjective our senses are. I think this form of subjectiveness I only encountered twice in my life - the durian* and that fish (herring, is it?) from Scandinavia!!
It's a common scene. I have heard the same story recounted by so many different friends that goes like this: I would be cooking up a meal for a friend from so-and-so non-Indian country. The friend will insist to watch what I do. And as I put various spices to add to the flavor they stop me at hing and ask me what that is and request not to add it! The said-friend feels so proud to finally figure out what it was that they didn't care for so much!
N was in Kabul in the last leg of his travel before joining us. Usually he brings back some dry fruits which Kabul is known for and of course, Kabuli Channa. While he was due to arrive in a few days, in Bangalore, when my uncle and aunt were visiting, we were discussing how LG (the most famous brand of hing) has gotten so bad. It requires you to empty half the bottle of it to get the aroma of hing. In the good old days, a pinch of hing would fill the house with the aroma making whatever you are cooking up even tastier! These days it's used out of habit.
Then dad, who gets news in the field of agriculture, shared it's because of poorer production from Afghanistan for what you might think obvious reasons. Well, it's not obvious. Apparently, with the war against drugs mostly opium in the region, hing plant is also getting destroyed! I guess it's grown in the same fields or looks like the opium crop?
Well, a lightbulb lit in my head. I never knew hing only grew in Afghanistan. I asked N to bring some for all. Pure hing. Pure heaven. He brought barely hundred grams to share with various family members. Oh wow. The bag/suitcase he brought it in smelled for a week of it. The clothes he had wrapped the bottle in did too, even after some washes. The room he opened the luggage in also soaked in the fragrance of it all!
He shared that his Kabul colleagues made a big face when he had requested to get it. Apparently Afghanis themselves don't use it. They only use it for stomach upsets. Well, we do too. Indians believe strongly in preventive care, you see!
So, when N asked if we should bring some back to the US with us, we decided against it. Lord knows, what the customs will think and our neighbors will wonder! But our family members are still thanking us for the little bit of heaven N got for them!
It's amazing how subjective our senses are. I think this form of subjectiveness I only encountered twice in my life - the durian* and that fish (herring, is it?) from Scandinavia!!
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 08:33 pm (UTC)When I was younger, I had never had dark toasted sesame oil, like they use in Chinese cooking. I walked into my friends house, and her Korean mom was cooking a chicken soup with it. The smell was so foul I could barely stay in the house. Later when I actually tasted the soup (because I didn't want to offend her mom, though I REALLY didn't want to touch it) it magically transformed on my tongue to pure deliciousness! And forever afterward it smells and tastes delicious to me. A mystery.
Some people LOVE and some people HATE the taste and smell of cilantro. I read that it is a difference in a taste receptor on the tongue. So it's genetic. Maybe hing is the same way?
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Date: 2012-02-14 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 09:51 pm (UTC)I like herrings too.
Not sure if I've ever had hing, so can't tell you what I think of it. But wait, did you say that everyone you know finds roses foul-smelling? I'm confused... they can be pungent, but not something that'd immediately come to mind if you'd asked me to name something foul-smelling!
Some spices and foods can taste wonderful or revolting depending on how you cook them, and depending on acquired tastes. Like cinnamon, for example. Jason likes it in sweet things, but not in meats. I like savory rice dishes, but not so much sweet ones (except for rice puddings). I'm sure I can learn to like something with time... an example is bitter melon, for me.
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Date: 2012-02-17 10:24 pm (UTC)i like durian too...
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