Cozinha de Goa: Review
dale luis menezes
Check the review of Fatima da Silva Gracias' COZINHA DE GOA @ http://daleluismenezes.blogspot.in/2012/08/table-for-two-history-and-tradition-of.html
Dale.
OR
TABLE FOR TWO: HISTORY AND TRADITION OF GOAN FOOD
By
DALE LUIS MENEZES
If one were to browse through the cookery section of any reputed bookshop, one would definitely find a book (or many books) about Goan cuisine and gastronomy amidst several books dealing with diverse cuisines. What we eat and how we eat becomes part of our culture and identity. Food-related stereotypes are perhaps the few that we may not resent; that Goans are like fish out of water without fish, for there are Goans who are vegetarians and some do not like the taste of fish.
For a person whose relationship with food has thus far been confined to only consuming it, reviewing a book about cooking and the history and tradition that surrounds such an act can be an unnerving task. Cozinha de Goa by Fátima da Silva Gracias is not a cookbook per se. It deals with the history and tradition of Goan food and includes some recipes as well. Along the way, Mrs. da Silva Gracias also reminisces about her own experiences with cooking and researching about Goan food. A historian who has authored books on colonial health and hygiene and women in Goa, Mrs. da Silva Gracias has crafted Cozinha de Goa in a Maria Aurora Couto-esque fashion, providing us with a daughter’s story in between.
Along with acquainting the reader with the text of Mrs. da Silva Gracias, I would also like to situate her work as primarily trying to assert a Goan identity. I would try to point out a few possibilities and limitations as well. In trying to link cookbooks or books that deal with a particular cuisine to questions of identity, I shall refer the reader to a study of Caribbean cookbooks published in English which would help us in charting new understandings of books on gastronomy. B. W. Higman, the author of the paper titled, ‘Cookbooks and Caribbean Cultural Identity: An English-Language Hors D'Oeuvre’ says, “It can be argued that the emergence of the cookbook marks a critical point in the development of any cuisine and that the specialization and ramification of texts has much to tell about the character of national, regional, and ethnic identities. For these several reasons, a study of the history of cookbooks published in and having to do with the Caribbean can be expected to throw some light on what it means to be Caribbean or to identify with some smaller territory or grouping, and how this meaning has changed in response to social and political development.”
The basic position that Mrs. da Silva Gracias assumes in writing this book and one theme that runs through the entire book is that of the east meets west. The meeting of east and west may have greatly influenced our food habits and culture but the use of this cliché over simplifies our understanding. Although Mrs. da Silva Gracias recognizes that Arab, Chinese, Brazilian, African, Anglo-Indian and other influences have enriched Goan food, the same is not reflected in the text; the treatment to these influences is meager. On the other hand, the picture that forms in the reader’s mind is that of Goan food being composed of the Catholic and Hindu cuisine. Such a line of thought is limiting, as is demonstrated by the following quote: “Portuguese rule created a culinary gap between the Hindus and Christians. On conversion, meat became part of the new diet of the Christians. Different measures and decrees introduced new food habits and discarded old ones.” We know today that tribal or aboriginal populations of South Asia before Hinduism and the advent of the Portuguese consumed meat on a regular basis and by making such assertions, Mrs. da Silva Gracias’ claims search for a pre-Portuguese past that is Hindu by conception.
Food can be used to challenge the fascist arguments of what is Indian and foreign. This ‘Indian’ versus ‘foreign’ debate today has been defined by right-wing understandings of our history and culture. But nobody is aware about many of the food ingredients that were not native to the land and which should have effectively led us to question the whole idea of what is foreign in other spheres of social life: for instance, our dress. Although Mrs. da Silva Gracias could have used food to comment on such narrow tendencies, I still hold that some of her claims are useful to us, “The chili revolutionised Indian cuisine. Few realize that the chili, now widely used and deeply embedded in Goan and Indian cuisine, was a stranger to our continent and that it had been brought in from the Americas only a few centuries ago.” Or consider the following where the native is not Indian but Brazilian, “During my earlier visit to Brazil I noticed that even canjee [pez in our language] was popular in some parts. Some Brazilian researchers believe it came to them from sixteenth century Goa. In Brazil it went through changes. The Portuguese had already added chicken or chicken broth. The Brazilians included bay leaf, garlic, onions, pimenta-do-reino (pepper), carrots, cubed potatoes and so on. King D. Pedro II of Brazil, is said to have loved canja de galinha and even had it during intervals at the theater.”
Mrs. da Silva Gracias, as mentioned before, peppers (to use a food metaphor!) her text with her own experiences and reminisces about Goan cuisine and food and also connects traditional practices to the preparation and consumption of food in her narrative, as food is an intrinsic part of any traditional practice and festivity. She is an accomplished writer and hence this account is delightful and one written with a pinch (food metaphor again!) of nostalgia. But she could have easily critiqued her own position and her memories. In recounting her memories, Mrs. da Silva Gracias paints a rosy picture of the past. “The life of a Hindu woman changed drastically when she became a widow. Although she cooked food for the rest of the family she could eat a very limited vegetarian diet.” This quote is cited as an example where a critical position could have been adopted by Mrs. da Silva Gracias.
The book is written with much imagination and effort. The section where Mrs. da Silva Gracias has described a day in a Goan kitchen, albeit that of a rich family, is a splendid example of her imagination at work. In between the text, she has also provided trivia and recipes in a way that do not obstruct the main flow of the book.
Although Cozinha de Goa is about the history and tradition of Goan food, it also concerns itself with the Goan identity in a subtle way. The parting lines of the book, in a way, make this concern abundantly clear, “Which road will Goan food take? Will it survive and thrive? Will it evolve further? Or will it simply lose out to stronger global trends? Only time can tell…whatever the outcome, this is undeniably an interesting cuisine, of a tiny region shaped by history from far and wide across the globe. It needs to be understood. It deserves to be cherished.”
Comments/feedback @ www.daleluismenezes.blogspot.com
END OF ARTICLE
Cozinha de Goa: History and Tradition of Goan Food, by Fátima da Silva Gracias (Saligão/Panjim, Goa: Goa 1556 & Broadway Book Centre), 2011; pp. xxix+248, Rs. 295/- [ISBN: 978-93-80739-09-0]
Find my writings @ www.daleluismenezes.blogspot.com
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augusto pinto
"The eating of pork is essential to any Catholic feast or festive occasion, and many assume that the 
consumption
of pork was something that was ‘imposed’ and introduced to the
ancestors of today’s Catholics by the Portuguese and the accompanying
missionaries. What if however, this was not quite the story? What if
pork was already a part of the Goan diet before the Portuguese came in?
Would that possibly change the way in which we look at the constituents
of Goan Catholic culture?
It
is possible, and no doubt documented, that the missionaries urged pork
on to the populace that converted to Catholicism way back in the 1500’s.
However, to assume that this was the first time the converts to
Catholicism had ever consumed pork is to assume that the entire
population that converted was possessed of brahmanical sensibilities. If
one looks around, at social groups in the rest of Mother India, one
realizes that there is a good portion of the non-brahmanical population
of the sub-continent that quite enjoys eating pork. We can also safely
assume that these groups were insulated from the rigors of that famed
beast, the Holy Inquisition in Goa, and that
their pork-consumption is not a savory leftover from their
missionary-scarred past. The consumption of pork then, it turns out, is
not in fact some Portuguese introduction to Goan cuisine, but in fact
foundationally (pre-Portuguese) Goan!
A significant social scientist in Goa, was recently contemplating the fact that the social groups, at least in Catholic Bardez, who were professional cooks were groups that in other parts of India were seen an untouchable. What caused then, this scholar wondered, for the missionary priests, to attach cooking as the traditional occupation of this group on their conversion to Christianity? If one realizes that these groups were in any case consuming Pork, and that the missionaries came from Europe with a taste for porcine flesh, then voila! One sees a natural partnership being produced! This association begins to make more sense when one realizes that the first Christians in Goa, were not members of the Brahmanical castes, but in fact the non-brahmanical castes, no doubt eager to get away from the stuffy sensibilities of the brahmanical groups. The fact is that only after the enactment of penal legislations did segments of the brahmanical groups convert to Christianity.
Realizing that the consumption of pork was a part of the pre-Portuguese culture of Goa pushes us to realize t
hat
there is much that we assume to be Portuguese impacts on Goan culture
that are in fact remnants from the elusive pre-Portuguese past. To be
sure there was some amount of colonial influence in the manner in which
pork consumption spread. But for that matter, most of the constituents
of sub-continental cuisine, are the result of the intervention of the
Portuguese. It was because of the colonial transportation of American
spices that we have the Indian cuisine that we are familiar with today.
In sum then, while the idea of Goa Indica was relevant and helpful, it is time we started relooking the clichés we use to describe Goa. Looking at the practices of the non-brahmanical groups in Goa, would perhaps give us another interesting angle to enter the Goan experience."
(First published in the Gomantak Times 25 August 2010)
8 comments:
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Gonzo Garbanzo said...
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i quite possibly might agree..always wondered whther swine eating was pre portugese:) either way...good outcome:)
- August 25, 2010 4:17 AM
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Teotonio R. de Souza said...
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Jason,
Any documentation you can cite for the pre-portuguese swine-eating in Goa / rest of India? Or it is another of your imaginary argument to make a point? - August 25, 2010 6:00 AM
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Abhik Majumdar said...
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Is there any historical evidence regarding pork consumption in pre-Portuguese times? Perhaps the journals or diaries of the first European visitors might throw more light on the matter.
- August 25, 2010 9:16 AM
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Jason said...
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Thank you for the question Abhik. I am open for correction on this matter, but I see no reason to ask this question in the first place.
It is common sociological/anthropological knowledge that non-brahmanical and castes that today see themselves as Dalit, ate, and continue to eat pork.
Given the commonly understood historical trajectory of the subcontinent, with either brahmanical or Islamic sensibilities dominating - allowing us to formulate the terms Sanskritisation or Islamicization - any trend vis-a-vis pork consumption would be toward the opposite. That is to say, the tendency would be to quit eating pork.
If Goa was in fact not distinct from the rest of the subcontinent, or at least the regions around it (and in Tulu-nadu, pork consumption is quite common), then it stands to reason, that pork consumption was, at least among the non-brahmanical groups, passe.
But I believe that the issue is not merely one of historical documentation or not. The issue is of the imaginative leaps that are an essential part of building new theoretical formulations. The current historical dogmas, say the Aryan and Dravidian divide, were built on a distant imaginative leap, and built on, till we today barely question it.
Finally, when you suggest we look at journals and diaries of the first European visitors, are you not giving them a centrality that is militates against calls such as 'Provinicialising Europe'? Secondly, why should we assume, that these Europeans would have documented 'truthfully' all local experience?
Finally, my expertise does not lie in historical texts. I could quite possibly be, entirely 'historically' wrong. But I am not particularly bothered by that. I see the column I write, as not necessarily representing reality, but providing fodder to think through issues, together with my audience. In particular, is there a way in which we can think through the peculiar circumstances that contemporary Goa finds itself in? This thinking-through could result in a turn around of the position I represent. But this is what public debate is about no? and the constitution of public spheres and civil societies? (Civil societies being where everyone is allowed representational space, not just the dominant). - August 25, 2010 9:33 AM
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Ramesh Dicholkar said...
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Thank you, Jason, for a thought provoking idea. In fact, it is surprising how often we forget the obvious, reminding me of the fable of the (brilliant or simple-minded?) old monk who, meeting humans after many decades of isolation, needed tangible evidence that he had been born into a human mother and not the jungle parrot he had grown up with.
Rather than demanding textual evidence (which can be copiously provided, of course, for many periods and regions of the subcontinent) that "Indians" of various groups did consume pig of all sorts, It sounds far more interesting, imaginative, and scholarly, to ask two perhaps not so unrelated sets of questions:
1) How far did the colonial powers and converters understand the association between pork and pollution; what role did this greater or thiner understanding play in the conversion of low, middle and high castes; how innocent or casual is the placing of the Faraz as church cook; and what consequences did this have on the structuring of power and symbolic relations between different groups?
2) On the other hand, and coming to terms with your sound argument about the bankruptcy of the Goa Indica argument, it strikes me as surprising that scholars naively embraced this counter-image without realising both its political and heuristic shortcomings. While you have extensively dealt, using different words, with the political implications of Goa Indica (and its all-too-obvious nationalist and brahmanical agenda), perhaps it is important to reflect on the cognitive conditions that have lead scholars to ignore the twinship of the Goa Dourada/Goa Indica arguments, their almost identical breeding and the astonishing fact that one could be actually used to contest the other.
At the same time, of course, most, if not all, researchers have failed to actually go beyond the mere pamphletary dimension of the Goa Indica image, thus suffocating what perhaps was its most promising point: indeed, even if the political affiliation with the colonial or imperial historiography was no longer as evident, the thematic, theoretical and methodological thrust did not change much - resulting in the repetition of tired subjects, phrases and practices as well as in the obliteration of new questions such as the one you are advancing here.
Finally, it is also very surprising to notice that most of the Goa Indica proponents seem to have focused all their critical efforts in the so-called deconstruction of the Goa Dourada myth while sparing its Indica sister such scrutiny, thus reifying several other more or less literal myths and imaginary arguments in their hunger for a more "properly Indian" past. It's probably enough to think of writers like Pratima Kamat, Nandkumar Kamat or P. Sakardhande (not to mention their champion Kosambi or others who seem to have retired from academic publishing) and the way they have uncritically and unimaginatively accepted - with a few handy rationalisations - pseudo-puranic accounts of Goan history that might well be as pre-Portuguese as the Bom Jesus church, or the manner in which they have rehabilitated pseudo-historical models that have their foundations on British and Portuguese colonial writing, to understand the theoretical weakness and political conservativeness of the Goa Indica movement. Sound source criticism seems to have magically (imaginatively?) disappeared here, and the narratives that Goa Indica proponents have left us all sound suspiciously similar to the Goa Dourada that they so bitterly criticised but so poorly understood.
Thanks for everything,
RD - August 27, 2010 9:56 AM
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Ramesh Dicholkar said...
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Thank you, Jason, for a thought provoking idea. In fact, it is surprising how often we forget the obvious, reminding me of the fable of the (brilliant or simple-minded?) old monk who, meeting humans after many decades of isolation, needed tangible evidence that he had been born into a human mother and not the jungle parrot he had grown up with.
Rather than demanding textual evidence (which can be copiously provided, of course, for many periods and regions of the subcontinent) that "Indians" of various groups did consume pig of all sorts, It sounds far more interesting, imaginative, and scholarly, to ask two perhaps not so unrelated sets of questions:
1) How far did the colonial powers and converters understand the association between pork and pollution; what role did this greater or thiner understanding play in the conversion of low, middle and high castes; how innocent or casual is the placing of the Faraz as church cook; and what consequences did this have on the structuring of power and symbolic relations between different groups?
2) On the other hand, and coming to terms with your sound argument about the bankruptcy of the Goa Indica argument, it strikes me as surprising that scholars naively embraced this counter-image without realising both its political and heuristic shortcomings. While you have extensively dealt, using different words, with the political implications of Goa Indica (and its all-too-obvious nationalist and brahmanical agenda), perhaps it is important to reflect on the cognitive conditions that have lead scholars to ignore the twinship of the Goa Dourada/Goa Indica arguments, their almost identical breeding and the astonishing fact that one could be actually used to contest the other.
(continues below) - August 27, 2010 9:58 AM
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Anonymous said...
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I grew up in a village where the pigs (ghar dukor or poslele/poshille =domesticated dukor) were cleaning our open toilets. Sometimes they were a nuisance. Near my primary school I used to watch the elaborate ritual of butchering of the pigs, beginning with the burning of the hair. That smell still lingers in my nostrils.
In the village the scenes of squealing pigs and piglets tied to bicycles were common and as children we used to enjoy the chase to catch the pigs using ferocious dogs. I still shiver after recalling some of these gory scenes. I had seen a pig stoned to death.
Personally I don't consume beef or pork and I don't decide on diet choices of others.
What I have found intriguing is the distinction which Hindus of all castes, esp. in villages make between pork=ghar dukor meat and the meat of wild boar (Ran dukor). Biologically, technically there is hardly any difference. Both types of meat can be classified as 'pork'.
Worse still 'pork eaters' are ridiculed as "dukor khaire'. In fact the xacuti of the later (randukor) is considered one of the best spicy preparation in Goa despite the fact that 'adi varaha' (royal emblem of Chalukyas of Badami who ruled over Goa for 200 years) or the 'wild boar" is the third reincarnation of Lord Vishnu as per the puranic dashavatara legend.
Irrespective of the food preferences, Prof. Motghare of GMC has found that pork from Goa's ghar dukor has been causing brain damage in a significant pork eating population in Agacaim on account of the 'tape worms'.
regards and best wishes - September 1, 2010 8:09 AM
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Nicholas Fernandes said...
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Dear Jason,
You have opened a good avenue by stating Goa had rich past before portuguese, Goan tradition of famous cooks, sailors, mariners, perhaps astronomers with knowledge
of astronomy(skies) which were used by the Portuguese in its conquest of fareast and trade
and if we delve deeper in this we might know our true and rich heritage.
I believe before Portuguese, we're also influenced by the Greeks, Romans, Persians,
Chinese to say the least...? a lots of things we do, cook, dress, courtessy attitude, words from language i have noticed are in found in places like Malaysia, Indonesia, Indo China, China..
Thank you and best wishes
Nicholas Fernandes
See also http://dervishnotes.blogspot.pt/2010/08/pork-and-goan-pre-portuguese-past-food.html
You may have read it before, but there are some interesting comments at the end.
Dale.
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