A Blog About Making Culture
Embracing Constraints, Revisited
November 28, 2007
[P]erhaps the two best examples of how [religion-based food] bans have resulted in delicious and fascinating food are Jain cooking, with its ban on anything that remotely involves taking life, like root vegetables (little critters might get killed while you dig them up) or yoghurt left overnight (too alive), and Jewish cooking, with its complex set of Torah derived rules including bans on pork, on fish without scales (shark, shellfish) and on cooking milk and meat together. I'm not concerned at the moment with the logic of these bans, just their results.
That's from a fascinating article in India's Economic Times. As much reverence as there is in American culture for "thinking outside the box", I'm always fascinated by the things people cook up by rooting around inside the box.
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Next: Gawker Reinvention
Abhi
Can’t say much about Jewism - but Jainism itself is an out of the box concept. It would have been very hard all those centuries back for guys - born Hindus - to decide one fine day to practice another way of life - not very different - but with its labeling slightly unsettling for the majority. Of course now its a tightly shut box with many colors and splendors inside!
sarah
Jewish dietary and Sabbath restrictions not only result in interesting food and creative uses of soy and nut products, but they also have always unleashed technological innovation. We’re talking Shabbat ovens that turn themselves on and off, “blechs” that keep food warm all day long and the ever-popular coffee urn.
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