Of taste and tactility
Updated On: 07 July, 2023 06:47 AM IST | Mumbai | Rosalyn D`mello
I hope that our child, who is growing up in a land where touching food with one’s hands is frowned upon, will appreciate how eating with fingers is an intricate part of his ancestral identity
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Where I live, children are introduced to cutlery from an early age. It’s like this whole dimension of experiencing a meal—touching each element to interpret its texture, flavour profile, consistency—is erased from their dining experience. Representation pic
I’m writing as the ragù or the Bolognese stews in its juices. I am aware I should have accommodated for more time because that is the unspoken ingredient in this most Italian of dishes. But I am being forgiving of my failure because I am also still learning to inhabit this new schedule we are arriving at and trying to perfect. Ever since our child began needing a five-hour wake window before his first and only nap of the day, we’ve had to improvise our routine so I can make the most of the morning, which is when my partner now takes on increased child-care responsibilities, allowing me to work and to cook us lunch. We are steadily working towards equalising the gap in parental responsibility. As our child gradually weans himself off me, making my presence substitutable with other caregivers, like his grandparents, I am learning to reclaim my share of time.
Until recently, my partner had taken on the task of cooking for us for the day. Since he only must be at work at noon, so is home until 11.15 pm, he was able to find time to cook while I put our child down for a nap. This new schedule, however, has allowed me to return to cooking and it feels invigorating to constantly improvise, to decide our menu for the week, to experiment, again, with new flavours and, most importantly, to feed our growing child, who has an unabashed preference for Indian cuisine. I’ve never seen any child eat a chole rice the way I saw him gobble it up the other day, his fingers mimicking the gestures my fingers make in order to mash the rice together into a morsel that is customised with the chole and the dahi. He feeds himself while I feed him, and I love to watch him shamelessly use his fingers and lick his hands and to see his entire face covered in dahi and curry.
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