Indian Cuisine c. 1900
What do the children eat in India? The great majority of the children—and grown people, too—eat puffed rice in the morning.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From “Food and Dress” in When I Was A Boy In India by Satyananda Roy, 1923
What do the children eat in India?
The great majority of the children—and grown people, too—eat puffed rice in the morning. Babies are fed with milk; but as good milk is not always and everywhere available, young children have a very hard time. Where milk can be had, children get their share of it once or twice a day or oftener. In most houses, puffed rice (muri or murki), light molasses cake (bātāsā), a few bits of cocoanut or a few slices of cucumbers or onions will be the only early breakfast. In Calcutta and other cities there are khābarer dokān, or food shops, where cooked food can be purchased for a few pennies.
There are all kinds of food-vendors who go around the city hawking their articles.
Most of our sweets are made of milk, flour, and sugar. Some are cooked fresh every morning. In our home, some mornings we had a kind of pudding prepared from cream of wheat (suji) which is first fried with a little ghee (clarified butter) and then milk, sugar, and water are added.
Some older people eat a handful of green peas (raw), cholā (a kind of red pea) or split peas soaked in water with a little salt and a few pieces of ginger.
The late breakfast comes between nine and eleven o’clock. In certain homes no early breakfast is served. Farmers in the villages do not eat any breakfast. They have one meal at noon. Whether in the morning or in the evening in India, we do not have exact meal hours for all members of the family, as the custom is in the West. In certain homes, first come, first served, is the rule. On account of the definite hours of opening of schools, colleges, courts, and offices, some families have to observe definite meal hours in the morning; but everybody is free in the evening.
Women of the household eat last of all. This has been the custom from ancient times. This may appear very strange in the western part of the world, but it is a custom which in India is observed by rich and poor alike. Even homes which employ cooks follow this rule. I remember that my father used to eat some nights at eleven or twelve o’clock. At present, in certain homes, men, women, and children, eat together and have definite hours, but they are the exceptions.
In our home my mother used to cook most of the time. My father, uncles, sisters were all very good cooks. The morning meal in anIndian home, or late breakfast, consists of bhāt or cooked rice, which is the staple food in Bengal. A quantity of rice in the shape of a mound is placed at one end of a large metal plate. Banana leaves are also used as plates, in which case rice is ladled out of a big bowl. In Bengal we sit on the floor. A square wooden board (piri), a small carpet or a mat forms the seat. The metal plates, or banana leaves, are placed just opposite the seats. The plates, cups, and glasses are made of kānsā (a composition made of brass, copper, and zinc) . When properly cleaned and polished, some of them look like silver. Besides rice, we eat a thin split-pea soup (without any meat in it). The soup is served in metal cups or is poured on the rice, and is usually spiced and cooked with tumeric and a little red pepper.
The rice is cooked in large earthenware pots or brass vessels called “hāri” There are a hundred varieties of rice. Special stores for rice only are to be found in every city. Rice is also sold in markets and groceries. Prices vary according to the quality. There are red, white, and gray rice. Burma rice has a different shape. The stores usually sell rice in large paper bags or canvas bags—not in cardboard packages, as is done in the United States.
Rice is cooked in such a way that every grain remains separate, as among the Japanese. In Bengal the water in which rice is cooked is not all absorbed by the rice in the process of cooking. It is thrown away, though it contains nutritious elements. The sentiment of loyalty is very strong amongst the people of India. During the seizure of Arcot, the Indian sepoys kept alive many English soldiers by giving them their share of rice, while the former ate the watery part which is usually thrown away.
The widows and orthodox Brahmins eat ātap rice which is sun-dried, i. e., which has not been previously boiled with the husk. The majority of the people of Bengal eat rice which has been previously slightly boiled with the husk before it is purchased from the store. Farmers are in the habit of eating cold rice which gets sour.
Besides rice and split-pea soup (of which there are about ten or twelve varieties), vegetables—either boiled or fried—are served; eggplant, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, beet, turnip, green peas, pumpkin, gourd, tomatoes, patal (trichosanthes dioiea), uchhé (momordica muraicata), jhingé, karolā, green bananas, green jack fruit, mochā (or banana embryo), etc., are used in making soups, hash and numerous other preparations which are very tasty. The split-pea soup is called “dāl" On every boat sailing between England and India “dāl" is served for lunch and the item appears on the menu as “dahl curry.” "Dāl" is very nutritious, but there are many Indians who are so poor that they cannot afford to eat "dāl’’ oftener than once or twice a week.
No tables, chairs, forks, knives, or spoons are used in Indian homes. People eat with the fingers of the right hand. In orthodox Hindu homes no one can eat with the fingers of the left hand. Those who have adopted the Western style of living in India (their number is very few) have all the paraphernalia of a regular dining-room of Europe and America.
Fish is a very popular food in Bengal. Freshwater fishing is a great industry in our part of the country. People have not yet developed any great taste for what is known in the United States as sea food. Sometimes fish and vegetables are cooked together. Strict Brahmins do not eat any fish or meat. Those who eat meat prefer lamb. Beef is strictly forbidden for the Hindus. The Mohammedans in Bengal eat meat (though very little), but in their cases pork, ham, and bacon are prohibited. In any case, even those Hindus who eat meat do it only occasionally. All Hindus or even the Buddhists are not strict vegetarians. The majority of the high-caste Hindus, the Brahmins, are vegetarians, but one-seventh of the total population of India belongs to the lowest castes, who eat meat.
In cities those who work in offices eat a little lunch after one o’clock. The English habit of enjoying a cup of afternoon tea has found a place in large cities. Calcutta has several hundred tea shops.
The evening meal is a hearty one. The time for this meal varies in different homes be- tween seven and ten o’clock, or later. There is a repetition of almost the same items as in breakfast, with a few changes here and there. One important change in the bill of fare can be noticed in case of certain families. Instead of repeating a course of rice (the morning dish) they prefer hand-made, flat, round loaves of bread, usually made very thin in Bengal—about half a dozen making a thickness of one inch.
In the provinces farther north people prefer thick bread. Roti rooti, chāpāti, as it is called, differs from loochi or puri, which is richer. Loochi or puri is a kind of flour cake fried in ghee or melted butter. In some Bengal homes people prefer rooti (hand-made bread) or Iuchi (thin flour cake).
Fruits are also eaten by people who can afford them, in the course of the morning or evening meal. Sour soup and pickles form very important items of the menu. Curd is another item which figures prominently on the menus in Hindu homes.
Roy, Satyananda. When I Was A Boy In India. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1923.
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