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FOOD ADVENTURES

We're looking for funny experiences from your own lives. We think others will enjoy tales of food mishaps, surprises, peculiar edibles, first cooking attempts / mistakes, etc.

Cynthia reminisces about the favorite foods of her childhood and a culinary "treat" that swarmed into Lahore one Spring......

Of Sustenance, Sentiment,
and Savory Challenges
By Cynthia Brush

Ah...FOOD!

A most satisfying excuse for gathering round the dining table for conversation, jokes, stories & laughter while savoring daily staples or unusual delicacies. The creative inspiration of cooking, baking, and holiday treats. All mix into the marvelous soup of my family's past with influences that waft temptingly into our daily routines.

My folks cultivated, in my sister and myself, an appreciation for delicious foods and exotic cuisines. With Mom's deft family management and Dad's willingness to entertain a captive audience, we managed to avoid the combative family dinner senario or the picky-eater syndrome.

Certain foods are indelibly melded in memory with one or another of us. My sister Victoria's preference for black pepper & slightly burnt toast (not eaten together!) has somehow transformed into truly gourmet sensibilities as she's a superb cook now! My father loved, and loves, his desserts especially chocolate (requires a daily dose), ice cream, and puddings...butterscotch or chocolate. My mother hates licorice, turnips & parsnips, and her birthday celebrations always include a white cake topped with coconut-sprinkled vanilla frosting. Every Christmas in Pakistan, she made pounds of delicious chocolate, vanilla, & penuche fudges along with yummy date-nut breads for gift-giving.

Well beloved...of course!...was the spicy, heat-laced, hearty Punjab cuisine - chappatis, puris, samosas, golden pulao with peas, curries of all sorts, saag, raita, and more. Fried eggs over steamed rice with sliced fresh tomatoes and soy sauce was a Sunday dinner-in-Pakistan favorite...or cold cuts - beef tongue and salty hunter's beef. (Sunday was our cook's day off.) Bowls of thick, water buffalo cream cooling in the refrigerator waited to be spooned over breakfast's hot oatmeal. Fragrant mangos, sunset-hued papayas & melons sparkling with a dash of salt, platters of washed grapes or chilled, slightly floral, lichees - most satisfying to peel and suck away from their dark shiny seeds - were some of our fruited delights.

Over the course of time, we were introduced to foods of all sorts, most of which could be categorized into conventional food groups....until we experienced the locust swarms, spring of 1962.

Beating locusts off the sports field at Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan

They descended over Lahore's Forman Christian College like a swirling dust storm. My sister and I, my folks as well, dashed up to the second story verandah to have a locust's eyeview of the green lawns, trees and hockey fields beyond the eucalyptus row and hedge.

Mom recalls "bugs being everywhere." Victoria remembers "going up on the roof...and banging pots with spoons," which the wise adults informed us would deter the ravenous locusts - a type of huge grasshopper - from devouring the sports fields and denuding trees. (From my mature vantage point as an enthused gardener, the veracity of this practice seems dubious.) I do recall great excitement among the household adults, staff and my folks alike....a mix of anticipation and alarm....with little comprehension on my part for its basis. I also remember watching Pakistanis chasing them off the lawns and knocking quantities of locusts out of the sky and with big colorful cotton cloths. After 41 intervening years, none of us can recall if there was much damage done.

"Cynthia's love of animals doesn't extend to insects"...Stan

Our family of four sat in designated places for dinner as usual. Sunlight slanting through the tall windows behind my back as we waited for the meal to be served. At some point, our cook and bearer from #15 (our house on the FCC campus) proudly brought us a heaping plateful of deep fried locusts — a special delicacy for us to try and (as my Dad writes) "served voluntarily as a learning delight for their sahibs." As it turned out to somewhat mixed reviews! Not terribly fond of insects, I remember doubting the edibility of giant grasshoppers. Certainly never had realized they were a food source for people! The platter of toasty brown bugs, seasoned just so, was presented to my mother according to proper etiquette. I jumped up unabashedly to peer over her shoulder at the exotic fare....torn between proper politeness and utter horror! Tentatively...plucked a roasted locust from the pile. And managed to take a bite. Crunchy. And tasty...much like a barbequed potato chip. One bite was all I could chew...and swallow. Dining on bugs was NOT for me..no matter how delicious! Dad continues "We remember sitting at the dining room table and trying to chew down the fried locusts...Not much delight on our part, although we tried." Victoria adds "...but I don't remember ever eating them. I WOULD NEVER EAT THEM, NOT THEN, NOT NOW!!!!!!"

Both Victoria and I are now avowed vegetarians, perhaps due to such formative gastronomic "delights"?

Email Cynthia Brush at winterline@greyvisual.com
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Interested in Giant Indian Beetles? Here's a great page in chapter 4 of our " Farewell the Winterline" book excerpts.