Blog

Diet Diary

October 17, 2011

I wish I ate more exciting food but it turns out unlike my peers, I don’t eat junk food all that often. Since I’m constantly on a cash crunch, I resort to eating all my healthy home cooked meals in order to save those extra rupees. Being a South Indian, I was expecting more rice on my plate {I eat more chapattis than I realized} but more importantly, where is my meat?! After two weeks of recording all my food, I’ve concluded that I am being cheated by my parents.

FoodLab Bangalore – is a 3 week workshop the Center for Genomic Gastronomy conducted with sophomores from the Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology in the fall of 2011. Students will examine innovation and conservation in South Asian food cultures, building on recent research of the Center (utopian cuisines, mutagenic meals) and working towards the next edition of the Planetary Sculpture Supper Club to be held in Bangalore on Nov. 12th.

Follow the conversation all week here on our Blog, join in the comments and use the twitter hashtag #foodlabbangalore to keep up to date.

Food Type

When i started off with thinking about what i eat everyday, i was more of the opinion that we eat the same exact food repeated on the menu lists of our mess. The same vegetables for the same meal for the exact same day of the week. Systematized and monotonous.

NowÂ when I actually started documenting the food I ate it was almost an educational experience. To start off, eating food, by the age of 20 is a very reflex action. It is hard to remember ‘oh i have to take a snap shot!’.and also i like attacking my food when i see it rather than overanalyzing it so its sort of an instinct for me to start off.i believe its probably because m such a foodie my brain stops functioning when i see food unless of-course when the food looks unappetizing. hence visual documentationpresented food to half eaten meals all comprise of the

Secondly it wasn’t as bad and monotonous to live and eat hostel food. majorly cause our backup plans are more in use. from lays to biscuits to coffees and eating meals out are very frequent. also it happened that i visited my ant one weekend hence got the luxury of eating home food. In all, very few meals are actually eaten from the mess. Some meals are skipped, but overall, the food we eat is most definitely not monotonous – post the documentation results

Follow the conversation all week here on our Blog, join in the comments and use the twitter hashtag #foodlabbangalore to keep up to date.

Food under observation

The idea of clicking pictures of every little bit that we eat is quite interesting. It is rather a very good way to observe one’s food habits and see if we really eat what we think we do. Over the past two weeks I have been doing the same and the above pictures show a summary of the meals that were eaten most often.

The above row shows the food eaten in my hostel, the middle row shows the food that I ate in restaurants while the last row highlights the packaged food products I consumed. I noticed that my food habits are really dominated by packaged food but they are mostly snacky. All the restaurant fancy food that I ate is not a part of my usual food but last week I had attended a lot of Birthday parties so I ended up eating a lot of junk. Though the hostel food that I consume is less as compared to others, I observed that I prefer eating more of non-vegetarian food there. One main observation, my meals hardly consist of any healthy food items. Be it packaged or home-cooked I tend to choose the oily and the unhealthy items over the healthy fruits and vegetables.

This whole exercise though was very helpful as it showed me exactly what I consumed over the past few days, but I am not surprised by what I saw. So I can conclude and say that I was actually quite sure of what my food habits are. I knew from before that I am always inclined toward eating a lot of packaged food and non-vegetarian. My mother is the only one person who can force fruits and healthy food in my stomach.

Follow the conversation all week here on our Blog, join in the comments and use the twitter hashtag #foodlabbangalore to keep up to date.

Saving Seeds Experiment

In agriculture and gardening, seed saving is the practice of saving seeds or other reproductive material (e.g. tubers) from open-pollinated vegetables, grains, herbs, and flowers for use from year to year for annuals and nuts, tree fruits, and berries for perennials and trees. This is the traditional way farms and gardens were maintained.

(wikipedia: seed saving)

Cucumber seed saving.

The idea that we could purchase fruit and vegetables and extract plantable seeds from them fascinated us and we chose to research and test the different methods of doing this activity. We came across quite a few videos made by non-professionals, who shared their experience of saving seeds from the past few years. They all had their different methods and they were quite interesting. They saved seeds of heirloom vegetables from their own gardens or organic vegetables from the market. We need to keep one thing in mind: saving seeds from hybrid vegetables will not work out for sure.

We began our experiment by buying vegetables from the market, as we did not have access to vegetables from a garden. We bought tomatoes, brinjal (eggplant), squash and cucumber as these vegetables have seeds and it is easy to save them by following instructions. We began with cucumber and squash. It did not require much work; we just needed to leave the seeds in the water for an hour and wait for them to settle down. The floating seeds were thrown and the rest were rinsed and left to dry in the sun on a paper.

Squash seed saving

The process that we followed for Brinjal was the same as cucumber and squash. The only difference was that we did not have to leave the seeds in water for long.

Brinjal seed saving

Tomatoes have a similar process, but they need to be kept for a few days for fermentation, so that the gelatin that covers the seed dissolves in water and the seeds are left clean. The drying of the seeds requires, approximately 4-5 days depending on the amount of sunlight.

Tomato seed saving

The experiment was successful to the extent of saving the seeds, but we still do not know whether the seeds, once sown, will germinate again or not, as we are not sure about the purity of the vegetables. We took our research forward and spoke to individuals from a National Seed Corporation in Bangalore and they assured us that the seeds produced will grow back if they are not hybrid.

Links to the videos of saving seeds:
Gardening: How to save squash seeds
How To Save Your Own Vegetable Seeds – Cucumbers
How To Save Tomato Seeds

Follow the conversation all week here on our Blog, join in the comments and use the twitter hashtag #foodlabbangalore to keep up to date.

Things I Ate

Living away from home on a student budget sucks when it comes to food. Our mess provides us with limited variety of food and thus we have to depend upon our friend’s birthday parties and treats to eat good food. While doing this assignment I realized I have mostly been eating out. I attended 3 birthday parties in these two weeks. We even went for a class breakfast and lunch. 5 good meals in 14 days. Quite a few meals are also skipped because of boredom and laziness. Apart from that, kurkure and thums up come under my favourite junk food. I end up having them every alternate days. Candy floss reminds me of Mumbai so whenever I see it, I eat it.

Follow the conversation all week here on our Blog, join in the comments and use the twitter hashtag #foodlabbangalore to keep up to date.

Food Count

9 food items that have been consumed in 3 weeks. My tongue is given a lot more preference than my stomach. Studying in a boarding school where good food is a luxury, translates into eating a lot of good food when it has been spotted.

Unfortunately for me, I am now on a student budget, which means most of my good food, is junk. I do like my fruits and vegetables, but never have the patience to go and get them. So what I do end up having is a lot of fresh fruit juice. I would have liked to have nice south Indian food, but the problem with that is its too heavy. A three-course rice meal leaves me feeling very uncomfortable. What I would also like is food filled with flavors that are small in quantity and easy to digest. But unfortunately that would require money or time, so I could make it myself. Considering I have less of both I will continue to have little junk and a little boring food, until I have the required resources.

Follow the conversation all week here on our Blog, join in the comments and use the twitter hashtag #foodlabbangalore to keep up to date.

To Savour a Flavour

“Live to eat not eat to live” - one of the very first proverbs I bungled. Although I’m no gourmet I do enjoy the textures, flavours and aromas of all kinds of food. But meals at home in general are not particularly glamorous but generally tasty. They’re well balanced and I suppose more various than meals I’ve had in other homes. As a rule we have meat once a week on Sundays, but ever since I started keeping track of my meals I realised that with the holiday season comes more meat and unhealthy delicacies than I’d like to admit.

The grid will take you through a tasteful journey of the transition from the voluptuously greasy banquets of the Pujo (Dussera) season to the spoonful of mother-prescribed nutrition of everyday meals.

Fish swimming in rich gravies liberally seasoned with mustard, mutton rolls with sweet onions and crisp rising puris (fried bread). It’s a Bengali orgy and it’s that one time of year where eating shamelessly and praying with a pure heart merge as one.

Afterwards, however, the leafy greens march in once again taking over most of the table. Methi (fenugreek), Palak (spinach, potatoes, carrots and all the rest. Sadly there are days when meals become a necessity rather than a pleasure. On such days I eat a breakfast fit for a king and a delicious, daily quota of milk that sees me through the day. Flavoured yogurt is welcome at any time- refreshes the palate and the mind.

Follow the conversation all week here on our Blog, join in the comments and use the twitter hashtag #foodlabbangalore to keep up to date.

Street Foodie

October 4, 2011

My name is Indrajeet Deshmukh i am a foodie i like exploring new food joints and try out new things. presently i am pursuing designing in Srishti school of Art Design Technology Banglore. Photography and acting is my passion Here is some of my photography work.

FOOD FAMILY & ME

Nutrition is one of the most important aspect in which our family has always focused on. Since my childhood every morning my grandmother used to offer me ladoos (sweet Â ladoos with mixture of dry fruits) . It had high calorie value and helped in overall development of the body.

Initially I hated food and I couldn’t throw any tantrums to my dad for not finishing the meal. All the junk food was thrown out of the house. Staple Indian food was always preferred. This did go on for many years till I got to know what is healthy and unhealthy for me. BUT the Sundays would be totally insane Sundays was like trying and testing new things going out and trying out food on new food joints getting the recipes of the tasty food items, trying and tasting new cuisines etc.

We shifted to Mumbai. After some years when I got to know the importance of nutrition and taste we began to explore different kind of street food. We literally went for the tours where we used to visit four or five famous food joints at a time and taste all dishes on the menu. We got the recipes and try it home. Sometimes we got the same taste, sometime they were disastrous but in the end it was a part experimenting and trial and error basis. Even now we do visit places and try to experiments with some recipe and try to make them healthy without losing the essence and the taste of the food.

In particular my family always did welcome all kind of things. But nutrition was specially taken care of which i am really glad because it kept me fit.

Â LIVE TO EAT THEM.

Vada pav. “ It’s one of the tastiest easy to eat fast food which you can get. It consist of two parts Vada which is fried in oil and pav which is made of all purpose flour it basically came into existence in the industrial age of Mumbai.Â It was mostly eaten by workers. It is spicy and the taste differs according to the chutney served with it. LIST CHUTNEY’S Its available everywhere school canteens, stations, malls, cinema hall etc. and it’s easy to cook in less time. Many people prefer eating fried chilies which plays a catalyst to the taste. “Vada Pav” is the mix match of British, Maharashtrian and Konkani culture.

ToolsTandoori chicken: Tandoori chicken is the one of my favorite non- vegetarian food which I am eating since my childhood. No other non-veg dish has pleased me so much as compared to Tandoori chicken. Whenever I go to an roadside Dhaba or an restaurant I have Tandoori chicken. The red color gives a spicy feel to it which and attracts attention from other food items Tender feel of the and the aroma of the roasted craves me a lot. We get the essence of Tandoori only when you marignate it for long hours and then roast in tandoor.

Gajar halwa-( Sweet shredded carrot) It’s a sweet dish. Every year my mother cooks Gajar halwa for me on my Birthday. It’s basically made of carrot, Mava, Ghee, Elichi , Milk as per my knowledge. It can be eaten hot and cold both the time the taste varies. you can get this sweet at any sweetshops or restaurants. But I like the only one which is made by my mother and the one which you get in Canon Fast food centre at fort.