A note on the issue: Flavours as familiar as a hug

Mangoes can make or break a friendship. Much like tiramisu. Unlike the mango, the tiramisu isn’t seasonal, but the comforting flavours of each, in their own way, spark arguments and challenges, and kick off quests for “the best”. Chefs have as many takes on the tiramisu as there are varieties of mango, which is why these debates are endless and impossible to judge. Both these familiar favourites are in our issue this week in different stories even as we recall the intangible value of foods that families have preserved since 1947 in a bid to hold on to a taste of a home they left behind during Partition. For these five families, cooking recipes brought across borders by their grandparents or great-grandparents, or created in the refugee camps in the harsh months after Partition, is a means to honour the stories their ancestors told of a home the current generation hasn’t seen.

Also read: Partition food memories that travelled

Whether it’s a Banganapalle mango, a delectable tiramisu from a Belgian pastry maker or a kadhi made at a dear friend’s home, taste is a powerful stimulator of memory and emotion. Taste, smell and texture are evocative, bringing back memories not just of the act of eating but also of a time, a place and a feeling. 

But why does food do this and why do we turn to it for memories? In a piece for the Harvard University Press blog, John S. Allen, author of The Omnivorous Mind, explains that the brain’s hippocampus, which is central to forming long-term memories, also has direct links to the digestive system. “Finding food is so important to survival that it is clear that the hippocampus is primed to form memories about and around food… Feasts serve not only an abundance of food but an abundance of memories,” he writes.

Also in this issue is an interview with celebrity stylist Law Roach, a champion of Indian craft and design, who “retired” two years ago but is very much in the public eye. He talks to Lounge about his forthcoming book and the moment he realised how much of the embroidery on international runways is handcrafted by gifted artisans in India. And to return to our theme of familiar favourites, we have our recommendations for what to watch, do, hear and read this weekend.

Write to the editor at shalini.umachandran@htlive.com

@shalinimb

Also read: Why Law Roach wants to tell the India fashion story in the right way