Tansha Vohra has a freezer full of ants in her Bengaluru home.
She has been using them in different kinds of chutneys. Vohra is one of two fellows this year at the Serendipity Arts Foundation’s residency programme in culinary arts in Delhi. Over the phone from Bengaluru, Vohra talks excitedly about entomophagy or the practice of eating insects.
She recalls eating silkworms in the northeast, and why termite farming may not be a good idea as it releases methane gas. Vohra sends me an image of her lunch thali on the day we speak in mid-August. A small white bowl on a plate of vegetable gravy and rice; in the bowl is ant chutney made with coconut, chilli and garlic. She just took a handful of ants (adults and larvae) and ground them in a mortar. Some coconut flakes, two chillies, five garlic pods and sprigs of wild coriander were blitzed together with crushed weaver ants, spring salt and a sprinkle of water. “I wouldn’t say it is normalised in my house but definitely my folks are not as freaked out as they used to be,” says the 29-year-old; her mother and brother have gotten around to relishing her arthropod concoctions.
As part of her three-month residency, Vohra will dig into recipe collections, understand seasonality, foraging and harvesting methods, and the many cooking and preservation techniques, from smoked to sundried, employed by traditional communities for insect meals.
Ever mindful of cultural appropriation, Vohra emphasises that her work is a curiosity-driven exercise. “The idea of the project is to document, research and archive information from historically excluded communities in the hope that we will be able to craft real solutions to the huge issue facing us all—a global food crisis,” says Vohra.
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Denne historien er fra September 12, 2021-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI
