Nostalgia At Last...

Several weeks ago I discontinued my cleaning Seva in the western canteen and I am now chopping veggies every morning from 7:00am-9:00am. I am grateful for this Seva. I love the morning, and it almost feels cool until the 9:00am heat sets in. It is nice to lend a hand in the food preparation, and it amazes me how some very offensive vegetables are considered edible.

One morning we were gutting pumpkins and cutting them into bite size pieces and it smelled foul, but no matter--the cooks wanted to use it anyways. They made breads and soups and steamed the pumpkin with beets. I avoid pumpkin now. Once while slicing dates my hands were suddenly covered in little black bugs, so I avoid dates too.

The potatoes are consistently good looking; they never stink and rarely do I have to peel away any tinges of green or rotten parts. The beets are quite sullied and there is no way of getting them clean without peeling off the outside layer, but that is not acceptable here. Absolutely no wasting! Sometimes I grate cheese, or juice limes, or cut contaminated carrots and fetid cabbage.

Most often I cube tomatoes for salad, soup, and sauce. I have quickly learned that the women in charge of the western canteen and the veggie chopping have little discernment when it comes to choosing what makes vegetables edible and what makes vegetables a bovine concern. It is an aberration. I would not see this attitude about what good food means in Wisconsin. Perhaps I am a bit spoiled...

And yes, I feel a pang in my chest when I think about fresh, raw, uncooked, seemingly perfect, DDT free vegetables awaiting me 9,000 miles away. I completely understand the idea of not wasting food and I am obviously in full agreement; however, there is a point where you have to choose between eating rotting food or giving it to the cows or composting it. Such are my woes of India...

Eva