#Weather Shades of India: The Mango Season

Coming from a traditional Andhra Brahmin household of food connoisseurs, we have a standing joke in the family, the we spend 80% of our income and 90% of our time and almost all family bonding activities centered on FOOD. This is probably true for every nook and corner of India. The way India experiences food is very different. Food is love for us and over food is how we bond. When I first started working in a global environment, it was interesting to see how everyone gets their OWN tray of food while ordering lunch. Whereas, in an Indian environment, we order something together and then share. We send in food to neighbors. The way we experience life is through Food.

And the way we experience weather is through food. Summer to me is an experience. The smell of mangoes! Steaming hot rice served in a room without fan or a/c with even hotter fresh batch of pickles. Cousin competitions of who could clean up a ripe mango seed without an iota of pulp left behind, the juice of course dripping all over our faces.

Mangoes are what define the Indian summer. The heat of an Indian summer. The science of Indian food and how we tackle weather.

In a typical Andhra Brahmin family like mine, pickles are the science of expertise to teach food storage in extreme weather conditions at temperatures of 45 deg Celsius. The mangoes are specifically chosen based on their shape, texture, estimated sourness and stages of ripening. They are chopped with a special knife set in a single strike. A doubly struck mango WILL GO BAD in Summer. Then the mangoes are diced, sliced, grated, cut, sun-dried and pickled.

If even a shred of salt, oil or spice is added in excess or scarcity, the pickle goes bad. One drop of moisture and the pickle goes bad.

The science is so advanced that some pickles have less of mustard and more of fenugreek which actually cools the stomach on hot days and not vice-versa. These are in addition to diced mangoes in fresh spices eaten in combination with fresh lentil and rice. Then of course come the 40 varieties dry and wet chutneys. Then there are the spice powers fondly referred to as “gun –powder” by the uninitiated. They come in 10-12 varieties depending on the pounding and roasting of the lentil.

While Mango is really the king of all trades, even bright red chilies can be pickled and eaten with oodles of clarified butter (desi Ghee) along with rice and still not cause any body heat in sweltering summer.

Pickles made with this precision do not go bad for atleast 3 years without refrigeration in 48 deg celsius of sweltering heat.

In fact, the storage vessels are massive handmade ceramic jars. At one time we had so many mangoes being dried for pickles that there were no more trays which could accommodate them all and so an entire room was washed, dried, sterilized and mango pieces were laid out on the floor.

I am sure our food rituals are ingrained in all of us from childhood. Do you have #weather shades of Indian food and stories to share? Would love to hear from you. And yes I do smell the nostalgia of mango ridden air. The summer indeed was here!