Pin the Staple

Haven't all of us been ushered home from the local restaurants and hotels and joints?
Haven't all of us been shouted at for eating "what those western people eat !" and also for not eating "what we have been cooking since generations, and what our ancestors have meticulously planned for a wholesome nutrition!"


Agreed folks !
Indeed that's quite some conversation from our day to day lives, innit??


When I say 'Pin the Staple', I'm not at all referring to the stapler and its teeny-weeny pins, but rather to the staple diet of people.
It's indeed true that our people have taken quite a lot of efforts in planning our daily food. Let's all have a quick glance at it.


A typical Maharashtrian taat will have poli, bhaaji, chutney, varan-bhaat, dahi/taak, koshimbir, loncha and occasionally papad. Koshimbir takes care of fibres and roughage, dahi of lactose, varan-bhaat of carbs, the toop and lemon flavour on varan-bhaat takes care of fats and Vit C, papad and varan take care of starch and proteins, bhaaji and loncha and chutney of the various vitamins, minerals, salt and fibres. What more could one ask for ?!


A Punjabi thaala has makkai di roti, sarson da saag, daal makhni, chaawal, dahi/makkhan, salad and chutney. Roti gives carbs, saag gives protiens, daal gives starch, rice gives carbs, dahi/makkhan gives sugar, lactose and fats, salad gives vitamins, minerals and roughage, and chutney the rest.


A south indian meal would have rice providing the carbs, the saambar/rasam giving proteins and vitamins and minerals (considering it contains SO many ingredients), chutney and oil provides fats and essentials, their stew finishing off the other job. The coconut milk provides minerals and proteins in great proportions, and milk is but an essential component of their meals.


We'll not much enter other Indian meal types since they are more or less, slight modifications of the above stereotypes.


Now let's go global.


Italian meal consists of pasta and rice. The pasta sauce contains tomatoes, veggies and garnishing which all scores at the carb-vitamin-roughage-minerals count. Cheese makes up for the fat. The rice again makes up for proteins and carbs and starch alongwith the fish curry, another rich diet bomb.


Even the dumb, ancestor-less Americans score at a burger/hot dog. A veg cheese burger has veggies, cutlet, cheese and sesame on the bread. Veggies and salad provide minerals, fats and roughage, cutlet makes up for proteins and starch, bread is just another form of a roti, and hence gives the carbs. Cheese gives fats and so does sesame. The sauce that accompanies gives sugar too. Likewise is for hot dogs, just with the difference of a few ingredients.


The hot dog reminds me of our very own darling vadapav.. The ingenious vadapav is a wonder in itself. The hot steaming vada in the neutral pav, with the assortment of chutneys, ocassionally with the maska... Aah ! That's the life of a true Mumbaikar...
The potato is the avatar of sabji, the outer covering for roti, the fats included due to frying, and the inputs providing the rest !

Vada pav = 295 calories

small Rotis = 60 calories

Potato sabji = 105 calories
Hence, small roti + sabji = 165 calories

Hence 1 vadapav = 2 servings of roti-sabji !

Ain't that relieving?

So the point was, there definitely are parallelisms in all staple diets. This was just an effort to pin point those.
Pin the staple !

:D :D