Forgive me Mr. Descartes but I am a proud epicurean and a fervent believer that good food is one of the best ways to greet and please the people we love. That this notion is an essential thread of our cultural weave, that hospitality bears religious sanction and appreciation makes me happier.Eating, in my opinion, is more than the daily regimen of three meals to sustain the mundane existence. It is a sensuous experience involving a complex tango of teeth and tongue overseen by an ecstatic brain. A heightened sense of smell, body taut with anticipation, frenetic brain activity triggered by a riot of aromas and colors, the uncontrollable desire to bite and finally the pleasure of giving in to the noblest of human desires. Sane and joyous live to eat and sometimes overeat. The pleasures of eating are lost to those who indiscreetlysubject food to cryptic algorithms to unveil the latent nutritional value. The journey of discovery is disturbingly fraught and unpleasantly enlightening. The salvation is, therefore, in engaging food as a lover would his belovedoblivious of the consequences.That said, protection helps.
Pakistanis and their unprotected love affair with foodover the last six decades has had devastating consequences.Dirty kitchen purveying unhygienic food with impunity became the norm and not exception with grave ramifications for public health. And then PFA was born. I need not say more as we have all seen the famous national and international food brandsstripped of their veneers, splashed across social mediawith damning evidence of their culpable negligence. The authority should consider devising a restaurant grading system and the eateries should be bound to display the grade certificate prominently. The grade will be an indication of the extent of outlet’s adherence to hygiene among other things leaving it to the citizen to make an informed choice. In addition SOPs for staff and kitchen are to be drafted to standardize the kitchen practices to make snap audits meaningful and objective. Most importantly the legal framework has to be significantly upgraded to include heavy fines and jail sentences for the offenders. I would be happier if PFA also includes some incentive for the eateries to improve their grades over time. This could be in the form of a certificate, acknowledgement on social media or a tax rebate. We must encourage and reinforce compliance and improvement. The Punjab government is raking in massive public applause and deserves commendation for doing something that has a direct bearing on people’s health. Oscar Wilde once said, “After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”
Perhaps the world is indeed a place of test of will with no room for hedonists. Imagine if meat had the benefits of carrots or carrots tasted like meat
Coming back to my love of food, I have some reservations for the way God made things and am sure many would identify with my sentiments. God made both carrots and meat. Why do we love meat much more than carrots? Why does meat harm more than carrotsif enjoyed with abandon? These are questions of metaphysical nature and hint at a God with an understandably out of this world sense of humor. Meat spawns cholesterol and uric acid. Conceded it does but can anybody with an iota of sanity compare a juicy steak with a bland, nondescript carrot. I lay the blame squarely at the door of divinity. This is discrimination divinely ordained. Perhaps the world is indeed a place of test of will with no room for hedonists. Imagine if meat had the benefits of carrots or carrots tasted like meat. Either way we would have been eating a lot of both. But then it was not meant to be. For eternity meat was condemned to be the choicest food of sinners, of lovers of the brew. We are all too familiar with the expression ‘sharabaur kebab’.
Celebrated British Chef Keith Floyd and his red wine slurping, his throaty, vivid descriptions of food endeared him to millions across the world. He paved the way for the likes of Jamie Olivier, Gordon Ramsay, Rick Stein and the voluptuous Nigella Lawson who took food innuendo to a graphic new level. I recently had the pleasure of watching Rick Stein’s “Seafood Lover’s Guide”. Trout, salmon, cod, herring, scallops, cockles, halibut, oysters, cab, prawns and the remote, pristine, rustic English fishing towns. Smoked, poached, baked, fried….smothered with butter & lemon juice…..filleted or whole….on a bed of mushy peas or sea weed. BBC has a flair for making food programs as the camera passionately flirts with the ingredients zooming in on their contours, capturing the sounds of dicing, frying and whisking with insane alacrity, creating an experience that is addictively immersive. Pakistani food programs, by comparison are dull and drab. First, they fail to capture the food in its intimate detail. Second, the viewers are relentlessly subjected to live calls from the drooling fans which areutterly distracting and aesthetically disturbing.Dinner time. I beg leave. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”,Viginia Woolf so famously quipped.Can’t agree more.
The writer is a journalist with experience in both public and private sectors