Cooking In Indian Cultures | The Odyssey Online
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I Learned How To Cook From My Mama And I Couldn't Be More Proud

Keep it in the family.

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Child

For years and years, people from South Asia have learned how to cook from a very young age. Many women and some men utilized their parents' favorite spices and herbs and used them to make their own special dishes and extravagant food. Parents usually never kept an eye on them because it was the child's duty to learn from their mistakes and create masterpieces out of them. Our South Asian culture tells us to make simple rice and chicken and create it from your heart. Nevertheless, the art of cooking is a simple tradition that we like to keep alive.

I still think cooking is what makes South Asian people so famous. For many years, thousands of spice traders used to exchange different kinds of spices for export and trade throughout the Indian Subcontinent, including Central Asia and the Middle East. That being said, many of those species were leaves, nuts, seeds, roots, flowers, grounded powder, and other herbs which were all natural and available to use on a daily basis. All of these herbs carried an aromatic scent and flavor.

Many South Asians used to process these foods for cooking, boiling, and other forms. Keeping that in mind, most Indians learned how to depend on those herbs as a natural way of living by forming a kind of dependence on the organic world and mother nature.

My grandma learned to cook particular South Asian dishes when she was a teen. Usually, most children are taught to be self- independent at a very young age and this makes them civilized, successful, and organized. My mom in particular and my grandma taught me how to cook fish, rice, and vegetables in special herbs and powder.

As I have learned to cook a lot of dishes, my favorite one is plain rice and mixed vegetables with a slice of fish on the side. With that in mind, I have learned to keep some aspects and traditions of our rich South Asian culture alive, never forgetting them even in an era of fast food and American culture.

Even though cooking may seem like a boatload of hard work one can achieve after a while, it is really simple to accomplish. It took some time for me to master, though. Although cooking is like a state of art, at times, it usually is the key to survive. When we think of survival, adults our age begin to speculate the idea of a competitive world where people learn to outrun those who find it difficult to live amongst the others. Survival of the fittest would be a great way to term this idea.

With all this in mind, we usually go by our instinct and from what our forefathers and mothers presented. However, learning some crucial life hacks from our parents in regards to food is a great way to keep on going with our day.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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