"Oh, grandson, you know that cooking also changes according to the zonal principle. Each landscape has its own unique set of foods. So, on the plains and steppes, one type of food, in the low mountains another, in the highlands the third, in the desert regions the fourth, in the cities fifth . And this is natural. It gives each dish a unique taste! "
"Grandfather, it's clear, I was in the desert and we ate locusts, it was tasty, but I can't find such a taste in the city," his grandson thoughtfully answered while he was waiting for the second course in a cafe in the old city.
"Do you know that the main dishes of the village were made from grain, they made flour products from them, some vegetables, sour milk and dried fruit."
"Whereas the nomads ate more meat, drank milk, ate fats, they had less flour and no vegetables at all."
"Wow! I could not eat milk and meat every day!" the intrigued grandson answered in surprise.
"I wonder what the peasants ate, what kind of food."
"Well, as I heard from my friend, he was from the village, they ate bread. They made soup from ground flour. Moreover, from millet or barley, wheat was used only for baking bread. And there were cereals from cereals, liquid stews. Meat - for example, pilaf or soup with meat could only afford for big holidays. 4-5 times a year. But you know, this was the case in the 30s of the 20th century. But peasants in the 19th century could afford to eat meat dishes twice a year. "!
"It was a hard time! It's interesting that people replaced meat."
"You know, grandson, they caught birds, and made soup out of them, caught mountain goats or rams. There was no meat, but there was a fish!"
"But those who had the money, merchants, artisans, traders, could afford more nutritious food!"
"What kind of grandfather"?
"They ate game, a lot of fruits and sweets, there was meat from the main dishes, they drank cleaner water, which they brought from sources and did not take it from the city or rural canals as the poor."
That is, the food differed by the products of the poor and the rich, "the grandson asked.
"Yes, it was different, but the methods of heat treatment were the same for rich and poor. Frying in fats in stoves like" Tonduri ".
You now know how the Chinese say, "First of all, it is important to be interested in the weather (emphasized by the author) throughout the year and imagine how heat or cold can affect the patient. Then you should find out from what places the patient is, what mountains and waters are near his homeland, so dryness or an abundance of moisture is also associated with his illness. ... the disease and the medicine are closely connected, and the disease goes away without a trace if the medicine is chosen exactly ... It's important not that there are many of them [drugs], but that they are in place. "*
"Wow, grandfather, you know so much!"
"Well, you just need to read a lot, communicate with people, learn from them and you too will know a lot, grandson!"
"Grandfather, when did the first kitchen appear"?
Well, as our archaeologists testify, in the late Stone Age, which is 48,000 years ago, in the cultural layer, the first cuisines with fossilized products were discovered. Deer bones, boar bones, grains, fish bones. "
"Wow! Grandfather, and what products were in our country, when and where?" asked the grandson while they were waiting for the second dish, which for some reason they had so long carried to their table.
"The mash that we all love so much came first to China, from India and then along the Silk Road, and came to us. Beans come from East Africa, with Arab merchants she came to us.
Peaches came from North and Central China. And they were grown there in the third millennium BC. "Through the trade routes, peaches first came to us, and then to Persia and from there to Europe."
"Celery has roots from Italy, where it appeared in the 16th century, and came to us through Persia in the 18th century."
"And where did the wheat come from, and grandfather?"
"Wheat? Well, it was common, as was barley from the Punjab to the Caucasus, in our town of Small-An, fossilized wheat was found another 4 millennium BC. This is the birthplace of other products - small-seeded flax and onions, as well as plums, apricot, peach, almond, cherry, apple tree, pear, grape, nut, strawberry, quince, pomegranate and fig "**.
"From Byzantium, Persia, melons, watermelons, alfalfa, and clover came to us.
Grapes and clover came from Persia to China.
In the 4th century, mulberry was imported from China to us in Small An. We have our own pumpkin, its findings date back to the Bronze Age. "
"Grandfather is so interesting!"
"Yes, it's interesting, but something we don't have is the second dish."
"I'll go ask, why are they bearing it for so long?"
Just at that moment, the chef's apprentice appeared with two plates that he carried to them.
It was also a dessert. Unusual for Shir Ali.
Two plates appeared on the table, the waiter left, but after two minutes he returned with a teapot of green long leaf tea and two small bowls. Four times he poured water from the kettle into the bowl and back, saturated the tea with oxygen, and only then went back to the kitchen.
On the plate were whitish and yellowish balls and next to them were several toothpicks.
The balls on the plates were somewhat similar to the dry cheese of the nomads, which he saw in the desert.
"Grandfather and what is it?" the grandson asked interestedly.
"Yes..."! "did not expect to see it here" ?! "The last time I was like this ... mmm, I ate dessert only after the war, in the 50s of the 20th century."
"How nasty!"
"And you try first ... grandson ... understand what kind of taste and what it is made of."
Shir Ali carefully took a toothpick, stuck it in a ball, opened his mouth, and put it inside. He started to chew. The hard shell crunched on the teeth, the juice splashed from the inside, there was flesh, something tasted like a melon. The fragrance came out of the mouth. The taste was a little sweet, pleasantly enveloping the sky. But ShirAli could not understand what the shell was made of.
An unanswered question was read in his eyes, what is the shell of, what is this dessert called?
"Well, what's up?" asked the grandfather, chuckling at the expression of his grandson's eyes.
"Grandfather, what is it?"
"But it's tasty," right?
"Yes! The taste is unusual, refreshing, moderately sweet, aromatic!"
"But what is it?"
"The dish is called - balls of melon juice and oatmeal"!
"The recipe is simple - this is a by-product, we made it at home. When your great-grandmother and my mother cooked fruit and berries for the winter, then after the war until the end of the 50s it was bad with sugar, and in winter I really wanted to eat."
"Then all the village and town women picked berries and fruit, boiled them in a pot, and cooked Beckmes *** I will tell you about this later. But the marc was collected when cooking fruits, berries, in particular melon. These marcs with oatmeal. Then they cooled slightly and they rolled different balls. They were dried in the sun for 1 day. You can cook and take dried fruit more easily, 600 grams of oatmeal is used for 500 grams of dried fruit. "
"Grandfather, what is oversized? I never saw him."
"Wow"?!
"Do not know what is tolokono" ???
"No, I don't know! Therefore, I ask you, grandfather!"
"The fiber is crushed on the steps of zeros, for example, corn, wheat, rice, barley, buckwheat. Nowadays, we just pushed it and added the squeezed juice, but already in the full 60s, it was possible to add granulated sugar "
"Ah, that is, the method is similar to making marzipan?"
"Well, you probably just crush grain and sugar or dry berries in a mortar. After that, sift through a sieve. You can eat like powder. You can roll balls or you can use them as an additive to sour cream or milk by mixing them with them.
For 600 grams of grain, add 200 grams of sugar. "
"Wow, Grandfather, here you can play on the proportions of berries, sugar, grain. You can also use different products" ?! the grandson's eyes sparkled from thoughts that came to his head, according to culinary experiments.
"I wonder if this will be sold to foreign tourists"? ShirAli thought.
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* Ed. Sorokin V.F. Translation from Chinese Resurrection D.N. Poems translated by Smirnov I. The Curse of Taoist. The main edition of Eastern Literature. Science. 1987.p. 97.
** Randhava M. Gardens through the Ages. Knowledge. 1981 p. 24-25.
*** Beckmes - squeezed juice from overripe fruits to a boil, boil, not allowing to boil, then stand and strain. After evaporation of a certain part of the volume (from 50 to 80% depending on the feedstock), it becomes similar in texture to honey. Contains sugar, organic acids and vitamins. Link from Wikipedia article "Beckmes".