# 8: Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices, by Chitrita Banerji

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Bengali food writer Banerji begins with the promise to investigate whether the foods she thinks are traditional really are of ancient origin, or whether they are more modern developments from the originals. This fascinating premise unfortunately soon falls by the wayside, and the book becomes a more conventional survey of Indian regional cuisine, with notes on its associated history and culture.

Some chapters have an emotional depth and intimacy that makes them rise above the level of a simple food narrative: the one where she visits and dines at the Golden Temple of the Sikhs, and later has dinner with her friend (and famous writer, and Sikh historian) Khushwant Singh; her comparison of the detailed rules and rituals concerning permissible food in Indian Judaism and the Brahmin kitchen of Banerji's childhood; and the early and joyously nostalgic chapters set in her native Bengal, which is famous for sweets, fish, and food in general.

The rest of the book is mostly an entertaining reference book on regional cuisine, nostalgic and charming if you're already familiar with Indian food but I would guess overly dense if you're not. The chapter on the food of India's indigenous tribes should have been omitted: it's the only one in which Banerji never tries the food herself, and it's written in a vaguely condescending manner familiar to me from writings on but not by Native Americans, in which they are a simple people filled with natural wisdom. It also could have used a bibliography,

Recommended if you're Indian, have lived in India or travel there a lot, or are otherwise already familiar with Indian regional cooking but would enjoy an in-depth survey of it.

If none of those apply but you'd like to begin exploring the subject, Madhur Jaffrey has a number of books covering similar ground but is less likely to toss fourteen different names of dishes at you on a single page. I also prefer Jaffrey's prose; plus, she has recipes. My favorite of Jaffrey's is A Taste of India, which I highly recommend to anyone, advanced, intermediate, or beginners.

Click here to purchase Banerji's Eating India from Amazon: Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices

Click here to purchase Madhur Jaffrey's A Taste of India: A Taste of India

Tobias Buckell in the World of the Benevolent Satrapy

[sanguinity]

23. Tobias S. Buckell, Crystal Rain.

Vibrant adventure quest novel that falls somewhere between Military SF and Space Opera, with a vigorous dash of clash-of-civilizations, war-with-aliens, seafaring adventure, and arctic expedition thrown in. I must say, I was quite tickled by Buckell's ability to so deftly shift tropes and mash seemingly unrelated genre-loves of mine. (Except perhaps these genres are not as unrelated as I imagine? There is more than one author who has successfully put Hornblower in space, after all.)

The most distinctive thing about this novel, of course, is the world-building: the human settlement is Caribbean Diaspora (the planet itself named New Anegada), a blessed departure from North American Generic In Space. I struggled sometimes with the dialect that most characters used -- I don't parse the grammar correctly, and thus often missed emotional nuance -- but I liked seeing a human colony that had a specific heritage that extended beyond a one-note label. Also, as someone who grew up with far too many Erich von Däniken books in the house, I'm endlessly amused that the gods in both of these colonies really are super-advanced aliens. (Also, I feel respected as a reader that the aliens-as-gods element wasn't some big climatic reveal, but part of the up-front worldbuilding.)

Some things about the book bothered me. Even though the role normally cast within the fantasy genre as "POC/non-human hordes" was filled by light-skinned Aztecs (overrunning mostly dark-skinned Nagandans), they still felt like traditional POC hordes. (Also, I'm still not satisfied as to where this ultra-traditional Aztec culture was supposed to have sprung from?) And, as always, I pick at the xenobiology -- where does the energy for repeated, within-hours regeneration come from, especially given (as is revealed in a throwaway line in the sequel) that the aliens' metabolism is incompatible with the world they are trapped on?

But as ever, that is picking at the world-building, a reflexive habit of my brain, and unrelated to whether I enjoyed the book or not. Which I did, very much, because Buckell tells a darn good yarn, and throws in lots of interesting mind-candy for me to play with to boot.


24. Tobias S. Buckell, Ragamuffin.

Sequel to Crystal Rain, and heavier on the Space Opera end of the mix than the previous book, with shadings off into cyberpunk. Whereas Crystal Rain felt very male-centric (despite the presence Dihana, the Prime Minister of Nangada), here we get to follow a kick-ass woman warrior around. A kick-ass woman warrior whom I adore. When we cut away mid-book to find out what was happening on Nanganda, I confess that I threw a brief temper tantrum: I don't WANT John DeBrun; I want more Nashara! (Fortunately, we DO get more Nashara. More and more Nashara!)

Ragamuffin is far more philosophic than its swashbuckling predecessor. The human diaspora has not fared well in space, and in most places is under the "protective" knuckle of powerful non-human societies. Various bodies of humans have developed different responses: some choose the prosperity and mobility of becoming alien bits, some choose the highly-restricted freedoms of reservations, some claim the status of enforcers of alien power structures (self-justifying their actions as being a net benefit to humanity), and there are revolutionaries and personal resistances of many shapes and motivations. Who shares your motivations enough to be trustworthy? Anyone? And in the absence, who shares your motivations enough that they might allow themselves to be used?

The ending begs for a sequel, and I do hope that Buckell will provide it. I want to know if the Teotl survive, and how trustworthy they aren't (fwiw, I don't think they're any less trustworthy than the various human factions in the book). I want to see the next round against the Satrapy, plus maybe a fleshing-out of their background. And I'm dying to know: will the next book pick up where Ragamuffin left off, or will its perspective be another telescoping-out again, similar to the transition from Crystal Rain to Ragamuffin? Is there, once again, far more going on than any of these characters realize?