Latest news with #TheEpicofGilgamesh
Hindustan Times
29-04-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Mumbai wants to extinguish the charcoal tandoor
Suhel Ahmed, the owner of Tower Tandoori, reckons he might have the last charcoal tandoor in London. The oven, traditionally cylindrical and made out of clay, has been imparting a smoky flavour to naans, chicken and lamb chops at least since his grandfather opened the restaurant in 1978. Mr Ahmed estimates that the tandoor had already been running hot for a couple of decades under previous owners, meaning the oven would be only marginally younger than an independent India. Soon charcoal-fired tandoors may also be hard to find in Mumbai, India's commercial capital. The local government has issued notices to scores of restaurants, food stalls and bakeries that they must switch to greener alternatives, such as gas-fired or electric ovens, to help reduce air pollution. Eateries have until July 8th to comply with the order. (Mumbai's authorities are following the lead of their peers in Delhi, who curbed the use of charcoal tandoors a few years ago.) Mumbaikars, as residents of the city are known, fret their kebabs and naans will lose the distinctive—not to mention delicious—barbecue char. Restaurateurs say they are being unfairly blamed for air-quality problems, as construction and gridlocked traffic contribute to smog, too. The tandoor has a long and tasty history. But, like much in modern India, its origins are disputed. Clay ovens used for baking bread are mentioned in 'The Epic of Gilgamesh', perhaps the oldest recorded story, and the term can be traced back to the Akkadian words for 'fire' and 'mud'. Tandoors are still used across Asia. In Armenia the word is tonir; in Uzbekistan, tandir; in Iran, tanour. The modern variant seems to have made its way to India via the Mughals, a Central Asian Muslim dynasty that ruled much of northern India and present-day Pakistan before the British. Yet others claim an indigenous origin for tandoori dishes, finding evidence that the ancient Harappan civilisation (which spanned present-day Punjab) baked chickens in clay ovens. Either way, the tandoor became a mainstay of Punjabi cooking and tandoori chicken became a staple dish. A trio of Punjabi chefs pioneered the recipe, marinating the chicken in a mixture of yoghurt and spices before grilling it. As refugees, fleeing the horrors that followed the bloody partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the chefs brought the technique to Delhi, where it became a favourite of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The dish spread all over the world with Indian emigrants, including Mr Ahmed's grandfather. It even became a symbol of the former imperial metropolis: tandoori chicken was adapted into chicken tikka masala, perhaps Britain's favourite curry, by using boneless meat and adding tomato sauce. The charcoal tandoor is decreasing in popularity not just because it is dirty, but because it is expensive—thanks to the large, high-quality chunks of charcoal required—and because of the skill needed to handle the heat. (The oven 'has a mind of its own,' Mr Ahmed says.) Gas tandoors may be more efficient, but their flavour is less robust. Discerning eaters will hope that centuries of culinary history do not go up in smoke.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Book Review: In 'You Didn't Hear This From Me,' Kelsey McKinney wants you to reconsider gossip
Kelsey McKinney bookends her new collection of essays on gossip with a word from Emily Dickinson: 'Tell all the truth but tell it slant.' As the co-creator of the runaway hit podcast 'Normal Gossip," McKinney was well aware of gossip's need for a PR makeover. But what started as a project to liberate the act from its designation as sin, villainized and demeaned as 'women's talk,' transmuted into something much more slippery. In interrogating the longstanding contradictions of gossip, Dickinson's line proves instructive: Which parts are true, which parts are slant, and who gets to do the telling? See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. 'You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip' is a whirlwind inquiry into one of society's oldest practices. McKinney writes about gossip with an intellectual rigor that borders on reverence, explaining how a raunchy Doja Cat lyric exemplifies the theory of mind and how the notorious burn book from 'Mean Girls' actually helped teenagers avoid a predatorial teacher. In each essay, McKinney unpacks new facets of gossip with a colorful cast of sources, ranging from the Apostle Paul, ChatGPT, philosopher John Stuart Mill, celebrity gossip account DeuxMoi and Town Tattle, an about-town magazine that was 'essentially the Roaring Twenties' Gossip Girl.' McKinney, both a reporter and critic, is perhaps best known as the host of 'Normal Gossip.' On each episode, before she passed the baton to new host Rachelle Hampton late last year, McKinney would relay 'an anonymous morsel of gossip from the real world.' After introducing each guest, she would ask them a simple question: What is your relationship with gossip? It's a question that lies underneath each of McKinney's essays. From teenagers who use gossip as a way to beat down school rivals to women who warn coworkers to avoid office creeps, McKinney paints a complicated portrait of how gossip's virtues and vices are directly intertwined with power and who wields it. Perhaps some confusion about gossip comes from the fact that it is itself difficult to define. Often conflated as slander or libel or even hate speech, gossip's definition is nebulous, existing according to McKinney 'in a kind of transitory, imaginary space between events and their codifying.' It's this tentative quality that makes gossip a prime 'tool for the less privileged' and an annoyance for those in authority. In seeking to at least approach a definition, McKinney argues that gossip is distinguished not by its tone but rather by its point of view. The orators who relayed ancient tales like 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' and the group chat dishing about who's dating who have something in common: Their tales are always second-hand, meaning every juicy detail is an interpolation of the truth. And yet it's the slant itself that makes gossip so delectable, and dangerous. ___ AP book reviews:
