{"id":4263,"date":"2021-07-12T17:20:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T11:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=4263"},"modified":"2021-07-12T17:20:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T11:50:23","slug":"4263","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/4263\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>\n
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Kashmir Cultural Notes – The Rice-man<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Chefs of Kashmir <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rice-Man <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZGM <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other\nthan politics, which has continuously been picking our minds like woodpeckers\non tall pine trees, gossip about wazawan<\/em>\ndominates our discourses during the marriage seasons. In olden times, even\nduring our childhood, it comprised seven to nine dishes, and as we advanced in\nour age, it also started graduating from cuisine to cuisine. Today, on average,\nthe number of the multi-cuisine lamb mutton dishes has gone up to thirty-five-\nin many cases, more particularly the feast for bridegrooms, the number ranges\nfrom fifty to seventy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our\nchildhood, chicken dishes were not part of the Wazawan. These perhaps were added\nto multi-cuisine dishes in the late sixties. Many an expert Ashpazs had then\nseen it as spoiling to the sanctity of the traditional wazawan. Though our\nelders before 1947 frequented Peshawar and Lahore, the dishes of these places\nhad not impacted our traditional wazawan.<\/em>\nPerhaps, the Chicken was added to Kashmir\u2019s sumptuous feast under the influence\nof Saudi Arabia. Many chefs from Srinagar after the 1960s went on pilgrimage. It\ncame to be called \u2018waza-Kokur\u2019- now more than three chicken dishes have been\nadded to Wazawan. The Chicken is also cooked in the mutton soup like other\ndishes of Wazawan, including vegetable dishes. These chicken dishes, some\ncooked in milk or curd, when taken out independently, are quite savouring.\nStill, amidst the mounds of mutton spread all over the trami<\/em> that already have vanquished taste buds, they lose supremacy\nto gratify our palate. Another incongruous item added to traditional wazawan\nhas been pulao; it is served in a separate carved copper bowl and is shared in\npinches by four relishing from a common Trami<\/em>\n(large tinned copper plate). It at all does not go well with wazawan. It looks like\nan appendage \u2013 a vestige that could easly be scissored to retain the sanctity\nof wazawan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In as\nmuch cooking of this multi-cuisine feast of Kashmir that has earned a\ndistinctive place to our land in the culinary world is concerned, the Vasta\nWaza (head chef) is the protagonist and an institution unto himself. It takes\nhim decades of apprenticeship to graduate to be the leader of his team of\nfifteen to twenty cooks. The number of cooks involved in preparing the feast\ndepends on the quantity of mutton to be cooked. In the lower-middle-class\nmarriages, usually, five to six quintals of meat and one quintal of chickens are\ncooked. The scene in politically oriented weddings of the wealthy and elite,\nwhere lots of politicians and tops in the administration are invited, is\ndifferent\u2014the quantity of mutton cooked ranges from ten to fifteen quintals. A\nlot of attention is paid to d\u00e9cor and illuminations. And of late, some\npoliticians and non-resident Kashmir have been booking five-star hotels for marriage\nceremonies.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming\nback to Vasta Wazas<\/em>, through hard labour\nduring their apprenticeship, they master the art of judging the quality of spices.\nFrom smelling the spices and other ingredients used in wazawan, they can tell\nabout their quality. Chopping fresh lamb meat for different cuisines is an art\nthat has come to him through experience- it is something worth watching than putting\nin words. A team of junior wazas, <\/em>while\nmincing the meat with heavy-duty cleavers for making kababs in synchronization\nwith the rhythm of wooden mallets of those engaged in pulverizing mutton for making\nGustaba and Rista often sing romantic songs of Rasul Mir and add to the festivity\nof the marriages. This whole job is done under the strict supervision of the\nVasta (head chef). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rice\nis the primary ingredient of wazawan \u2013 <\/em>it\nis the staple food of Kashmiris. The rice cooking, which otherwise at homes\ndoes not need much an expertize,for wazawan<\/em> needs unique expertise. Usually,\nin the wasta waza (chief Chef) team, everyone cannot cook rice- it needs\nspecialization, a minor mistake in its preparation can spoil the entire feast. In\nold times, the Kashmir valley was known as the rice bowl and was famed for the best\nindigenous verities. There were almost a hundred varieties of indigenous varieties.\nFor their fragrance and sweetness, some kinds of rice were famed beyond the high\nmountains of the valley. Some fragrant indigenous varieties like Mushk Bu\u2019deg\nand Kamad varieties were cooked specially for the feast of the bridegroom. Those\nwho could afford it cooked it for everyone as of late 1970. Historian Dr Sheikh\nMohammad Iqbal told me that in Budgam area of Kashmir, some areas were\nidentified for cultivating the special varieties only for the royal courts. Almost\nall the indigenous rice varieties became extinct after high yield Chinese seeds\nwere introduced in Kashmir.  Having lost\nthe fragrant native rice varieties, now the wazas insist on rice cultivated on\nspring water fed paddy fields. Rice produced in paddy fields irrigated by\nwaters from the famed Kokernag spring in South Kashmir is considered the best.\nThe rice from the spring-fed fields in the ratio of  1:4  mixed with a revived Mushk bu\u2019deg variety is\nseen as the best variety. Of course, the quality of rice is vital for a good\nfeast, but a lot depends on the Chef cooking the rice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us try as much as we can to preserve our traditional culinary and gastronomic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrote this nostalgia column after two years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kashmir Cultural Notes – The Rice-man<\/p>\n

Chefs of Kashmir <\/p>\n

The Rice-Man <\/p>\n

ZGM <\/p>\n

Other
\nthan politics, which has continuously been picking our minds like woodpeckers
\non tall pine trees, gossip about wazawan
\ndominates our discourses during the marriage seasons. In olden times, even
\nduring our childhood, it comprised seven to nine dishes, and as we advanced in
\nour age, it also started graduating from cuisine to cuisine. Today, on average,
\nthe number of the multi-cuisine lamb mutton dishes has gone up to thirty-five-
\nin many cases, more particularly the feast for bridegrooms, the number ranges
\nfrom fifty to seventy. <\/p>\n

In our
\nchildhood, chicken dishes were not part of the Wazawan. These perhaps were added
\nto multi-cuisine dishes in the late sixties. Many an expert Ashpazs had then
\nseen it as spoiling to the sanctity of the traditional wazawan. Though our
\nelders before 1947 frequented Peshawar and Lahore, the dishes of these places
\nhad not impacted our traditional wazawan.
\nPerhaps, the Chicken was added to Kashmir\u2019s sumptuous …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,28,5,389],"tags":[393,390,394,392,391,24,164],"class_list":["post-4263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take","category-featured","category-kashmir-talk","category-z-g-muhammad","tag-nostalgiazgm","tag-kashmir-cultural-notes","tag-my-bioscope","tag-waza","tag-wazawan","tag-z-g-muhammad","tag-zgm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4265,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions\/4265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}