This was my first time making shortcrust pastry and I don’t even own a kitchen scale. To quote Julia Child, “Everything in moderation… including moderation!” And with that, it is time for a treat! What better that to bake tarts in praise of Alice! If one of them works better for us, that is just splendid! We have found what works best for us stick to it! So, before we say that vegetarian, or non-vegetarian, or vegan, or raw-food, or any other diet is superior, let us just take a deep breath. They are just being practical if you have scarcity of land and are surrounded by the bounty of the seas, it only makes sense to harvest some of it. Yet, many Buddhists in Thailand and Japan are consumers of meat and seafood. That is the reason that most followers of these religions abstain from consuming food that is nonvegetarian or that likely to harm life in the course of its getting to our table. Who am I to tell them to follow my reason!Īhimsa(nonviolence) is an important tenet of Buddhism as well as Jainism, and Hinduism. I am sure others have their reasons for choosing to eat they way they do. Again, this is my reasoning and it works for me. That way I never have to say never! Unless, of course, there is a medical reason for doing so. Actually, what I really do is consume butter and cream in moderation. I don’t substitute them with something that is pretending to be butter/cream. If some foods are off the list, how come we are always looking for a substitute? If I think milk ought to be out of my diet then why must I go out of my way to make ‘milk’ from everything I can lay my hands on? Heck, if I were to take milk out of the equation I wouldn’t be able to pour myself a cup of tea! I apply the same reasoning to butter and cream if I think I ought to not eat them, then I just don’t eat them. That would make shopping for food such a chore! For me, a good diet is also one that does not require me to analyse food excessively before I can decide if it fits into the way I ought to eat. A good diet for anyone is surely one they can stick to without harming themselves or others? If you are going to eat the shark to extinction, then there is a problem. I have the same view of raw-food and similar such other diets. Whether a people are vegetarian or eat meat, has all come out of pragmatism and to put values on these seems ridiculous. Some foods, and some diets then get to be regarded as inferior/superior. We are constantly trying to put food in some category or another and then assigning a value to the food as well as to the diets they fit into. In modern times we are equally obsessed with food but for different reasons.
And, like most of us today, Alice too seems to rely on something to eat or drink to alter her size all the time!
The frequent discussions about food in the story are but a contrast to the scarcity of food in Victorian times. It is as much a tale of wonder for children as it a reflection of the times. Just as there is purpose to every word of fantasy and nonsense in Alice, it is there to the bits about food as well. The pages of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are replete with mentions and tales of much food.
The extended rains have brought lowered the temperature enough to consider outside of subsistence food and I thought I might bake some tarts. This weekend, I finally snapped out of my laziness and decided, after a long gap, to fire up the oven.
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