The Tapestry of Taste – why your curry is not as good as your grandmothers.

We all have powerful memories of being cooked for. There is a flavour of a childhood curry or a dish that lingers at the back of our head but has not yet been replicated on the tip of our tongue. Even family recipes that have been handed down like heirlooms are not able to replicate that particular taste of a fish curry whose flavour along with the aroma seems to be fast fading in some bygone wood fire kitchen. If only our charred earthenware which have now been replaced with Teflon coated utensils could tell the true story of authentic cuisines. What is most tragic is that our children will never know the flavours we have known; their taste buds have been forever altered. 

Aunty Julie never really tells you what she puts in her fish curry?

We blame the loss of traditional food flavours to inaccurate or altered recipes and while that may possibly be true what is also true is that traditional farming  and cooking techniques along the demand for certain foods have given way to strains of produce whose goal is not the production of the best quality ingredients and food but one that rings the cash register loudest.

Ever wondered how come your supermarket has so much honey on its shelves?

The demand for honey keeps soaring while ironically bees are dying in record numbers thanks to the indiscriminate use of insecticides. Yet the production of honey is on the rise and surprisingly met with by the use of hidden additives and other shady tactics. Read the label carefully and what you don’t understand research.

Cooking shows turned the humble garlic into a multi-billion-dollar crop giving rise to garlic that is bigger in size and easier to clean but one which lacks flavour if not messes up your body. Today, growing sugar is like printing money for it has infiltrated all forms of food. From chocolate to avocados, beautiful food can come with an ugly back story.