Soba..Ahaa!
Here's another food post....
Being completely swamped in my dissertation, I persuaded my brother and sister-in law to send me a care package. Since, I work all day in the library, I literally survive on coffee and bagels/muffins/scones. I knew if I got some food from my brother and sis-in law it will probably be the only 'good food' in my diet. The package arrived a couple of days ago and I was pleasantly surprised by all the goodies it contained. Although I am too excited about each and every content of that package, of all the great stuff, one of things that I wish to talk about here is.... SOBA.
Soba is Japanese noodles mostly made from buckwheat. I first heard about it when my brother and sister-in-law were preparing to leave for their trip to Japan and China. I was a bit concerned about what their food options, so I decided to met with one of my students who I knew was from Japan and shared my curiosity with him. I told him that my brother and sister-in law were going to Japan and that they are both vegetarians, so was wondering if there were any vegetarian options for them --to that, his immediate response was--'well, they can have fish'! I smiled and politely said 'no, they don't even eat fish'... 'no fish?' he said and repeated 'no fish?' and then I asked 'why, would that be a problem?' and he replied in rather an unsure tone 'uh..yea'. 'So, what could be vegetarian options for them', I asked again. He thought hard, really hard and kept mentioning 'mountain vegetables' but wasn't convinced with the suggestion himself and then after few seconds of straining his mind he smiled, his eyes lit up as he mentioned 'SOBA'. He didn't say much about soba, except that its noodles made out of 'mountain vegetables' :).
I immediately looked up for Soba after that conversation and shared this little information with my brother and sister-in law. Soba as I already mentioned is made from buckwheat (there are other versions of Soba too, okinawa potatoes, sweet potatoes etc.). First off, it's gluten free :) secondly, it is a very good source of thiamine. In the past, it was used as a substitute for rice in Tokyo during the time when people were suffering from beri beri (a disease caused due to lack of thiamine). Beri-beri was quite wide-spread especially in the urban areas in Japan in the late 1800s. It was first discovered in the Japanese navy whose diet primarily comprised white rice. Since, white rice is dehusked, that rips off its thiamine content thereby making people, especially those, for whom rice is a staple diet deprived of it. Upon discovering health effects of white rice, people started looking for other substitutes and started introducing healthier options in their diet. Soba has always been a part of Japanese diet, but with time as the country was undergoing economic and technological growth, they were resorting to more processed food. White rice back then, started becoming popular in urban areas and was considered as rich man's food. Interestingly, this made me think about how in India too white rice was considered rich man's food whereas grains like millet, sorghum were poor man's or farmer's food.
White rice has now become a staple diet in lot of countries, especially south Asian countries. It is no longer rich man's food. There are easy growing varieties and fast rice growing techniques that have been developed that is making rice easily available. However, there is a downside to it, in pursuit to make rice easily available to everyone, other highly nutritious crops like millets and sorghum have lost significance so much so that now if you will go to the market you probably would not find these grains. But, if your luck shines, then you might end up finding it at a price that is most likely to burn a hole in your pocket. All this makes me think about the seed conservation campaign which is becoming a revolution worldwide, and all the efforts that is being invested to preserve the different crops and its varieties. For example, check this really interesting video about one such seed bank all the way up on Arctic pole.
The food demand and culture is slowly homogenizing all throughout the world, as a consequence the diversity in crop production is decreasing. Stress is being laid on producing monocrops and that too in bulk. When come to think of it, I feel it's funny how first the society first creates a need for something, and then later regrets about it.....Anyways, I cooked a batch of Soba last night. I probably added more veggies to it than I should have, which was perfect. To be honest, I don't think it tasted great, it was my fault, I did not boil the noodles properly...oh well:/ BUT it was not that bad and it felt good in my heart and my stomach :)
Being completely swamped in my dissertation, I persuaded my brother and sister-in law to send me a care package. Since, I work all day in the library, I literally survive on coffee and bagels/muffins/scones. I knew if I got some food from my brother and sis-in law it will probably be the only 'good food' in my diet. The package arrived a couple of days ago and I was pleasantly surprised by all the goodies it contained. Although I am too excited about each and every content of that package, of all the great stuff, one of things that I wish to talk about here is.... SOBA.Soba is Japanese noodles mostly made from buckwheat. I first heard about it when my brother and sister-in-law were preparing to leave for their trip to Japan and China. I was a bit concerned about what their food options, so I decided to met with one of my students who I knew was from Japan and shared my curiosity with him. I told him that my brother and sister-in law were going to Japan and that they are both vegetarians, so was wondering if there were any vegetarian options for them --to that, his immediate response was--'well, they can have fish'! I smiled and politely said 'no, they don't even eat fish'... 'no fish?' he said and repeated 'no fish?' and then I asked 'why, would that be a problem?' and he replied in rather an unsure tone 'uh..yea'. 'So, what could be vegetarian options for them', I asked again. He thought hard, really hard and kept mentioning 'mountain vegetables' but wasn't convinced with the suggestion himself and then after few seconds of straining his mind he smiled, his eyes lit up as he mentioned 'SOBA'. He didn't say much about soba, except that its noodles made out of 'mountain vegetables' :).
I immediately looked up for Soba after that conversation and shared this little information with my brother and sister-in law. Soba as I already mentioned is made from buckwheat (there are other versions of Soba too, okinawa potatoes, sweet potatoes etc.). First off, it's gluten free :) secondly, it is a very good source of thiamine. In the past, it was used as a substitute for rice in Tokyo during the time when people were suffering from beri beri (a disease caused due to lack of thiamine). Beri-beri was quite wide-spread especially in the urban areas in Japan in the late 1800s. It was first discovered in the Japanese navy whose diet primarily comprised white rice. Since, white rice is dehusked, that rips off its thiamine content thereby making people, especially those, for whom rice is a staple diet deprived of it. Upon discovering health effects of white rice, people started looking for other substitutes and started introducing healthier options in their diet. Soba has always been a part of Japanese diet, but with time as the country was undergoing economic and technological growth, they were resorting to more processed food. White rice back then, started becoming popular in urban areas and was considered as rich man's food. Interestingly, this made me think about how in India too white rice was considered rich man's food whereas grains like millet, sorghum were poor man's or farmer's food.
White rice has now become a staple diet in lot of countries, especially south Asian countries. It is no longer rich man's food. There are easy growing varieties and fast rice growing techniques that have been developed that is making rice easily available. However, there is a downside to it, in pursuit to make rice easily available to everyone, other highly nutritious crops like millets and sorghum have lost significance so much so that now if you will go to the market you probably would not find these grains. But, if your luck shines, then you might end up finding it at a price that is most likely to burn a hole in your pocket. All this makes me think about the seed conservation campaign which is becoming a revolution worldwide, and all the efforts that is being invested to preserve the different crops and its varieties. For example, check this really interesting video about one such seed bank all the way up on Arctic pole.
The food demand and culture is slowly homogenizing all throughout the world, as a consequence the diversity in crop production is decreasing. Stress is being laid on producing monocrops and that too in bulk. When come to think of it, I feel it's funny how first the society first creates a need for something, and then later regrets about it.....Anyways, I cooked a batch of Soba last night. I probably added more veggies to it than I should have, which was perfect. To be honest, I don't think it tasted great, it was my fault, I did not boil the noodles properly...oh well:/ BUT it was not that bad and it felt good in my heart and my stomach :)
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