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Magazine
CULTURE
From Lisbon with love
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Vasco da Gama’s voyage added one more dimension to India’s complex and multi-faceted gastronomical fare. JANARDHAN ROYE
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The new taste and flavour of Portuguese cooking descended on local kitchens.
Photo: Janardhan Roye
New tastes: Fusion of two worlds.
We stood at the edge of the Atlantic. The early morning sun laid a pathway of shimmering iridescence across the Tagrus, at Lisbon, Portugal. The estuary was calm. One couldn’t help thinking how different it would have been in medieval times when the harbour resounded with military skirmishes, cannon fire, and constant movement of caravels returning triumphantly or drifting in with sails and crew in a shambles.
Looming figure
Around us the figure of Dom Vasco da Gama loomed large. The riverside district known as Santa Maria de Belém showcases his various achievements. The iconic explorer, military naval commander, mathematician and astronomer was the first European to find a sea route to India... and he carried with him a lifestyle and a cuisine that would add one more dimension to India’s complex and multi-faceted culture and gastronomical fare.
Interestingly we were standing at the harbour where a four-masted flagship, the São Gabriel, two stout square-rigged caravels and a lateen-rigged storeship with three years rations — wine, bacalhau or salted fish, salted
beef, biscuits, cheese, lentil, sardines, plums, almond, onion, garlic, mustard, salt, sugar, and honey — had gathered on that historic day of July 8, 1497.
Captain-Major Vasco da Gama was assigned a challenging task: to “gain access to the commercial markets of the Orient”; to break the Arab-Persian and Venetian nexus and their monopoly on pepper and spices. Unwittingly, the 38-year-old leader took with him the magic, zest and verve of Portuguese cuisine to a land many seas away.
Some 100 days and 4,000 miles after leaving Lisbon, the flotilla neared the southern coast of Africa. The exhausted and starving crew, expecting the worst at the “Cape of Storms”, was greeted with fair weather. . The crew rested, and the vessel was reprovisioned.
A few days later the ships moved up Africa’s east coast. At the thriving port of Mozambique, da Gama observed that merchants sold baskets of pearls and rubies, heaps of ivory, stacks of tropical hardwoods, and bars of gold. The marketplace had sacks of different types and grades of pepper, a mind-boggling range of saffron, spices and herbs, and all manner of fresh and dried catch from the sea.
The galley masters were swept off their feet when they saw the array of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meats. They sampled the local fare, and almost “swooned” over Swahili cuisine with its Persian and Arabic influences. They grabbed as many recipes as they could and the ingredients to prepare them — pomegranate juice, curds, cloves, greens, tomatoes, herbs and spices.
At Mombassa the crew was eyed suspiciously, and local thugs attempted a take over of their flagship. The Gulf traders, who jealously guarded their monopoly, did their best to get them out. But not before the wily Portuguese checked out their culinary delights, and memorised the nuances of their cooking, and “kicked back” with home brews — heady fruity rums and potent palm wine!
At Malindi, da Gama met an experienced pilot, a Gujarati Muslim navigator. With his help, the vessels reached the Malabar Coast on May 21, 1498. Vasco da Gama sailed into the pages of history. This had a far-reaching impact on India’s western coast. Arab monopoly of trade was broken. Indo-Portuguese trade and commerce boomed.
These trail-blazing voyages also had significant social and cultural ramifications. The first printing press was set up; educational institutions and splendorous churches came up. Manualine architecture, town squares, and cobbled streets graced the new land. With time local people took to Western dress, music and dancing.
New dimensions
Amid these changes, the new taste and flavour of Portuguese cooking — the aromatic and fiery chilly peri peri, olive oil, cinnamon, garlic, coriander, parsley, herbs and spices, vinegar and wines — descended on local kitchens. A delightful fusion cuisine resulted that saw the offing of grilled sardines cooked over wood fire, caldo verde or spinach soup, roast suckling pig, francesinha, prawn balchão, vindaloo aka vindalho or vindallo, xacuti, sorpotel, bread fermented with toddy, vinho verde , bebinca and other extra sweet desserts. All of which added a new dimension to the complex and colourful tapestry of India.
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