Le Fondue Internationale

 Le Fondue Internationale

The sunbeams laughed as they slid through the skylight,to dance on the table of a café in Lyon(France).A perfect tableau for a cup of ‘ Un café avec du lait chaud(a hot milky coffe) and something vegetarian please”,I requested.

       Some furious miming followed and “Plat du Vache Que Rit Chaud”,the chef suggested.”What is that”,”Animaux with horns” He pointed to his head “your head”? “Non!!” He made butting signs with his head….”Moomoo Ha –Ha!!”oh! not laughing cow??Noo,beef please,Not laughing either!

He tore at his hair,disappeared and came in a while with heated ‘ Laughing Cow Cheese’and some creamy goat cheese, on a plate of lettuce and a luke warm coffee.(Lettuce is the staple food of vegetarians in France).Okay, so this is like a plate of hot paneer tikka at home,I mused.

(Mahatma Gandhi in his time had repopularised goat milk and cheese.Careless environment management had almost lost this food,but recently we see a re-introduction of goat’s cheese in metro cities by a movement called Slow Foods .This movement started from Europe,Germany and is bringing our city people back to our traditional foods.)

“Hot coffee please””And some milk” I pointed to the black lukewarm brew.He swooshed some milk foam and cooled it even more.”Hottt!!” I was hotting up.He responded with a beatific smile.”Vous etes Hindustani?”he pointed to me.”I sing one hot song for you ‘Afsana Ban gaya hoon’”he made a comic figure as he tried to demonstrate an Indian jig along with 2 lines of an old Hindi song, sounding very funny with his French pronunciation.After which he asked me the meaning of ‘Afsana’.It was tough for me to explain in French.But I sure forgave him the cool coffee.

I thought”Back in Mumbai I must share this interaction with the coffee vendor on C.S.T station,when he cools my hot coffee with his daily glare”.Music and laughter so make up for unpalatibility.

But this hard won feeling of ‘Bon Homie’ was soon chomped up by the ticket monsieur who refused to understand a word of English.Finally on the train, I could see the humour.In France,you can trade insults with great politeness and still part with a smiling ”Bonjour”.

Ages ago, I had collected a twilighty green lichen in the heights of Murren in Switzerland, from a rock perched on the path of a milky blue melting glacier stream and a blue green algae from the bank of lake Geneva. Two years later, I added an exactly similar specimen from a Himalayan stream in Kedarnath and a floating algae from the Ganga near Rishikesh.

Now 10 years down, all four specimens from diverse ends of the earth are still meditating together in a glass bottle, untouched & unspoiled by time (only the lichens are darker on the outside). In the humidity of Mumbai, where herb specimens rot fast, this is a miracle of nature.

On the outside, pollution may deface environment, nut the pristine purity underlying nature is still the same. Look carefully at a fossilized tree gum or leaf. They are frozen mirrors of your own life force. Like the one consciousness, there is the same crystal steam flowing through the veins of each living entity.

On a visit to France,we undertook a trip to interact with a French potter living on the edge of a forest.His wife was too far from the market to be ready for vegetarians.So she caught up a bag and stout gloves and together we proceeded to the nearby forest.Young nettle tops harvested with gloves, soon filled up a bag.The other bag was for salad.These were wild Dandelion leaves which I could also easily recognize and help her with.A few wild berries for the dessert took a long time finding,but enough were gathered to prepare a delicious concoction with a little cream.Juniper berries and some wild strawberries were all we could find.Other berries were not plentiful here in this region.A few wild daisies, Chrysanthemum,Lavender and rose-mary leaves and flowers were gathered for the herbal tea;Rhubarb stems from the garden and some divinely fragrant white flowers from a tree which they called ‘Acacia’.

On a whole wheat pie base,the nettles boiled drained and lightly salted were spread on and placed in the oven.Meanwhile the Dandelion leaves were thoroughly washed and chopped along with a few lettuce leaves.(Normally lettuce is The staple food for vegetarians in France. I ate so much that my complexion  probably turned lettucy).However there was very little growing in her garden and the wild leaves made up for bulk(Dandelion is called ‘Piss On Lit’ meaning piss on the bed,because it’s a powerful diuretic.In France,bacteria is a dreaded vampire.They say the fox pisses on Dandelion or the flowers may have insect merde(shit).’Beware’ is their warning for wild plants.It’s a pity,wild plants are the best anti-oxidants one can get.Anyhow we were fortunate that the lady potter was far away from the market).A few Juniper berries were thrown in to spice up the salad.The Rhubarb stems were quite painful to peel but again lightly steamed,sugared,spread on another pie base and grilled,they were delicious.With Acacia flowers ,they make a preparation called Acacia butter which is churning the flowers in a mixer with a spoonful of cream.So it was a traditional French,5 course meal fits for the kings

Course I

1.Cups of piping hot herbal tea

Water boiled with Rose-mary,Lavender,daisies,Chrysanthemums,Juniper berries and a little wild spearmint leaves.

Course II

Dandelion,lettuce and Juniper berry salad

III.Main Course

Nettle pie

IV Course-

French Baguette,Acacia butter,cheese,a small glass of home made Red wine

V Course-Dessert – A piece of Rhubarb pie with a spoonful of wild strawberry and crushed juniper berry mixed with a little bit of cream.

By normal standards this was a spartan meal and the potter’s wife commented that due to too much work and light meals due to necessity,she would occasionally feel weak or fatigued.Nettles,whether on a pie or in a bowl,soup or tea would give her instant energy.I noticed that she was right and I could feel that energy( we call it Prana) coursing through me after a piece or 2 of Nettle pie.She shared that she would like to get Shatavari rhizome (Ayurvedic tonic herb) which is a strong energizer for women particularly(Later I sent her the powder from India).

Its not easy to buy things in interior France.In cities too half the time shops show closed.On a trip to Nancy we were puzzled when we hardly saw a soul from station and through the town.Suddenly while approaching the town square we heard a muted roar like distant thunder. Then a whirlwind comprising of many gaily dressed cyclists whirled past .’Le Tour de France’.We were so fortunate to have witnessed it live.Behind the speeding cyclists, what seemed to be the entire town of Nancy followed in a huge crowd,cheering gaily waving flags,like children following the pied-piper.In a few moments everybody had disappeared leaving the square deserted as before.

We went on to visit ‘Le Jardin de Citadel’.There was a well stocked herbal garden there.My daughter had suddenly developed stomach cramps due to it being her time of the month. I had checked previously, and all the shops had been shut.I found some Peppermint growing in great profusion there.I made her eat a few leaves and added some to the water-bottle.I was happily stunned by the result.In about 20 minutes she was perfectly fine.The tradition of ancient monastery herbal garden is still followed world-wide in small herbal patches. Herbal teas are now highly popular and available due to globalization. However our ayurvedic Kadhas and indigenous herb teas with basil,Ginger ,lemon grass etc have always been around and are much appreciated world wide as the example of the potter’s wife asking for Shatavari,shows .When we mix cultures,the end is an interesting mélange like a ‘Fondue “,a new super dish that infuses fresh life and energy into society.

Back home we make a chutney or a white ‘butter’ very like their white Acacia butter with drumstick tree flowers,mixed with curd.In the Himalayas,Nettles are freely used by the hill people in teas or as vegetables but are largely forgotten as a food by the incoming generations,as are wild berries and Juniper berries.Certain kinds of bracken and lichen were used for various ailments.A curled silvery bracken,they call it Sanjeevani and a small,succulent called Longda in Garhwal Himalayas and a lichen called stone flowers(used in masalas) are still used in cooking but by and large the Himalayas have been invaded by packed junk food like noodles,doing away with the necessity to forage for wild food.The common dandelion is practically forgotten as are common flowers like daisies,Chrysanthemums and Nasturtiums.On a hopeful note, awareness and demand for these powerful anti-oxidants is spreading in the polluted cities.We need a reverse interaction that teaches the hill people to go back to their roots.We need to go back to our common traditions to find healthy answers to a hypochondriac world.