Finger Food

Sri Lankans eat with their fingers.  I don't mean dainty-like finger eating either.  After spooning the food onto their plate, they proceed to dip their fingers into the delectables upon their plate.  This plate may hold food like rice, chillis, beets, onions, and curries.  Once the plate is full, they begin to massage, mash, press, pick, grasp, mess and squash the food together. Then, when mixed perfectly, they ball up a golf ball size of the mash between their fingers and proceed to press it into their mouths. This is all done with their right hand only.

Between bites and while chewing, they continue to mash and squash.  Rice and goop sticks to their fingers right up to the palm of their hands.  If they carry on a conversation, they stop mashing and eating, but keep the messy fingers dipped in the plate, awaiting a break in the conversation.  Yesterday, my queasy belly came close to wretching as I reluctantly watched those fingers with rice and spice stuck on them, snaking around in the food.  "How uncivilized, how disgusting, how gross,"  said my ethnocentric self between heaves.

Tonight, at dinner, I decided, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."  So, after filling my plate with vegetables, chicken curry and string hoppers, my fingers took the plunge.  I mashed and moved, masticating the food long before it hit my mouth.  Horrified, ethnocentric Bill looked on disgustedly and considered the future of our relationship.  I for one, never found food tastier.

Long live Rome!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saari

Image
Sri Lankan women wear saaris. They wear other things too. Sinhalese women either wear saaris or skirts and blouses. Tamil women wear saaris and unmarried Tamil women wear salwaar kemeez. A few women wear slacks. All professional women wear saaris. As I give formal presentations in my work, I decided to purchase myself a saari At the Saari store, I selected the fabric I loved. It was tan coloured silk blend with blue, green and apricot accents. I also purchased two stretchy tank tops that are worn with a Saari. Saari fabric is sold in such a length allowing for one end to be cut off and used as fabric for a saari blouse. The salesman measured me up for the blouse. A couple days later, when the blouse was ready, the salesman phoned and Bill picked it up for me. I tried it on. First, I put it on backwards. Then realizing my error, I tried it on front ways. The darts in the blouse sharpened my breasts into cone shaped points. I had noticed women about town with sharply poi
Read more

Knuckles Range

Image
Deep in the interior of Sri Lanka is a mountain range named Knuckles Range. This moniker, given by early British surveyors to the area, is so named as it closely resembles the clenched fist of a giant man. Knuckles Range is a UNESCO Heritage Site due to the flora and fauna found there; some species are endemic and not seen anywhere else in the world. April 12 and 13 th are the Tamil and Sinhala New Years and as the dates landed on a Thursday/Friday, a nice long weekend was created that allowed us to travel (a long and dirty bus ride) to the Kandy District in order to hike the Knuckles Range with a guide. Another VSO volunteer, Marjorie was with Bill and me. Day 1: Two hours driving into the Knuckles region in 4x4 Safari Jeep: 5 hours of hiking to base camp. Day 2: 8 hours of hiking to the caves; camp out. Porters carrying food, tents, sleeping bags. Day 3: 8 hours of hiking to home stay in the Knuckles Day 4: 4 hours of hiking to the rarely seen falls: only 3 other foreigne
Read more

My work

Image
Handing over curriculum and books to Sri Jayawardenapura University Mental Health Training Organizational Development for Shanthiham I have had requests to write more about my work. I find it difficult due to the highly sensitive nature of the work and the usual limits of confidentiality. However, I will try to give some generalities. Many jobs or tasks arose based on my initial assessment of the organization and the needs of the community/district/province. My work was and is not assigned, but rather based on this assessment and determining where my skill set can be used to fill in some of the gaps. Job One : Train the nine member trauma team in group therapy, build their clinical skills, and develop their capacity to work with victims of torture, trauma and ex-combatants. Job Two : Train a six member community team in group therapy, build their clinical skills to work with families of the "disappeared", war widows, the displaced, and the mentally ill.
Read more