Critical Analysis of Food Politics in the Global South with regards to Sensory Perception

As we know in relation to the context of the Global South, a variety of methods, methodologies, and disciplinary positions to explore food and its importance of it and also how food practices in the global south are different from that of the Global North.

Caste religious shaping and food de-markets many things and also create boundaries between places because as we travel from one place to another, the importance of a particular food ingredient keeps changing accordingly to the place, people, and culture. Here we can talk about how the idea of gastro nationalism which talks about what is authentic and even if I get to eat Panner here in south India it doesn’t feel authentic because the way it’s prepared is different from my hometown. I believe that the global south is the hub or the teaching center for the whole world to learn more about food- practices, and knowledge of different ingredients. Here, in our country, there is a huge cultural and food diversity as we know about the famous North Indian food and the South Indian food.

For, I’m a North Indian and my ingredient is paneer. I feel that food connects us and we can sense or smell or taste different food items to know the worth of that particular food ingredient as I believe that food connects different languages, religions, and communities. For me when I eat paneer or while making it even when the smell comes, it just takes me back to my hometown Lucknow because here in the south we don’t get the exact same taste or smell and it just makes me very nostalgic also reminds me of my mom because she makes the best paneer I have ever had in my life and also that it makes me realize how much importance food has in our daily lives. Not only the eating aspect of it just to fill our stomachs but also to enjoy the gravity of the particular food or ingredient by looking at it or smelling that delicious smell which comes while cooking it. It gets inside me every time I cook something now, especially paneer. I think that smell plays an important role and reminds us of a few things and makes us feel very emotional and nostalgic too. Paneer is not just an ingredient for me, it is close to my heart and it is the only thing that makes me feel like I’m in my home.

My group mates for this assignment were Kushan, Anubhav, Durgesh, and Bhanu. Kushan’s ingredient is Jaggery and his experience very similar to mine he hails from Gujarat and there Jaggery plays a very important role in shaping the culture. When he cooked Jaggery halwa through the smell of it he too was transported back to his home and same experience I can say Bhanu and Durgesh had, as Bhanu had Cashews and Durgesh had Ghee as their ingredient and both gave us a pleasant taste and smell and reminds us of different places in north and ways to eat all of these ingredients. Anubhav had tea as his main ingredient and I personally say that his tea is the best any human can ever try, with that beautiful Assamese tea aroma and the smell, the way he makes it just takes us to some other world. So, my overall experience with all these food ingredients and all the practices which we did expand our knowledge regarding food items and the sensory perceptions of having a feeling of emotional and cognitive connection towards our own ethnic and cultural diversity related to food in particular.