A Different Taste of Time
In my relatives, as in many others, certain recipes and treats always accompany holidays, helping to slash them as special and separate from the rest of the year. We all love the apple coagulate my mom makes (the only ‘secret recipe’ we have in our next of kin which has been passed down from my great-grandmother), but we only have it on Rosh Hashanah. Another unique Rosh Hashanah treat is a pomegranate, and my relatives likes to incorporate them into our Thanksgiving and New Years celebrations as well. My sister is an olive aficionado, yet we only disturb b train them out for Shabbat dinners.
There are many foods and dishes that help describe the space of a holiday—that help to give the celebration many layers of sensory textures. Because of that relationship, such foods sometimes find into a symbol of the holiday and carry memories and connotations whenever they rise in a grocery store or meal.
I found myself experiencing such memories and fancy for familiar flavors as I celebrated the High Holidays this dead and buried fall in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, while studying far for the semester. I was living in Auroville , an international city/eco-village tight-fisted Pondicherry, and the food was incredible: locally grown, visceral, primarily vegan, and brimming with all sorts of exotic spices and flavors.
Source: Forward (blog)