I went to the Seattle public library main branch yesterday, the weather was fine, there was not much to do back home so I figured why not spend some time seeking help of existing resources.
I talked to the research librarian on food and culinary matters, and asked to help me find written pieces on culinary culture and history of Tibeto-burmese groups in South Asia. Newari food, gurung food, tamang food, etcetera etcetera. What did the people of the mountain eat, why did they eat those things, where did those ingredients come from, how did they influence each other? How do these ingredients and final products show gradation in recipe and output through various regions? What is their status now? Now proud are people about their foods? What hindrances are there towards making them more popular and more 'legitimate'? What might we be able to do to document these cultural heritages, and share with the rest of the world?
I understand that most of those questions remain unanswered and unresearched. My goal is to get as far as I possibly can with existing research, and then eventually try to see if it would be worth going out to the field all by myself and write on those topics. I'll go to the kitchens, I'll learn the skills, I'll write, I'll read, I'll cut and I'll cook, and I'll publish tomes on ethnic cooking in Nepal. And I'll commercialize this, and make it popular all over. That's my calling, that's my destiny, it appears upto this point.
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