Why "India Outside India"?

Since I came to NYC I have been trying to capture for the benefit of my international friends what is ‘India’ or ‘Indianness’. We have discussed various facets of Indian people, culture, ways of meaning making and what it means to live as an Indian. It was also interesting when my international friends shared what they thought being Indian was/must be like for me. I have been capturing visuals that I thought express non-Indians’ perceptions about India and also the expressions/visuals shared by the Indian community in US that must be shaping this perception. After a year of gathering images and talking in my head about it I thought why not put it all down in a blog.

Friday, September 15, 2017

Cultural misappropriation: Ghee butter, Chai tea,

Ghee butter? Really?
Explaining the absurdity of 'chai tea' was my first pet peeve when I moved to NYC. But this tops it all.

We saw ghee first in the upscale predominantly white farmer's market on Hope street. The vendor selling ghee waxed elloquent about health benefits of ghee and offered it for tasting on a piece of bread. Unusual choice.  I wasn't quite sure what to think about it. Then I saw a shelf full of flavoured glee bottles in Whole Foods and WTF is the only exclamation I could conjure. 

The double name as usual - Naan bread, samosa potstickers, ghee butter ....
No no no! It is not spreadable butter. Ghee is not butter. That is the whole point. There were some 'ghee oils' in that shelf. not sure if I would rather take that than calling it butter.

Ghee has fallen victim to the health craze unfortunately and seems to have captured people's imagination. Himalayan salt, Turmeric, and Vanilla were the offerings when I visited last week - two flavours to bring the healthy Indian to merge with the newly found health food and the vanilla to give some 'I know this' comfort to the regular American I guess.
(I am disturbed by vanilla chai but once again this tops it)
The bottles do not explain the method of preparing it. Is it clarified butter made of cream or butter churned from yogurt? The distinction is very important according to Ayurveda from where I am assuming the whole health food excitement is coming from.   


 Now to the suggestated pairings. I can live with using it to saute, sear, and bake. The vanilla ghee however is sugested to be pairied with coffee. Once again WTF

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