ART OF EATING FRUIT

 ART OF EATING FRUIT

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

16/V/2022

 

Eating fruit is an art. Is it? Well, again one drifts back to childhood when fruits were plenty and grew at home and also purchased from the market.

 

Apple for instance. In those days when you went visiting any aunties house. She would sit with you with a plate and a few apples. Wipe them and cut them into six to eight slices, taking care to remove the stem and the semi-circle with seeds in the centre. Some aunties would even peel the skin. Khao beta khao. Beta didn’t like it a wee bit.

 

Apple had to be eaten whole with the skin, like a monkey ate in the ‘Jakata tales’. It would eat all around the centre except the seeds and leave the top and bottom. Once thrown, the eaten apple should balance itself on its own.

 

There isn’t any technicality in eating Bananas. Peel the cover and that’s it. Some people peel the complete thing, throw the peel away, hold the fruit in their bare hands and then eat. Chi-Chi, how unhygienic. Polished people peel one bite at a time.

 

For me it was the ‘thela way’. Slice the banana in half with a knife with the peel on. With the same knife pick up a pre-made mixture of ‘salt & chilli’ powder. Slide it between the slit, spread it evenly and then eat the banana. The punch of chilli in every bite and enhancement of taste with salt was ultimate.

 

Grapes were eaten a little differently. One didn’t like grapes with seeds inside. The seedless ones were called ‘bedana’. They were eaten on the grapevine itself, holding the whole bunch still stuck to the vine, grape by grape. In case they were bought from the market then in ‘Arabian nights’ style, lying on the couch, holding the stem and then eating the whole bunch.

 

Mangoes, no matter what variety, were devoured ‘Ghol ke’. You press mangoes with both thumbs, rotating the fruit all around till a transparent liquid oozed out of its top. A little squeeze to push that liquid and then get on to suck its pulp. Once the juice was over, pull out the seed and suck it till the seed with its hair went white. Then turn the mango skin ‘ulta’. Bite a portion to make a hole at the bottom. Holding the skin between your teeth and scraping it slowly till not one drop of juice is left inside.

 

Eating a mango didn’t finish there. In most of the cases the teeth would puncture the skin at multiple places because of pressure. There would be some juice still left at the corners of the folds of the mango skin. We would tear the skin apart, turn it inside out and lick away any juice left.

 

A watermelon had to be eaten in ‘desi’ and not the ‘videshi’ way. Firstly, before getting home the portion which was cut open by the vendor to show you the redness had to be tasted and placed back in its slot. Watermelon was sliced into new-moons. Those portions had to be eaten as such.

 

Musk melons were cut into half. It was to be eaten with a spoon after scraping out the seeds from the centre. Once the melon was consumed from within, the spoon was turned upside down till the insides of the melon were scraped thoroughly. Its cover had to turn transparent to ‘read’ between its lines.

 

Oranges had to be eaten full again. Thumb would pierce the top skin in the centre and then open into two halves. One segment at a time. If it was sweet then only those white threads were removed.

 

In case it was sour, then each segment would be opened from the centre to expose the ‘juice sacs’. A sprinkle of salt and only juice sacs were eaten. The peel was kept for a different use. Not to make ‘peals’ but to make ‘squeals. Once you pressed the skin, it would jettison a liquid which, if it fell in someone’s eyes, would make them sting. Best way to start a fight with your friend.

 

Eating fruit on the dining table in the Officer’s mess was a mess. “Choori-Kanta” type of eating. Apple had to cut bite sized portions. Salt and pepper had to be dusted from cellars on the side of the quarter plate. God forbid if the salt got moist or the pepper got stuck in the ‘eye’ of the cellar. One had to just forget about both ‘Salt n Peppa’.

 

It was there one learnt that a cellar with multiple holes was for salt and one with a single hole for pepper. Fruits taste better with chat masala these days.

 

Well, eat fruit the way you like it. Any other rustic way? I wonder!!!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS