Foods from Indian tales and folklore that revive childhood nostalgia

Remember, when as a child, you were told stories of ‘Birbal ki Khichdi’, ‘Tenali Rama ki Sardi ki Mithai’ and even the moving account of ‘Shabri ke Ber’? All these stories still hold a lot of importance and were often shared to impart wisdom in kids. Just like these, there is a fair share of Indian tales & folklore that revolves around food that revive childhood nostalgia. Read more to find out about such foods. (Images courtesy: iStock)

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This is something that many people don’t know about. Once, Tenali Rama was walking with the King and Rajpurohit in the garden. The King was talking about how it would be nice to have some sweets, as it is too cold. So, the Rajpurohit said it would be lovely to have some ‘Khoye ki Mithai’. So, the king asked, “Which is the popular sweet of winters?” Tenali Rama replied, “O King, why don’t you come with me at night, I’ll make you eat my favourite sweet dish that only comes in winter.” So, the three of them started the journey at night and Tenali Rama took them to a place where sugarcane was being crushed on one side and fresh jaggery was made by cooking sugarcane juice in a large pan on one side. Then, Tenali Rama asked for fresh jaggery in 3 places and asked them to eat. They both loved it and then asked about it. Tenali Rama told them that it's fresh jaggery and what can be a better sweet than this hot jaggery!

Payasam is a sweet dish that has been mentioned in several ancient texts. It’s a sweet dish made just with rice, sugar and milk, and is a favourite of several deities like Lord Krishna, Goddess Lakshmi, and even Lord Shiva. In fact, there is a tale of Lord Krishna (dressed as a sage) in which he challenges the King of Ambalapuzha, modern-day Kerala in a game of chess for ‘One grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, which will double on the previous square’. The game was won by Lord Krishna and owed trillions of tons of rice. While the King was amused and confused, the Lord reveals himself and tells the King that “You don’t have to give it all today. Just provide payasam to every pilgrim who comes to my temple here, in search of comfort.” And just like that, payasam is served freely to all who visit the Ambalapuzha Krishna temple in Kerala’s Alapuzha district.

The name of this dish is enough to remind you of the character called Birbal from the popular comics Akbar-Birbal ki Kahaniya which were used as moral stories. In one of the stories, King Akbar challenges Birbal into finding a person who would spend an entire night in the cold water of the lake and said that he would reward the person with a thousand gold coins. Birbal finds a poor man, who accepts the challenge and completes it. When he is called into the darbar, he is asked the reason for how he was able to put up with this challenge. The poor man replied that there was a street lamp nearby and he kept his attention fixed on the lamp and away from the cold. Akbar then said that there would be no reward as the poor man had survived the night in the lake by the warmth of the street lamp. The poor man went to Birbal for help, who in return tried to teach a lesson to King Akbar by cooking Khichdi in a bowl that was hanging five feet above the fire. Akbar then asks Birbal, “How can the Khichdi be cooked if it so far away from the fire?” Birbal answered, “The same way the poor man received heat from a street lamp that was more than a furlong away.” King Akbar learns his lesson and gives the prize to the poor man.

Commonly known as jujube fruit worldwide, this fruit has a rich history in the ancient Indian texts. Who has not heard of the story ‘Shabri ke Ber’ when talking about the Ramayan, one of the epic Indian literature. So, the story goes like this. Shabri was a low caste lady with a golden heart, who was a disciple of Sage Matanga. When Matanga Rishi was leaving for the heavenly abode, Shabri had a heartful chat with him and asked him to take her along with him to the heavenly abode. But, Matanga Rishi told her, “This is not the time for you to come there with me. You’ll get the Moksha when you will meet Lord Rama.” Ever since that day, Shabri waited for Lord Rama and used to visit the forest daily to get the local berries called, Ber. One day, Lord Rama arrived at her hut and asked her for something to eat. Then, Shabri made him eat half-eaten ber, for which she said, “O Lord, I have selected only the sweet berries for you, I tasted every berry to make sure I have only brought the sweetest berries.” So, lovingly Lord Rama ate those sweet berries and Shabri got the Moksha.

Also known as Jambuphalam in Sanskrit and Naaval Pazham in Tamil, it is a food popularised by the Panchatantra, which is a collection of ancient Indian animal fables in Sanskrit. Rose apple is known as a juicy fruit that’s sweet as nectar. The mention of this particular fruit comes in the chapter Loss of Gains, in which there is a story of ‘The monkey and The Crocodile’. In the story, the monkey named Raktamukha lives on a tree of rose apples.

This story from the Jataka Tales is about the cheese that falls from the mouth of the crow & the fox eats it and is something that many people don’t know! So, once a black crow was sitting on a tree with a piece of cheese in its beak. A fox was passing by under the same tree and saw the piece of cheese in the crow's beak. She made an evil plan to get the cheese from the crow and started praising the crow's beauty. The fox said, "Oh, crow! Your voice is so beautiful! Can you sing a song for me?" On hearing this, the crow was flattered, and it did not want to lose the chance of more praises. So he began to sing "Caw! Caw! Caw!" When the foolish crow opened its mouth to sing, the piece of cheese fell towards the fox. The clever fox grabbed the piece of cheese and said, "You have an ugly voice. You keep your song and I'll have the cheese!"