What! cooked food in tin cans.

When I say food as a meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner in my hometown that means a freshly cooked meal. Except condiments like pickles (Aachaar) which is preserved with salt, oil and spices. We also have stored dried food such Papad (also known as Papadum), which you later deep fry in oil to eat. But the main meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner are always freshly cooked. If there is leftover, maybe you can eat in your next meal or feed to the cattle or stray animals around. If there is a guest at home, you always serve freshly cooked meal to the guest. 

Meals are usually Daal, Sabjee (Cooked vegetables) or Saag (Cooked spinach or other leafy greens), Rice and Roti (Flatbread). Seasonal fruits and vegetables will be always in demand since are easily available and economical to buy. The whole concept of the food there is largely based on the principals of Ayurveda. Most of the meals are Sattvic in nature. What I am trying to say that there was no concept of preserving the food. 

I had never seen cooked food packed in a tin or in a plastic box. First time I saw a tinned Baked Beans in a supermarket of Toronto (Canada). There was picture of cooked beans at the tin container. I though container has raw beans which you can cook like the picture. I was wondering why raw beans are stored in a tin container.  It can be sold in plastic bag, paper bag or in loose.

Later I came to know that tin container has cooked food inside. It was a shocker for me. Don’t get me wrong. I am not criticising the baked beans in a tin container. It was simply a new concept for me. Something new which I had never seen. I wasn’t familiar with the concept of preserving cooked food in such mechanism. I wasn’t very keen to try this food. But I was curious how it tastes like. I tried it once and I didn’t like it. That was the first and probably the last time I ate baked beans from the tin container.

One day I was talking to my flat mate who was student of Sustainable Agriculture. He is from USA. He was telling me about the food culture in USA. He told me that in his country they have a frozen meal. Which is basically a cooked meal frozen in a plastic container and to eat this meal all you have to do is make few holes at the top, put it in microwave and within few minutes your food is ready. I was like really! I have never tried this frozen meal. Maybe one day when I got no other option.

If you want to know about my personal preference of food that would be something produced locally, seasonal and fresh. But that doesn’t mean I follow the same all the time. Sometimes I can’t resist for myself for a treat J  

Thank you for reading. Enjoy your meal.