Читать книгу Indian Cooking For Dummies - Monisha Bharadwaj - Страница 40

Ayurveda recognizes six tastes and sensations, called rasa in Sanskrit:

 Sweet: Sweet taste is also called neutral taste. It includes grains, dairy, some fruits, vegetables, and lentils. Sweet is not simply the taste of sugar or desserts — it’s said to make us feel good, and you’ll probably find that your favorite comfort food falls into the sweet category.

 Sour: Sour taste includes all foods that are aged, ripened, fermented, or naturally acidic, such as citrus fruit, yogurt, and wine. Sour foods are said to help stimulate the appetite (thinking of something sour often makes the mouth water) and can be digestive aids. Eating too much sour food can lead to heartburn or acidity.

 Salty: Salty taste, found in salt and sea plants, stimulates the flow of saliva and, thus, helps digestion. Too much salt can lead to inflammation or fluid retention and overwhelms all the other senses. If you accidentally put too much salt in your food, you’ll most likely notice just the salt. However, it’s also what brings a rounded, solid completeness to your food, like in the saying, “salt of the earth.”

 Pungent: Pungent taste includes foods and spices that are spicy, hot, and sharp, such as chilies, garlic, ginger, black pepper, and cloves. Their warming quality stimulates the digestion, but too much of this taste could lead to heartburn, acidity, and irritability. The pungent flavor is experienced as an irritation of the tissues and nerve endings rather than receptors on the tongue. Pungency can help to dry excess moisture, so these ingredients often find their way into home remedies for cold (such as ginger tea).

 Bitter: You’ve heard of “bitter medicine.” Bitter is considered a healing taste and is found in spices such as turmeric, in leafy vegetables, and in eggplant. Many cuisines try to get rid of bitterness in foods by salting them, but this taste is considered valuable in Indian cooking for its ability to cleanse the body. Eating too much of this taste is thought to bring feelings of anxiety, so be careful how much you eat!

 Astringent: Astringent is the dry taste left in the mouth after a sip of black tea or dry white wine, when the inside of your mouth feels like it’s contracting. Just try biting into an unripe banana or pomegranate! According to Ayurveda, the astringent taste does have benefits and helps when there is excess fluid or swelling in the body.

Incidentally, the word rasa also means emotion, which tells you how closely the two are linked. You’ve heard phrases like “That’s a sweet thing to say” or “He has turned into a bitter old man.” Clearly, we often use taste to express our emotions.

An Indian meal should have a balance of the tastes so that it not only tastes good but also contributes to physical and emotional well-being.