Chipping away at potato-munching mindset
There are all kinds of chips. We have computer
chips, wood chips, chips off the old block, chips on the shoulder and so
on. And of course chips that one munches, the kind that you just can’t
stop at one because the first chip makes you want another. And another.
And yet another
Manioc is renowned for its ability to survive
extreme droughts and thrive in rainy conditions. This tropical root is a
delicious substitute for potatoes and the third largest source of
carbohydrates for human food. Manioc lovers consume it in all its forms.
It is an all time favourite snack
Ask people what they would associate with ‘chip’ and I am sure that
apart from the above-mentioned chips, many would mention ‘potatoes’. I
won’t blame them. The chip-industry is quite powerful.
A Manioc chips seller. File photo |
And they know their onions and this includes ‘flavouring’. ‘Betcha
you can’t eat just one’ is a slogan that has worked for Frito-Lay potato
chips for close to half a century. For a long time I thought that
Fritos, Doritos, Ruffles, Cheetos and of course the celebrated Frito-Lay
with that ‘can’t eat just one’ tagline were not just different products
and brands but owned by different companies. Turns out that they are all
owned by PepsiCo Inc since 1965.
The history is interested. ‘Lay’s’ owes name to Herman W Lay, a
salesman who in 1932 opened a snack food operation in Nashville,
Tennessee (USA). Six years later he purchased a potato chip
manufacturing outfit called Barrett Food Company’. For four years he
sold chips all over the Southern part of the USA from the trunk of his
car. At the time the tagline was ‘So crisp you can hear the freshness’.
This was followed by the rather corny, ‘de-Lay-scious!’ Almost 20
years later, i.e. in 1961 Lay’s merged with the Frito Co., founded by
Elmer Doolin. That’s how Frito-Lay came into being. In 1965, Frito-Lay
merged with Pepsi Cola to form PepsiCo Inc. They control, I understand,
59 percent of the US savoury food market.
Anti-potato
When I think ‘chips’, however, I think of Ariyaseela Wickramanayaka.
It goes back to an interview with him about a year and a half ago.
Predictably, he spoke about self-reliance, resource endowment and other
things that make independence and sovereignty a reasonable proposition
(i.e. outside of rhetoric and legal/constitutional assertion). And he
spoke of chips and offered me (and the photographer who accompanied me)
some. Not made of potato. Del. Bread-fruit. Homemade. No additives.
Impossible to eat just one.
I am not anti-potato by the way. Potato in the ala-hodi (potato
curry) sense and ala thel daala (‘devilled’ potatoes) sense are as Sri
Lankan as anything else. It’s something foreign that we’ve adopted and
adapted. I do have problems with issue of soil erosion associated with
potato cultivation, though. I also have a problem with issue of soil
erosion associated with potato cultivation, though.
I also have a problem with the fact that we have better root crops
and tubers than potatoes to curry, boil, chip and even devil that can be
grown in most gardens but are not, more out of ignorance than anything
else. I am thinking about innala (ratala), kiriala, rajala, bathala,
manioc (another ‘nativised’ root), kondala, buthsarana, katu-ala, hulang
keeriya, kohila, hingurala, kidaaram and over 100 others I know exist
but have not had the luxury to grow or taste (yes, thanks to my
ignorance).
Sweetmeats
One of my earliest memories is avurudu, 1970 or 1971. Or maybe even
1969. It was an early morning neketha (auspicious time). We were in
Kurunegala, at my maternal grandparents’ house. The table was full of
kevili (sweetmeats), I remember. I assume there was kavum, kokis, aasmi,
dosi and other traditional sweets, but I can’t remember. All I remember
is a long dish with something that appeared to have the texture of
kiribath (milk-rice). It was purple in colour. Raajala (Raja-Ala or King
Yam), boiled, sweetened. To this day, that is the best desert I’ve ever
tasted.
It is good to know your onions, as they say. Good to know about
chips. Better still, to know your yams. Knowledge is not just power, it
is delicacy, nutrition, food security, and massive savings at household,
regional and national levels.
Good to chip away at a lot of things that have been dumped into our
country and our minds. I like to munch on Manioc chips for instance.
Homegrown. Locally made. I can’t eat just one.
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