Mother Tongue: Flavours of a Second Generation

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The book contains nostalgic childhood memories of meals with family, and around 50 recipes from how to cook perfectly fluffy rice in a pot, staples like miso-soup and salads, to stand-alone dishes like okonomiyaki and soba. Everything in the cookbook is made simply, without fancy equipment or ingredients. A fascinating look at how we talk about women. . . . Dense with information and anecdotes, Mother Tongue touches on the hilarious and the devastating, with ample dashes of an ingredient so painfully absent from most discussions of sex and gender: humor.” ―Lisa Selin Davis, The Washington Post

The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way

That leaves me to do no more than tell you that the recipe I’m delighted to be sharing with you today is the Kasundi Keema Lasagne Rolls.

Try this recipe from the book

Awful. Awful. I’m now retrospectively mad, five years later, that I once attended a talk by this man. Avoid.

The Mother Tongue - Wikipedia The Mother Tongue - Wikipedia

Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of words that we have used to describe female bodies, menstruation, women’s sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, women’s paid and unpaid work, and gender. Along the way, she challenges our modern language’s ability to insightfully articulate women’s shared experiences by examining the long-forgotten words once used in English for female sexual and reproductive organs. Nuttall also tells the story of words like womb and breast, whose meanings have changed over time, as well as how anatomical words such as hysteria and hysterical came to have such loaded legacies. Amazing, original, boundary breaking. Gurdeep is a genius with flavour and a terrific writer too’ - Diana Henry Then he got into some languages I have a smattering of myself – French and German—and I began questioning. Some of it just sounded wrong, like the quote from an article that says most speakers of other languages aren’t aware there is such a thing as a thesaurus. Bryson's book on the English language is a compendium of linguistic trivia interspersed with the author's biased and misinformed musings on the history and features of the language. Published in 1990, the book was written before Internet changed the way the world communicates and hence a lot of the content regarding the spread of languages is hopelessly outdated by now. The chapter on swearing was quite funny, there's plenty to learn there. And throughout the book Bryson's humor makes the subject matter interesting. However, though he does make regular references to other languages, the book is by its nature extremely English-centric so many of the statements about how unique English is are almost certainly inaccurate as he is not so authoritative a linguist so much as a very well-informed enthusiast.I know and I do even realise that Bill Bryson is considered an entertaining author and that he also seems to be much loved and appreciated by many. However, I for one have generally and usually found Bryson’s general tone of narrational voice and the boastful, arrogant demeanour he constantly seems to present and yes indeed often downright spew in The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way extremely off-putting and really at best massively condescending, with his claims regarding the supposed superiority of the English language both unacademic and yes, profoundly bigoted and stereotyping (and as such of course absolutely devoid of any kind of linguistic acumen and actual bona fide language based knowledge). And albeit granted that English is at present a so-called and even aptly labelled world language, the reasons why English is such, the reasons why English is so profoundly popular and globally strong at present are NOT (at least in in my humble opinion) due to any type of linguistic superiority, they are primarily and simply cultural and historic in nature and also have much to do with economics and not with English being in any manner a better and superior language linguistically speaking than French, German, Chinese, Russian and so on and so on. When the first inhabitants of the continent arrived in Botany Bay in 1788 they found a world teeming with flora, fauna, and geographical features such as they had never seen. “It is probably not too much to say,” wrote Otto Jespersen, “that there never was an instance in history when so many new names were needed.” Among the new words the Australians devised, many of them borrowed from the aborigines, were…” He certainly loves English. On the dying of Irish (as a language), he says: "we naturally lament the decline of these languages, but it's not an altogether undiluted tragedy. Consider the loss to English literature, if Joyce, Shaw, Swift, Yeats, Wilde, and Ireland's other literary masters have written in what inescapably a fringe language, their work will be as little known to us as those poets in Iceland or Norway, and that would be a tragedy indeed. No country has given the word incomparable literature per head of population than Ireland, and for that reason alone we might be excused to a small, "selfish" celebration that English was the language of her greatest writers." This is a hindsight bias. Loyal describes himself as "a second generation British Indian food writer and home cook, a descendant of Punjabi farmers and Leicester market traders with big appetites”. Furthermore, he’s travelled around the world eating professionally, as it were, for Harrods and Marks & Spencer (where he was, latterly, Head of Food Trends) and so his palate has been formed by the foods from many cultures. Thus, his recipes have a dynamism that is genuine, personal and flavour-led. Let me name a few from this dazzling and yet warmly inviting bounty of them: Achaari Mango Pulled Pork; Brown Butter, Onion & Cumin Dip; Chaat Paneer Curry Dogs; Masala Brisket Pie; Yellow Chana-Moong Dal with Chorizo Tarkha; Dopiaza Dauphinoise with Za’atar and Crispy Vindaloo Aubergines with Anchovy-Chilli Yogurt. From the sweeter end of the spectrum, I will simply say to you Passion Fruit & Raspberry Rose Victoria Sponge, Saffron Custard Tart with Candied Fennel Seeds & Roasted Strawberries, and Chocolate Chai Pie! And there is so much more to the book than the recipes. It allows you — to draw on an analogy that both Loyal and I favour — new music in the kitchen.