#taste of Asia

[cookplatefork]

Quick and Flavorful Umami Ginger Chicken Lo Mein Made Easy

[kenmeoow]

🍵 ##_ _ M3SSY M00DB04RD ! <3

🌾٫ ۫ ✿ 茶の味 - ! യ ͙ࣳ ‎◌ ꊞ ⁺ 𓄹 ࣪. 🪇🪕

[eldritchneuro]

Here down under if you’re feeling patriotic instead of buying coco pops you can buy coco pops but bad (and shaped like pasta shells for some godforsaken reason)

[fieriframes]

[Next, we're gonna make the Dae Gee sauce. Dae Gee sauce. Dae Gee sauce, yeah. House is not this large, he thought? House sauce. Kind of like the Korean Thousand Island. Exactly -- put it on everything.]

[timetraveltasting]

KING OF SIAM MASSAMAN CURRY (19th c.)

I've recently gone through a curry phase, so thought I would give a proper homemade one a go. So, I decided my next Tasting History dish would be the King of Siam Massaman Curry, a 19th century Thai recipe penned by Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn, who grew up in the Grand Palace during the reign of King Rama V (Chulalongkorn) of Siam. She learned to cook many of the dishes served at the Palace, and this is one that was passed down through the generations to Rosalind Yunibandhu, who published the cookbook this can be found in, Petals of the Champaka: Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, in 2021. I chose to make this recipe because I am already a massive fan of Thai food, and I thought it would be an interesting experience to see exactly what ingredients and methods go into making a curry fit for a king completely from scratch. Usually, I just buy curry paste, but not today! See Max’s video on how to make it here or see the ingredients and process at the end of this post, sourced from his website.

My experience making it:

I did my best to stick exactly to this recipe, but due to the long ingredient list, I inevitably had to make a few changes based on my location and what's available here. My ability to make this dish is entirely thanks to my local Asian grocer, which supplied me with several ingredients I had never cooked with before and are near impossible to find elsewhere (tamarind juice, galangal, shrimp paste, lemongrass... the list goes on!). I couldn't find medium spice red chili peppers that weren't those little Thai ones Max says not to use, so I ended up finding some green medium spicy chili peppers from Turkey. Among about 7 brands at the Asian grocer, I couldn't seem to find a coconut cream without emulsifiers, so I used the coconut oil tip Max mentions in his notes. Weirdly, I also couldn't find unsalted roasted peanuts at several local grocery stores, so I ended up using salted ones (I don't think this affected the taste too severely). My last change to the ingredients was using chopped red bell peppers instead of half the chicken, because I wanted to sneak another veggie into the recipe. The chicken is mostly a vessel for the curry sauce, so I figured, why not add another vessel?

The process for this King of Siam recipe, because it is a curry completely from scratch, took me 2.5-3 hours to make. I do cook at a bit of a slower pace in general, I think, but because this was a new and very complex recipe, it took me even longer than it should have. I first focused on making the curry paste, which required lots of fine chopping, roasting, and then grinding with the mortar and pestle (I don't have a spice grinder). Because I tired of grinding quite quickly, I don't think I got my curry paste quite as smooth and uniform as Max's, but the flavours are the most important, I think. My resulting curry paste looked less like a paste, and more like salsa verde - thanks to the green chili peppers mostly. However, it smelled divine! Next, on to the main curry. I seared the chicken lightly on all sides, set it aside, then added the coconut cream to my wok. Because my coconut cream had emulsifiers, I added a bit of coconut oil, gave it a mix, and after a minute or two it cracked and bubbled just as Max's did. I continued adding the rest of the ingredients as called for, but when it was time to add in my curry paste, I was a little miffed that my curry paste didn't really dissolve well into the coconut milk/cream. Mine was a bit too chunky, so there were bits floating in the sauce and bits that sank to the bottom. As a result, I had to keep stirring to prevent those bits from caking and cooking right onto the bottom of the wok. Eventually, the curry paste did dissolve more. I added in the chicken and bell peppers, and began the long simmer. During this time, Max says the curry sauce will naturally darken and thicken a bit. His turned almost a dark red colour, perhaps due to the red chili peppers he used. Mine seemed to turn a grey-beige colour, maybe due to the green chilis I used, but it never got that dark. Near the end of the simmering, I cooked up some jasmine rice and warmed up some Turkish Pide bread in the oven to dip into the sauce. A bit of an interesting mix of cultures on the plate, but let's just say I was matching the bread with the Turkish chilis I used. I served it up in a shareable casserole dish, and poured me and my husband a glass each of the leftover tamarind juice - I had taken a sip while cooking and found it really tasty! I was so proud of how this dish turned out, because it took ages to make, used tons of new-to-me ingredients, and it did look like a Thai curry, even if it didn't look like Max's King of Siam Massaman Curry.

My experience tasting it:

I first tried a tiny spoonful of just the curry sauce. It was super tasty! It actually tasted really close to how a yellow curry from a Thai restaurant tastes. I was shocked at how similar, especially because the colour was quite different. For my second bite, I added some sauce, chicken, and bell pepper on top of some jasmine rice and took a bite with all those elements. The chicken was so tender and held the curry flavour really well. I was so glad I added the bell peppers, too, because they added a nice freshness. The taste of the curry was very complex, the texture was creamy, and it only had a light spice. It was amazing how so many unique and often overpowering ingredients came together to form this complete new flavour where you can't pick out any of those ingredient flavours individually. It was absolutely delicious and rich. My husband and I polished off the entire King of Siam Massaman Curry, even sopping up what was left of the sauce with our bread until the dish was nearly clean. I had meant to keep some for the day after, since Max says the flavours really intensify if you let it sit in the fridge overnight, but that was just not going to happen - it was too tasty. While this recipe is definitely a winner, I don't know if I will ever make it again, only because of how long it took to make and how many ingredients it took to make (many of which either expensive or not easy to come by in my part of the world). Neither of these issues are anything the King of Siam would have to worry about, so I totally see why this recipe was a hit with King Rama V. You guessed it, I will continue to buy pre-packaged curry paste, despite the deliciousness of this dish. If you end up making this dish, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!

Links to harder-to-find ingredients:

Sorry... too many in this one, and Max didn't provide any links on where to get them. I may come back later and update this section if I find some online sources for the harder-to-find ingredients.

King of Siam Massaman Curry original recipe (19th c.)

Sourced from Petals of the Champaka: Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, published in 2021 using recipes by Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn from her timeliving in the palace of the King of Siam in the 19th century.

Pound chilies, shallots, garlic, coriander seeds and cumin together with shrimp paste, galangal, lemongrass, [cardamom, cloves] and a little roasted coconut, to a fine paste. Squeeze the coconut milk, separating the cream from the milk. Simmer the coconut cream until the oil separates out. Cut chicken into large pieces, pan-fry in oil until golden brown. Add the curry paste and stir until fragrant. Add the coconut milk together with the roasted peanuts [and cinnamon bark]. Simmer until tender, add fish sauce, sugar, tamarind juice, small shallots, bay leaf. Add 2-3 slices of ginger upon removing from the stove.

Modern Recipe

Based on Petals of the Champaka: Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, published in 2021 using recipes by Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn from the 19th century, and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.

Ingredients:

Curry Paste

1 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp grated coconut

4 cloves

1 tsp cardamom seeds (from cardamom pods)

3 tbsp chopped shallots

6 to 7 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp chopped lemongrass

1 tbsp peeled and sliced galangal

7 chili peppers*, dried or fresh, seeds removed

1 tsp shrimp paste

Curry

2 pounds (1 kg) chicken thigh or beef, cut into 1 1/2” pieces

2-3 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut cream**

2 cups coconut milk (canned)

1/4 cup unsalted roasted peanuts

1 stick cassia cinnamon

2 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp (50 g) palm sugar

3 tbsp tamarind juice

1/2 cup shallots, chopped

3 bay leaves

3 slices of peeled ginger, about 1/8” thick

*As this dish isn’t meant to be spicy, don’t use small Thai chilies. Any mild chili will work, just remove the seeds and you’re good to go.

**Be sure to get coconut cream that doesn’t contain any emulsifiers, or this won’t work (the only ingredient should be coconut cream). Be sure to read the ingredients list. If this is unavailable to you, you can add some coconut oil to the cream, it just won’t taste quite the same.

Method:

For the curry paste: Put the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, grated coconut, cloves, and cardamom seeds into a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 3 to 4 minutes or until it is fragrant and the coconut is lightly browned. Remove from the pan and let cool.

Grind the spice mixture into a powder in a spice grinder or very clean coffee grinder, then set aside.

Remove the seeds from the chilies, wearing gloves if desired to protect hands from the spice. Roughly chop the chilies.

Add the shallots, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, and chilies to a dry pan over medium-high and cook, stirring constantly until the ingredients develop a bit of char.

Add the chilies mixture to a mortar and pestle grind with the shrimp paste. This will take a while and is best done by hand in order to properly release the oils.

Add the spice mixture and continue to grind until it is as smooth as you can get (it won’t be completely smooth).

For the curry: Melt the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat and add the chicken. Cook until browned and set aside.

While the chicken cooks, pour the coconut cream into a separate pan over medium heat and simmer until the oil separates out (cracking).

Once you see oil bubbles on the surface of the cream, it has cracked. Add the curry paste and stir until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer.

Add the chicken, peanuts, and cinnamon stick. Simmer until the chicken is tender, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Add fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind juice, shallots, and bay leaves. Simmer on low for 1 hour. It will darken as it cooks.

Taste and adjust seasonings if needed, then take it off the heat and add the ginger.

Cover and put in the fridge overnight to develop the flavors, or serve it forth right away with rice.

[basingstokemercury]

Serious question what's up with everyone making fun of country nowadays and invoking tropes I don't think I've even seen

"it's backwards and conservative" Do you have any familiarity with Johnny Cash? An activist for Native American rights whose iconic image is the Man In Black as a symbol for the disadvantaged? The songs Folsom Prison Blues? Man In Black? And I know Tumblr loves Dolly Parton as a person, for good reason - 9 To 5, her signature workers' rights protest, isn't quite country, but most of her discography is.

"it's too religious" Fair - several musically excellent songs lean too heavily into Christian themes for me to enjoy as a Jew (though I'm sure Christian audiences love them, progressive ones too). But many of those religious songs evoke more universally applicable ideas of brotherhood, hope, and justice - and are those really things worthy of mockery?

"the emotions are shallow" I See A Darkness is one of the most authentic portrayals of depression in music I know of. Many country songs have themes of love, heartbreak, and drama/tragedy - but those are common to music across nearly all genres, even if specific songs don't land for everyone.

At the end of the day it's just a music genre, yes, but one that does have emotional significance for many people, cultural significance for many others, and as much diversity in content and performer talent as any genre of entertainment.

And it's not very fun to have cherished childhood memories and music that genuinely resonates with you mocked just about everywhere you turn aside from people who are actually fans of it.

[nothingunrealistic]

Cass (Asia Kate Dillon) contains multitudes. Juggling jobs in San Francisco—at once a nanny, a dealer, and a restaurant server—they keep themselves occupied by necessity. They find themselves drawn to coworker Kalli (Louisa Krause), and after a chat in a laundromat one night, they hook up. The next morning, Kalli is gone, but she rings. She’ll be out of town for a while and asks Cass to do her the not inconsiderable favour of looking after her 11-year-old daughter, Ari (Ridley Asha Batemen) until she gets back. In little more than a blink of an eye, Cass agrees. Cass picks up Ari from her house. As the two lock eyes, we sense a kindredness between them, but they each shy away from it. The days go by, and Cass and Ari warmly, but awkwardly, coexist in Cass’ tiny apartment as they wait for Kalli’s return, Ari preoccupied with a handheld video game system as Cass looks on. In a closet, a worn game cartridge bearing Cass’ old name in marker pen sits tucked away in a long-neglected box. Portrayed with a meaningful, steely vacancy by nonbinary actor Dillon (Orange is the New Black, Billions), Cass is compellingly clenched, with a past and future that unfurl beyond the bounds of Outerlands. The film’s writer-director, Elena Oxman, is a warm and intuitive new voice in fiction filmmaking with a background in academia and documentary work, now bringing the film for its European premiere at the 2025 BFI Flare just after its world premiere at South by Southwest. In this illuminating interview, we sat down with Oxman to discuss the many textures and mirrors of her first fiction feature. *****

Purple Hour: What people or stories inspired you to make this film? It’s about identity in many different respects, but when you tell a nonbinary story especially, that doesn’t tend to come out of nowhere. Elena Oxman: Asia Kate Dillon was a big inspiration. I was watching Billions at the time that I was writing this, and I had made a short film, Lit (2014), that was also a lead-up to Outerlands. For that, we ended up casting this actor named D’Lo, who is nonbinary and transitioned afterward. The film ended up having this nonbinary character. There was a natural progression into the script for Outerlands. As I started to watch Asia—it’s one of those things that I think happens with a lot of writers—you begin to picture a certain actor in the role. Cass is quite different from the character they played on Billions, but there was a certain quality that Asia had.

When nonbinary identity on screen is still so rare, I’m always interested in how filmmakers present nonbinary people on screen and how you expect them to be read by the audience. Your approach is quite casual and matter-of-fact. You could telegraph and signpost that this is a nonbinary person, but you don’t. You just let them be. That’s true. It’s interesting, because in the initial script that Asia read, there was no pronoun mention at all. One of the things that Asia brought to the script that I thought was great is that they said, “You know, we need to mention it somewhere”. One of their reasons was that there’s a technicality when the industry categorises films. If the character is not named as nonbinary, it actually doesn’t register as that. It was significant when they were on Billions as the first nonbinary character on a network TV show, so I began to work it into the script, but yeah, they just are who they are—they present as they are. I’m glad that we did bring in the pronouns. I think it adds this subtle grace note, and it’s an important part of the script now. But my initial impulse was to be matter-of-fact about it. There’s something about doing that I like.

If you’re a nonbinary spectator watching this film, you see representation in Asia’s character. Then, their character sees themselves in the young kid they temporarily foster. There’s a Russian doll going on, and I find that interesting. I’d love to hear your thoughts on giving that representation their own representation within the diegesis. Mirroring was definitely in my mind—this idea that we are all, in a way, mirrors for each other. The relation between Cass and Ari in that first moment where they see each other was very intentional. I was thinking a lot about mirroring in that shot/reverse shot. It’s something that goes unsaid, but as a viewer, we immediately get that there’s something that they are seeing in themselves as a child. But I like what you’re saying too, of linking that to audience and being mirrored, and the whole idea of cinema as mirroring. In my experience of writing and filmmaking, a lot comes from the gut. You’re doing things a lot of the time without necessarily going, “I’m going to create a film with nonbinary representation”. It’s more, “This person—I want to see this person”. Afterwards, especially when you begin to hear the audience and the appreciation, it really sinks in how important it is to follow that gut [feeling]. That’s why I think the diversity of guts that are making movies is really important, because we naturally gravitate toward things that are not what we’re seeing usually.

There are other trans voices in this film. A custom version of Anna Anthropy’s game REDDER is used as the titular game, and there’s a track from Celeste composer Lena Raine. Again, you’re putting trans voices and experiences on screen in this subtle, non-signposted way. Absolutely. That was very deliberate. It’s wanting it to be a family affair, you know? When I was researching game designers and composers, I was specifically interested in who’s out there in our LGBTQIA+ community, and I happened to find these two amazing artists. That was the case throughout the process—wanting to have this sense of queer family and allies making this film. There’s a sensibility, I think, that does come through that’s not homogenous by any means, but it’s there. So much trans art in the present moment—I Saw the TV Glow as an obvious example—incorporates screens within screens and engages in dialogue about how our screen entertainment can impact and speak to the formation of our identities. What was the thinking behind the game at the centre of the film, and what does it mean to you? That’s an interesting question. It came from my own childhood. I played a lot of NES [the Nintendo Entertainment System]. For me, a lot of that was about nostalgia and the way in which these games from an earlier time period are simpler. In some ways, the simpler they are, the more moving I find them. There’s something about this little person in the desolate landscape, this astronaut. Anna had that game already, REDDER, and she designed the end sequence based on the script. When I saw REDDER, it really captured something. It reminded me of games that I used to play. I think it’s a portal to the past. That’s the function it serves in the film. I wasn’t so much thinking about issues of identity as I was about what is going to be the tunnel that Cass goes through to connect them back to their past, and then what is that going to evoke in us as viewers. That simplicity is echoed in Lena’s music, which has this simple but haunting feeling to it. Who voices young Cass? That’s Ridley Asha Batemen, who plays Ari, and there’s your mirroring idea.

So much of this film is about communication: our attempts at it and our failures to connect with each other. I love how every character in the film manages to communicate with one person but completely fails to communicate with another. I understood Cass to be someone who is a person of few words, who is feeling a lot that is not getting spoken. The narrative trajectory is them going from having this well of feeling bubbling up under the surface to it eventually coming out. It was a challenge, I have to say, and a credit to Asia that they could do this, to convey that this character has a lot going on underneath but isn’t necessarily speaking it. A lot comes out between the lines in their communications. The same with Ari played by Ridley, and a credit to her amazing talent as well, that she is able to communicate a lot with a look. You understand that these are people who are saying “I’m okay”, but they’re not. One of the mirrors between them is this stoic exterior. You immediately get the sense that these characters both have certain protective walls up that are 100% necessary for them to get through their lives. But you also begin to get the sense that those walls are going to come down.

Tell me about the choral score of the film. I love how this heightened soundtrack accompanies moments of ecstasy and of agony for your characters. I grew up singing in a church choir, and I’ve always loved sacred music. It’s an interesting thing, being queer and feeling connected to that environment. There’s a reclaiming aspect that feels important to me. For this particular story, there was something about the combination of the sacred and the profane—of the everyday gritty cityscape, someone trying to make a living, combined with this very ethereal, transcendent spiritual music. It casts this journey, which I ultimately understand as a kind of spiritual journey, as a journey where they’re going inward and connecting to an aspect of themselves that they haven’t before. It’s an understated, subtle story, but having this sort of transcendent music felt right to me. I also loved the idea of combining the Hildegard [von Bingen] music with the video game and electronic music—and the way that those interact. There’s something transcendent about video game music and club music. I’ve always found a resonance. We use a Daft Punk song at the end. Whenever I listen to Daft Punk or club music, I’m reminded of sacred music in a way. Hildegard has had a bit of a renaissance in the past ten years. We had a beautiful experience recording these songs in a church with these amazing singers based out of San Francisco called Vajra Voices. There are moments in making a film that are sort of magical, and that was one of them.

What did you learn about yourself, your characters, and the identities and communities that you’ve represented through making the film? One aspect of Cass that I relate to in my own journey is a tendency that I used to have of being a bit closed off, a “lone wolf”. Filmmaking is a beautiful place for collaboration—everything we do is always interconnected with other people. This lone wolf thing is an illusion. I could feel both a desire to connect with others and a greater ease of doing so developing throughout this process. In film, you have to work with others, and it’s why I love working in it. It challenges me and it enhances me. I think there’s a great capacity for empathy in the queer community. I wonder if that comes from the kind of struggles that one goes through, whether as a young person or continuing into adulthood. There’s this other layer of challenge of being a human, and you’re up against some things that make you understand pain, and other people’s pain. I found that this is a story about that: about empathy, about connection, about being there for oneself, and the way that community—Lea DeLaria’s character, for instance—is there for Cass. What do you hope that your audiences take away from this film? I want people to have a personal experience with it—that they see something of their own experience there, and that it helps for it to be made concrete and shareable in this way. Film can make us feel less alone in our experience. I think that’s what it is, no specific thing. I just hope that there’s something that touches them, that they recognise.

[supercantaloupe]

my brain is very gone. i cannot read questions but i wanna participate. what’s your fav kind of tea? how do you take your tea?

ooh i love a lot of types of tea so i could never pick a single favorite. i'd say for a single (though often large) cup of hot tea my preference is usually for something strong and fruity. i like herbal blends with hibiscus, peaflower, rosehip etc and/or dried fruit pieces, although this year i've really been enjoying a couple of fruity white or green tea/herbal blends. i love these hot and either unsweetened or with just a drop of honey. this is also usually what i take in my thermal mug to campus bc it doesn't easily suffer from overbrewing so i can brew it in the morning at 9am and have a still-hot cup of tea to drink in rehearsal at 6pm. although occasionally i'll take something black to drink as a single cup; my preference is usually for something strong and spiced, with a bit of cream and lightly sweetened. but if i'm sitting down for an hour or two and enjoying a whole pot of tea, i'm usually drinking either one of the fruit/tea blends or i'm drinking an oolong, no sweetener. i have this WONDERFUL oolong in my cabinet right now from a regional teashop i love that's scented with grape and blackberry and it's got the most well rounded, juicy body to it -- if i had to pick a single favorite it might be that but it's expensive and small batch so i try to save it for when i can really sit down and enjoy it.

as for iced teas: love a cold fruity or hibiscus tea, barely sweet; black tea, strong and lightly sweet, especially with milk (a la boba shop milk tea or chai latte); LOVE an arnold palmer (half unsweet tea/half lemonade); and whatever the hell they put in diet snapple, i could go through cases of that shit all by myself in no time flat.

basically the only teas i don't really like are anything minty, chamomile, and plain green teas and matcha. although i'm recently becoming a convert to the joys of jasmine tea. besides it just tasting good what i love about tea is that there's just So Much out there that there's always something new to try and fall in love with

[a-bee-wizard]

also not to be the most boring person ever, but does anyone else feel kinf of weird when "standard bad guy" enemies in a video game are a real world nationality/ethnicity/etc? Like killing goblins or evil warlocks or whatever is fine, but when GoT is like "MASSACRE the mongols LEAVE NONE STANDING" it is, like, weird right?

[starswallowingsea]

every time i've gotten into a popular series or franchise i've always been disappointed by it because like. its so hyped up and i watch it and find it mid and it appears we are not watching/playing the same thing

[seavoice]

kind of related to the last post: it's been a while since i've read the sparrow (by mary doria russell) but i find it so interesting that the terms used for alien civilization in the book are all derived from sanskrit or arabic. i don't know if it was a conscious choice -- i assume it must be, regardless of what was the motive behind it, whether because it's hard to make up names without harkening back to some existing etymological root or the other, or because she thought that she should explicitly refer to real world colonialization. either way, i enjoyed the book for most part, and think it has really interesting things to say about faith and colonialism + imperialism (kind of) and human nature; emilio being a jesuit priest of "mixed taíno and conquistador heritage" is so clearly a comment on it. but it's also a really good example of how much of western sci-fi feels like a continuation of colonial british literature. idk man! space is the final frontier, and all that jazz, after all. the savage warring alien civilizations they encounter in space are a bunch of asians fighting each other :/

[shamelesskpoper]

Korean Drama Personal Taste is a story of misunderstandings

[shesnikt]

❛ before you do anything, try this and tell me what you think. ❜

 She  could  have  been  a  lot  more  subtle  about  it  but  fuck,  it  smelled  good.  Green  eyes  had  followed  his  every  movement  like  a  starving  predator  picking  out  prey.  After  a  while  she  snapped  into  reality  and  moved  to  leave.  Her  attention  was  probably�� more  than  a  little  off-putting.  But  those  eyes  lit  up  a  little  bit  when  @heroesoath  called  her  back.

   The  smell  didn't  do  the  taste  justice.  It  was  perfect.  Almost.  Laura's  lips  pulled  into  a  half  smile  as  she  weighed  up  the  options  on  the  table.  "...try  some  crushed  chili.  For  a  little  kick."

[fieriframes]

[It's a fish stock. Just a little bit of mirin. Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered? Yes. This is -- Higashimaru]

[havepatienceandendure]

This old white woman on my cruise just said “I don’t like Asian food.”

Ma’am we are in Vietnam and Cambodia. What did you think they ate?

[timetraveltasting]

TUH'U (c. 1740 BCE)

The next Tasting History dish I had to try was Babylonian Tuh'u, a beet and lamb stew. The recipe for this dish is from the Yale Tablets, ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets from 1740 BCE held at Yale University. According to these tablets, Babylonians loved eating stew - this stew recipe was just one of many stamped into these tablets. Max really liked Tuh'u when he made it, and even said it wouldn't be out of place on a modern menu. It's very impressive to see the Babylonians making meals with complex flavour combinations that can even please the palatte of people thousands of years in the future. See Max’s video on how to make it here or see the ingredients and process at the end of this post, sourced from the Youtube description of the video.

My experience making it:

I made a simple change or two from the modern recipe below. I used beef instead of lamb, mainly because the butcher I usually source lamb from was closed this week (and it's otherwise hard to find where I live). Further, I didn't end up using any of the water that Max lists in the ingredients. In terms of beer, I used Erdinger Weißbier, since it is very easy to find where I live. Unfortunately, sour beer is much harder to find, so I didn't consider using it.

In terms of preparation, this recipe requires lots of chopping (meat, onion, leek, shallot, arugula, cilantro...) and a little bit of grinding in the mortar & pestle (cumin seeds and garlic). I was very excited to use my new mortar & pestle, I love it already! The cumin seeds smelled divine while I was crushing them. Due to the long simmer time, the recipe took me about 1 hour and 30 minutes to make. The broth doesn't really thicken like a normal stew, so I decided to leave a little liquid and not boil all of it away, as the broth usually retains lots of the flavour. Due to the beautiful colour of the beets and the pops of fresh green from the cilantro, this dish was visually pretty to look at once it was served. The result was, like Max said, a dish I could definitely see being served in a restaurant today. The Babylonians had good taste!

My experience tasting it:

I tried this one on my own since my husband got home from work pretty late. The first bites were full of flavour - particularly the cilantro's. The texture and pop of flavour from the dried coriander seeds were also present, as well as the cumin, onion, and beet flavour. The beef didn't add much flavour, but definitely soaked up the flavour of the dish like a sponge. I enjoyed every bite of this one, and even saved some for leftovers to have at work. I had a feeling I would like this dish, because I like all the ingredients, and especially beets. I wasn't so sure if my husband would like it, but when he got home, he enthusiastically finished his bowl at record speed, exclaiming at how good it was in between spoonfuls. We both agreed it is the best historical dish I've made yet, and the best dish I've made in a while otherwise. I would actually consider sharing this recipe with friends, especially since the ingredients are fairly easy to find, and the process is fairly simple. Not to mention, the outcome was delicious! If you end up making it, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!

Links to harder-to-find ingredients:

Cumin Seed

Coriander Seed

Tuh'u original recipe (c. 1740 BCE)

Sourced from the Yale Babylonian Tablets

Tuh’u sirum saqum izzaz me tukan lipia tanaddi tusammat tabatum sikara susikillum egegerum kisibirrum smidu kamunum alutum tukammas-ma karsum hazannum teterri kisibirrum ina muhhi sipki tusappah suhutinnu kisibirrum isarutu tanaddi. Tuh’u. Lamb leg meat is used. Prepare water. Add fat. Sear. Add in salt, beer, onion, arugula, cilantro, samidu, cumin, and beets. Put the ingredients in the cooking vessel and add crushed leek and garlic. Sprinkle the cooked mixture with coriander on top. Add suhutinnu and fresh cilantro.

Modern Recipe

Based on the Yale Babylonian Tablets and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.

Ingredients:

1 lb (450g) leg of lamb (or other meat), chopped in bite size pieces

3-4 tbsp oil or rendered fat

1 ½ tsp salt

2 cups (475ml) water (only to add if needed)

12 oz (350ml) beer (sour beer and German Weissbier preferred)

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups arugula, chopped

3/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed in a mortar & pestle

2 large beets (approx. 4 cups), diced

1 large leek, minced

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp dry coriander seeds

additional chopped cilantro for garnish

Samidu* (1 Persian shallot)

Suhutinnu* (Egyptian leek for garnish)

*These ingredients have no definite translation; the shallot and leek are the best guesses of scholars at Yale and Harvard Universities)

Method:

Add the oil/fat to a large pot and set over high heat.

Sear the lamb for several minutes in the oil until lightly browned.

Add the onions and let cook for 5 minutes.

Add the beets and let cook for 5 minutes.

Add the salt, beer, arugula, cilantro, samidu (shallot), and cumin and bring to a boil.

Mash the garlic into a paste and mix with the leek, then add to the pot.

Lower heat to medium and let simmer for approximately 1 hour, or until the beets and meat are cooked to your liking. Add water if you prefer.

Once cooked, dish it into a bowl and sprinkle with coriander seeds. Garnish with fresh cilantro and suhutinnu (leek).