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© 2007 Dan Perlman
Casa SaltShaker
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chef: Dan Perlman
Host: Henry Tapia
October 25-27, 2007
It is, of course, impossible to separate completely the culture of a region from its politics, and the history of how what is now the northwestern Indian state of Kashmir is a fascinating one. Full of intrigue, blackmail, and all sorts of other good thriller stuff, here’s the nutshell version. In 1947, the British helped setup, or impose, a two state region - India and Pakistan. There were, at the time, over 600 individual… principalities for lack of a better term, each ruled by its own local ruler, generally a maharaja, or king. Each was, more or less, given the option to join one state or the other - I imagine certain geographic conditions were imposed - perhaps only those along the proposed border actually had a say in which way they went. Much of this was accomplished in the mid-year and signed off on by early August. In the region then known as Kashmir & Jammu, the Maharaja Hari Singh held out until October, ostensibly wrestling with the decision, given that he and many of those close to him were Hindu and wanted to join India, while the vast majority of the population in his kingdom were Muslim, and wanted to go Pakistani. In the end, in late October, he decided to sign the Instrument of Accession, making the choice for India, and setting up the region for constant border conflict and legal challenges ever since. Luckily, we were able to view the whole situation from afar this weekend, with a trio of dinners celebrating some of the wonderful flavors of Kashmiri cuisine.
Thoughts from some of our guests:
"hi! we absolutely enjoyed the meal. delicious! we are trying to remember the wine list - is it possible to send us the list? thanks!! ps- I LOVED the mung bean soup, that was my favorite of the night!" - E.C."We had a great time ... the food and the company were wonderful. thank you again - it was a nice experience to have a home-cooked meal to break up 10 days of eating in restaurants (although the restaurants were all fabulous!)" - N.W.
