Pashtun Eating Habits

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

Lets discuss eating habits. Not food and dishes but how we consume them.

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

eating brinj with hands.

Yes, we eat by hands. But there is more to it.

It most Pashtun households, we don't have sofas or chairs. We sit on the floor when we eat. We have matrasses to sit on.

When dinner is served, we sit around a a piece of plastic or paper decorated with flowers. Food is then spread on different dishes on the plastic.

However, the main dish, is served in a large plate. It is quite common to eat together from one same plate.

Usually, we sit in a circle and eat together. Salad and other side dishes are served in small plates next to the the main plate.

We have typical dinner time jokes. One of my favorite jokes is to ask someone who is eating with you to explain to you a complicated matter just as the food is being served. While the person tries hard to explain the matter to you, or tell an exiting story, you use the opportunity to eat fast. After quickly eating a large piece of the food, you notify your friend that you just tricked him. You say that you ate all the food while he was talking. This is a very funny experience.

When I use to have dinner with Kochi friends, they would always pull this trick on me because to them I was a gullible city boy.

Likewise there are other nice anecdotes from rural life style.

I will tell more whenever I have time.