Across many cultures and SIKH FESTIVAL OF to see people who are willing to give their time without religions, lavish feasts are at HARNEET BAWEJA expecting anything in return. Feeding the Gul & Sepoy and gulandsepoy.com, the heart of religious festivals. Gunpowder restaurants, gunpowderlondon.com London Foodie experts and VSO staff Sikhism is simple in its ANJU RAHEJA philosophy. The basic People and Operations share their experiences with principles are that you need Manager, VSO festival spirit to work for a living and “A sumptuous feast is a Rachel Walker. share whatever it is that defining characteristic you have, especially food. of Vaisakhi celebrations. Sharing food happens at My favourite food is the Vaisakhi, which celebrates delicious and amazing our warrior heritage, and . The winning also the spring harvest. combination of chole, Vaisakhi is a time of fun, cooked in tangy rather than prayers. There curry, and bhature, huge, are processions through fluffy fried breads, is very the streets with music, and hard to resist.” sweets being distributed throughout the crowds, like ORTHODOX jalebi (deep-fried sweet) and CHRISTIAN EASTER (pudding made from IN ETHIOPIA or carrot, , milk TAFE BELAYNEH and dried fruit). I grew up in Zeret Kitchen, London Calcutta [Kolkata], so local I was born in Zeret, a delicacies are incorporated small part of northern into the mix, like semolina Shewa, where much of the population is Orthodox (syrupy dumplings). Christian. Easter is the main The Golden Temple in holiday; it’s more important Amritsar, Punjab in northern than Christmas. It rarely falls India, is one of the most on the same day that Easter is famous Sikh places of celebrated in Britain because worship – not just because the Ethiopian calendar is of the amazing temple, different. It has 13 months, usually break fast in the late PREVIOUS PAGE: Preparing but also because there are and is seven years behind the afternoon, after going to jalebi in Odisha, India volunteers preparing langar – Gregorian calendar. church. We might eat a small OPPOSITE PAGE: Injera, free vegetarian meals – every Easter takes place in plate of injera, flatbread an Ethiopian flatbread made day to feed the hundreds of spring, when it’s around 18°C made from teff, with from teff flour, with pulses thousands of visitors. This in the Ethiopian Highlands, or chickpeas, potatoes, and vegetables sharing ethos is at the heart and crops are just coming carrots and cabbage. It’s TOP: jalebi, a crispy, of Sikhism, and over Vaisakhi into harvest. In the lead up, plain food – food for sweet snack in India lots of temporary sites we do a 40-day fast during survival, not for enjoyment. ABOVE: distributing langar are set up Lent. It’s a way of weakening The fasting period wings all over India. our bodies to become lengthens as Easter draws In Calcutta, makeshift submissive to God, and focus nearer. My parents eat their meat – no more lentils – so tents are erected near the our minds. last meal on the Friday there might be beef or lamb. Victoria Memorial, which can During Lent, the food we before Easter Sunday, and As a child, it was especially accommodate 5,000 people. eat is strictly vegan – no then break the fast in the exciting feasting in the There are prayers one side, milk or dairy. It depends how early hours of Easter Sunday, middle of the night. We hymns the other and an area rigorously you fast, but we so families go to church just would drink telba, flax seed dedicated to feasting. There after midnight. There are shake, to help our bodies might be puris (fried bread), candles, dancing, everyone digest the rich food. There vegetables and lentils that is dressed in white – it’s a isn’t a strong tradition of have been slow-cooked until “ As a child, it was wonderful ceremony. sweets in Ethiopian cuisine, they are perfectly broken especially exciting Then the feasting starts but meals usually end down. I have a sweet tooth at home, at around 2 in the with a coffee. On Easter and get most excited by feasting in the morning, with a traditional morning, we might add a bit , made middle of the night. Ethiopian dish called doro. of spiced, . with and milk, It’s a whole chicken, which After all, the body has been with heaped We would drink has been slow-cooked with slowly shutting down over on top. It’s a beautiful telba, flax seed shake, 12 eggs, and then jointed into the past 40 days, so it’s a celebration, especially 12 pieces. There aren’t many great way of firing it back up because everything is run by to help our bodies side dishes. After a month- again. zeretkitchen.com ›

© PHOTOCUISINE RM/ALAMY © PHOTOCUISINE ROTTEM/ALAMY © BOAZ DELIMONT/ALAMY. © DANITA volunteers. It’s so heartening digest the rich food” long fast, people just want

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Kin2_Body_Final_Final.indd 46 20/02/2018 13:50 Kin2_Body_Final_Final.indd 47 20/02/2018 13:50 LILI TEREFE heart of Holi. Now, most home covered in colours. followed by a sacrifice, which ICS Project Support people throw dry paint, Vivek Singh’s cookbook is important because the Officer, VSO Ethiopia but when I was younger it Indian Festival Feasts festival is about thankfulness Doro wot, a spicy chicken was a different story. I grew (Bloomsbury) is out now. for what we have on our stew, is a traditional food up in a small coal mining table. Traditionally families eaten during Faskia (Easter) community near Asansol PIYUSHA GUPTA kept an animal at home, and is accompanied by in , and there Livelihoods Project to teach attachment and injera, flat-bread made would be different stages of Associate, VSO India sacrifice. In cities, families from teff. Home-brewed Holi – first we would throw Holi means fun, revelry and go to a butcher, who might drinks such as tella, a dark mud, then grease, then metal mouth-watering delicacies. organise for a goat, lamb or beer from barley, or teji, paint, then wet paint and My favourite foods include cow to be sacrificed on their wine, are abundant. finally dry paint. There was thandai, a sweet, creamy behalf. The whole animal is The tantalising smell of a water tank in the garden, milk drink, and gujiya, a divided into cuts, which are baking bread and injera, the and my mother would send deep-fried sweet made bagged up and then shared roasting of coffee along me to scrub down with sand with semolina, and khoya, with neighbours or handed with the burning of incense, before I was allowed back dried fruits, and powdered out in nearby villages. the smell of fire wood, the inside for a proper bath. sugar. My mother makes There is a strong loud songs of church goers, My parents got into the gujiyas every year for my charitable angle during the busy open markets and spirit and would be covered entire family. I started this Eid, and an emphasis the noise of chicken and in paint. In the late afternoon, cooking by helping my on sharing food. I have sheep on the streets during the community would come mother make gujiyas when vivid memories of my this time of year, enhance together. It might start with a I was 10-years-old. grandmother making the holiday spirit and spur family coming to our house big pots of . It’s a beautiful memories. for some puffed lotus seeds traditional dish made from or shredded dates. Then EID CELEBRATIONS lamb, mutton or goat, which HINDU FESTIVAL both families would move IN is cooked with lentils or OF HOLI on to someone else’s house, SUMAYYA USMANI wheat for hours, until VIVEK SINGH then we’d all move on again Food writer based in it takes on a porridge-like Collection of together – until a big group Glasgow consistency. She would then restaurants, London settled in a park. There We have two Eids. The divide it up among poor Holi is more of a social would be singing, dancing first one takes place after people and neighbours. occasion than a strict, and more food. It wouldn’t , which is a month- Since moving to Britain religious festival – there’s be a formal, sit-down meal, long fast. The absence of from Pakistan, I find that the no veneration, sacrifice or but a pot luck with , food forces a period of best way to continue my abstinence. In fact, what chicken wings, bowls of contemplation, so Eid is identity is through the food makes Holi so fun and (savoury snack). a time of celebration and I cook, especially festive accessible is that, unlike any I’m incredibly proud abundance. It’s often spent food, because it’s such a other festival, there are no to bring Holi to the City visiting family, where the celebration of culture. I rules, just paint-throwing of London each year. I dinner table is always at like to use local produce as and celebration. set up a little pod outside the heart of proceedings. It much as I can, so there’s a It’s a chance for young our Cinnamon Kitchen doesn’t matter what time of Scottish flavour creeping people to play pranks on restaurant, and fly in day it is – there’s always tea, into some of my family their elders, and for teachers coloured paint from India. coffee, snacks, whole meals recipes – it’s the start of and students, and families Complete strangers go into laid out, and relatives inviting new culinary traditions. to celebrate together. It’s the pod and pelt each other you to eat. Sumayya Usmani is an intergenerational festival with paint – it really captures Eid is a food-driven time the author of Mountain and people of all faiths the spirit of the festival, of year. It’s about indulgence, Berries and Desert Spice often celebrate among particularly when strangers and rich dishes that you (Frances Lincoln). their local community. part ways, with a grin on wouldn’t usually eat. There Colour is always at the their faces and get the tube are extravagant KHALIDA ZEB and, followed by heavy People and Operations – like a vermicelli Officer, VSO Pakistan pudding, topped with nuts, Eid brings happiness and raisins and . By the joy and it’s when I look end of the three-day period forward to visits from it feels like you’ve more friends and relatives and than compensated for the vice-versa. Usually people month-long fast. cook , rice with The second Eid takes chicken, and karahi, mutton place straight after Hajj, the or chicken, with snacks like pilgrimage to Mecca. It’s channa chaat, chick peas and potatoes with spices, samosas and kheer, rice pudding. The kitchen and LEFT: Holi celebrations house smells lovely the at Barsana and Nandgaon, whole day. *

Uttar Pradesh, India © HPT IMAGES/ALAMY

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