That Sour Taste

Aamra, a sour treat. Photo: Ihtisham Kabir

When I was living in the US, my father, now departed, occasionally visited from Bangladesh. Dividing his time between me and my siblings, he would quickly become restless, ready to return home. This was because he missed the familiar: his paan, fresh Bengali fruits and vegetables, and the people. For my part, I often took him shopping to the grocery store so he could pick and choose different types of food,      particularly fruits. During summer, the stores were filled with the sweetness and flavours of peaches, plums,    nectarines and strawberries. But I could sense he was missing something.
One day he asked me: “There are many sweet foods here, but people don't appreciate the sour taste, do they?”
Fast forward a dozen years. It has taken me several years of living in Bangladesh to appreciate those words. In the West, sugar and its cousin high fructose corn syrup dominate snacks and non-mealtime offerings for  youngsters. Starting with sweetened cereals in the morning, through    cookies, soda and chocolate milk during the day and dessert after the meals, there is no escaping sweetness. The sweet tooth stays for life. The sour taste is represented by a small minority including rhubarb pie, sour gelatin candy and cranberries (although   cranberry sauce, a Thanksgiving staple, is sweet.)
In contrast, the Bengali tastebud's lifelong attachment to sour starts at a young age. Here it is achar, chotpoti, phuchka and jhalmuri that make the youngster's day. Local fruits such as tetul, aamra, boroi, jolpai, koromcha, chukka (hoilfa), bhubi (lotkon), amloki, bilimbi and kamranga tempt young and old alike.
Our traditional meals often     accentuate the sour. When I was    growing up in Sylhet, all meals included a side-dish called khatta. This is a soupy sour curry, usually prepared with a sour fruit or vegetable as base. If the season offered no alternative then there was always kochur khatta made from kochu and tetul.
Other than ripe fruits, most other sweet foods we know depend on the refined sugars extracted from sugar cane, corn or beets. I suppose during ancient times sweets were restricted to those who could afford honey, but that changed with the invention of sugar, and, later, corn syrup. The amount of sugar eaten in the West is staggering: the average American consumes about 150 pounds of sugar annually. Most people would shy away from eating ten spoons of sugar, but the same people would not think twice about drinking a can of soda which contains as much sugar.
But developing a taste for the sour has advantages. Sour foods are usually less fattening and contain Vitamin C. Many of them contain antioxidants. Diabetics can partake with confidence.
After returning to live in Bangladesh I have reacquired a taste for the sour. I was assisted by generous doses of salt, rock salt and various spices. So      nowadays I look forward to belfoir khatta and my heart misses a beat at the sight of ripe bhubis or green mangoes during monsoon. As for tetul – ah, well, perhaps that's a separate      discussion?

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