#handfed

I am pretty chuffed that my friend, artist and provocatuer Jiva Parthipan has launched  Handfed – a project to mainstream the way my (and his) peeps eat our food.

In Jiva’s words:   A whole website dedicated to the joys, perils and politic of eating with our hands. 

Eating with your hands is one of the most intimate relationships you will have with your food. It is sensual, environmentally friendly, clean and your food even tastes better. Mixing with different dishes and rice with your fingers makes each mouthful unique culinary experience. Although many Indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Nepalis, Pilipinos, Indonesians and Pakistanis eat with their hands within the privacy of their homes, years of the Raj has made us embarrassed of one of those most personal and intimate habits we have. This is especially so in public.

Having been brought up partly in an Anglo-Sri Lankan boarding school in Sri Lanka, we were banned from eating with our hands and encouraged to eat with cutlery. Today, the western world is more accepting of eating different kinds of food with our hands – burgers, chips, pizza, fruit etc. The use of cutlery has reduced dramatically and all too often we eat with just a fork. Not that long ago most people ate Chinese and Japanese food with a fork but now using chop sticks is all the rage. Similarly, it’s time we made the jump and start eating rice and curry with our hands too. Drop the shame… Enjoy your food. Share your pics, stories and anecdotes of eating with your hands… be it burgers, rice and curry, fish and chips, dosas or anything else.

Excellent video found on website:

Jiva’s project is funky and refreshing. It saddens me when I go to Tamil weddings and see our peeps using cutlery. How boring.  We eat with our hands at home and Tamil homes – so why not at weddings and at Indian and Tamil restaurants?

Jiva has big plans for Handfed and he is cheeky and determined – so I see this project taking a life of it’s own.

The good part is –  everyone can get involved. If you post a photo on instagram and tag it #handfed, it will all appear on the bottom of his website.  Do it!! Licking your hands after a delish meal is the best.

https://www.facebook.com/handfedsocial
https://twitter.com/handfedsocial