Food of India

First of all, in order to understand more about the Hindu food, we divided into two parts to investigate, one is the eating habits and the other one is the food culture. In the eating habits, according to the photo that we took at the Hindu Temple during lunch time, it can see that their lunch basically contains curry rice, pancake, whole grain bread, the vegetables, and the drink. The appearance of the drink looks like the milk and yogurt but its taste like curry. Regarding the research we found, it stated that the Hindu Bengalis diet contains the vegetables and rice. Sometimes, they also eat cheese and yogurt ("HKBA - Hong Kong Bengali Association" 2016).

Therefore, it shows that Hinduism eating habits no matter in Bangladesh or in Hong Kong are quite similar. On the other hand, we also noticed that those Hindus in the temple, love eating vegetables and the fruits. For example, apples, bananas, and grapes. According to the article, it stated that the vegetables, fruits, and grains are count as Sattvic foods, which is the Hinduism terms means the foods can give you goodness, amicable, and balanced mind (Brady 2017). Hindus believe these foods can clean up their body and mind and that's why they always eat these foods In addition, we also investigated how the Hindus having a meal. At the Hindu temple, we saw a majority of Hindus having lunch with utensils, such as a spoon. Only a few or none of them is using the hand to have lunch.

While regarding the research, it said that the tableware is not often to used to eat food in Indian culture generally in the past, as the Indian think that food is meant to be an entire neural experience and so when they having a meal, such as curry rice, they just pick it up using their hands (Fuller 2018). It shows that there is the difference between the past and the present in the eating method. The traditional mindset is changing slowly from the past to nowadays. Those Hindus came to Hong Kong and try to accept other regional culture, as Hong Kong is a multicultural city. For example, Hongkongers like using the spoon during having the meal and the Hindus tried to learn from them. That’s why we can see some of Hindus using the tableware instead of using hands when having a meal. Also, the region is one of the factors that lead to the difference. In the past, as India is the low developed country, the opportunity of using the utensils during having a meal is low. In contrast, Hong Kong is more advanced nowadays and so the opportunity of using the utensils is high correspondingly. Hence, we can see that the traditional mindset and the region are the factors that lead to the differences. In the food culture, regarding the photo we have taken at the Hindu temple, we can see that a bunch of Hindus is sitting on the ground and male and women are separated. They are participating in the worship and provided the foods to the god. They put a lot of fruits in the middle of the table to thank the god.

According to the research, it stated that the process of offering food and water is called Parsada, which means grace, the grace of God, give someone a blessing. Once the god has taken part in the worship, share the blessing with the Hindus, and then will allocate the foods to devotees (Jones and Ryan 2009). Therefore, we can see that after the worship, the Hindus go forward to the table and take the fruit one by one. In the next photo, we can see that the plate has become empty. It reveals that the tradition of food culture no matter in India or in Hong Kong is similar, it is no large difference between them. Similarly, there is no big difference between the past and the present. We can see that the Hindus can keep their tradition well from the past till to the present and still follow their own etiquette in Hong Kong. Their tradition of food culture is not invaded by other cultures even Hong Kong is a multicultural city.