Health and Well-being
Food for health
Sort everyday foods into the three groups the chapter uses, work out how much of each belongs on a plate, and match the six tastes to the things that carry them.
At the school food festival, one stall was called Mystery Masala. What it served was sweet, and a little salty, and somehow bitter as well, and the children stood around arguing about what was in it. The answer was Ugadi Pachadi — a traditional dish built out of six different tastes at once, which is why it tasted different to each of them.
The six tastes
Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent. Most of what you eat carries one or two of them. A dish that holds six at once is doing something unusual on purpose, and the children at the stall said the trick is the measure: blended in the right amounts, the six together are better than any one of them by itself.
Have a play
A plate laid out the way the chapter describes a balanced one, in three parts of three different sizes.
Tap any part of the picture.
Worked example
There is a packet of something in the kitchen cupboard. What should you look at before you open it?
Turn it over and find the label.
The chapter sets this as an activity for exactly this reason: the outside of a packet is designed to be attractive, and the label is where the plain facts are.
Try it together
Let us work through Surbhi's grandmother's rotis, together.
At the millet stall Surbhi remembered that her grandmother changed which roti she ate as the seasons turned.
1.Jowar and bajra roti belonged to one season for her, and jau roti to the other. Which season did she eat jowar and bajra roti in?
Have a go
Your turn. The word chef comes from French. What does it mean there?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.