History On Your Plate - Through The Silk Road

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The ancient network of trading routes known today as the Silk Road, stretched through the ages and across half the world, from China in the east to Persia and on to the Mediterranean in the west. Each place on the Silk Road itself, has its own distinctive character and culture. It was along the caravan trails that these cultures passed from one civilization to another, to be absorbed and transformed into local specialties. Today we explore one such culinary bond that links distant and hostile cultures.


Sanbosag

A praise for a savoury snack called sanbusaj can be found in a 9th-century poem by the Persian poet Ishaq al-Mawsili. Recipes for the same are found in 10th–13th-century Arab cookery books, under the names sanbusak, sanbusaq, and sanbusaj. These are considered to be the early medieval form of the Persian snack sanbosag, which originated in the 11th century and were inspired by the pyramids. Abu'l-Faḍl Bayhaqi, an Iranian historian, mentioned sanbosag in his book - Tarikh-i Beyhaqi.

In the 13th century, traders from Central Asia brought samsa to the Indian subcontinent. It was a snack inspired by the Persian sanbosag which served as their travel-food during long voyages as they travelled through the Silk Road to different regions of the world. The Delhi Sultanate loved it and made their own royal version of it with minced meat, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, spices and ghee, as described by Ibn Battuta, during the 14th-century, when he travelled to India and had a meal at the court of Muhammad bin Tughluq. Amir Khusro, a scholar and the royal poet of the Delhi Sultanate, also wrote that the nobles enjoyed the snack. Nimmatnama-i-Nasiruddin-Shahi, a medieval Indian cookbook, mentions the art of making same. The Ain-i-Akbari, a 16th-century Mughal document, mentions the recipe for qutab, which says, "the people of Hindustan call it sanbúsah".


The Portuguese introduced potatoes, which they called 'Batata', to India in the early 17th century when they cultivated it along the western coast. British traders introduced potatoes to Bengal as a root crop, 'Aloo'. By the end of the 18th century, it was cultivated across India. Potato was included to the preparation of samsa as a vegetarian alternative and today we have the quintessential snack “Aloo-Samosa” in India.

The humble samosa which either originated in medieval Persia (etymologically) or Central Asia (as suggested by written history), is now a popular snack across the globe. It must be noted that samosa never originated in the Indian subcontinent but its version was popularised across the globe. The term samosa and its variants cover a family of pastries with choice of fillings, from north-eastern Africa to western China - Sambusa baraki (Tajikistan), Shingara (Bangladesh, Nepal, and parts of eastern – India), Lukhmi (Hyderabad, India), Bajiyaa (Maldives), Samusas (Burma), Samosa (Pakistan, Indonesia), Samusaas (South Africa, Africa), Sambousek (Arabian Nations), Sambuseh (Iran), Sambusaq (Israel), Chamucas (Goa – India, Portugal), Pastéis (Brazil), Empanadas (Portuguese Africa), Calzone (Italy).



Due to emigration and cultural diffusion from various areas(especially through the Silk Road), samosas today are often prepared across the globe with regional choice of fillings, pastries and are either fried, baked, boiled or even steamed!


Jiaozi

Almost 2000 years ago, during the last few years of the Han Dynasty plagues were prevalent and people were affected by severe diseases. Zhang Zhongjian, a medical practitioner had returned to his ancestral village in the eastern Han Dynasty during the winter. He noticed that people were suffering from frostbites, particularly around their ears and as a way to solve this problem, he cooked up a batch of mutton, chili and healing herbs and wrapped them in scraps of dough. He folded them to look like little ears, boiled them and handed them out to the afflicted citizens to cure them. Formerly known as jiaoer or jiǎozi (Translation: fragile ears), are since then mandatorily consumed in every Chinese household during the Winter Solstice (particularly in Northern China) and on the first day of the Chinese New Year. These steaming, pillow-like treats help people overcome the cold weather, while the herbs that are put inside, work to improve blood circulation. People like to place a coin or candy inside the dumpling in the hope of obtaining a fortune or having a sweet life, on Chinese New Year's Eve and special family reunions.

Numerous other variations of the same exists within China. To name a few –

·         Manti - popular in Chinese Islamic cuisine and in Central Asia.

·         Guotie (potstickers) - fried in oil after water has been evaporated out.

·         Wonton (in Cantonese or hún dun in Mandarin) - shape is similar to Italian tortellino. It is typically boiled in a light broth or soup and made with a meat or shrimp filling. Wontons are more popular in Southern China

·         Zongzi – these are triangle or cone shaped, and are made with glutinous rice and red bean paste.

·         Xiaolongbao – filled with soup or broth along with other fillings.

·         Tangyuan – sweet variations made with rice flour and sweet sesame, peanut and red bean paste.

·         Dim sum – though the origin is debatable, it is not a single dish, but a large range of small dishes that Cantonese people traditionally enjoy in restaurants for breakfast and lunch with tea. There are over one thousand dim sum dishes in existence today. Cantonese dim sum has a very broad range of flavours, textures, cooking styles and ingredients and has eventually evolved into the modern yum cha (brunch).

During the 17th century, the traveling Newar merchants of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal used to travel between the Kathmandu Valley and Tibet to conduct trade between Nepal, Tibet and India over the Silk Road. They brought the recipe of a steamed bun with fillings of yak meat from Tibet and recreated the same in Nepal with buffalo meat and named it momocha which is today popularly known as momo in Tibet, India and Nepal. Although, In Shanxi, where Jin Chinese is spoken, unfilled steamed buns are often called momo. Momo-like filled doughs, called by a closely associated group of words, exist in Mongolian, Turkish, Persian, Uzbek, and many other Central and East Asian cuisines. After arriving in North Indian plains, the momo now includes vegetarian variation in the modern era to feed the large population of vegetarians. The civil war in Nepal pushed out the Nepali diaspora to seek livelihood in the Indian sub-continent, which further proliferated to the prevalence of Himalayan style momos in the southern half of the Indian sub-continent.

Numerous other variants of the Chinese jiǎozi exists across the globe – Banku, Kenky, Tihlo, Souskluitjies, Melkkos, Dombolo (Africa and South Africe), Poutine râpée (Canada), Manti (Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Caucasus), Dango, Nikuman, Gyōza (Japan), Mandu (Korea), Buuz, Khuushuur (Mongolia), Empanadas (Latin America), Empadas, Pastéis (Brazil), Pantrucas (Chile), El Callao (Venezuela), Johnny Cake (Jamaica), Kloß, Knödel, Nockerl or Knöpfle (Germany), etc.


Numerous other versions and interpretations of this dish exists in different cultures. While some of them credit the Chinese for this invention, others claim to have independent origins of their own.

 

Ravioli

Many have credited Marco Polo, who returned from China in 1295 after 17 years of service in Kublai Khan’s court, for introducing stuffed pasta to Italy. But, recent discoveries in Southern Italy have uncovered examples of square ravioli dating to the 9th century. A similar dish was eaten by the ancient Romans and the modern name “ravioli” already appeared in ancient Genoese writings in 1100, long before the birth of Marco Polo. There is a famous ancient Roman recipe by Marcus Gavius Apicius called “patinam apicianam sic facies” that has evolved into modern day ravioli. Around the year 1100 AD there were many ravioli recipes from Lombardy and Liguria as well.

By the 14th century, all kinds of filled pasta began to appear throughout Italy. Each region would fill them with local ingredients and give them local names. The creative chefs of wealthy families expanded on the square ravioli idea shape to circles, half-moons, hats and other shapes, creating agnolotti, cappelletti, tortelli, tortellini, tortelloni and a host of other shapes. Some food historians believe the name “ravioli” derives from the old Italian word riavvolgere (meaning: to wrap). Others believe that the dish was named after a renowned 13th-century chef by that name, who lived in what is now the Italian region of Liguria, who is credited with the invention of stuffed pasta.


Although, the theories about the Chinese influence on stuffed pasta are deemed pointless by the Italians, pasta is considered to have arrived in Italy during the Arab conquests of Sicily in the 9th century when traders brought it back from China and later called it spaghetti. These statements are debatable as it is believed that the transfer occurred in both directions.

 

Conclusion

The first use of the term “dumpling” can be found in an English text from 1600, where it was noted that the word was perhaps of German origin. While dumplings appeared in many forms for many centuries during ancient times, it wasn’t until the 17th century that they finally got their name. Recipes for them appear in Roman texts, and it’s certain that Chinese dumplings are even older.

While Zhongjian may have created dumplings in the first place to help people survive brutal winters in China, other cultures created dumplings for other reasons, such as to help extend the life of meat, make use of surplus grains, or just to serve as a quick and easy snack for travellers and soldiers. From Italian ravioli, to Central Asian samosas, to Chinese potstickers, the humble dumpling is beloved by eaters around the world. It is truly a universal food.

They are one of the most ancient foods known to mankind and just like bread, dumplings probably arose independently in different cultures across the globe. The history of the dumpling is also the history of the Silk Road. Many different cultures invented their own dumplings, while some were fried and baked in regions of Central Asia with scarcity of water and abundance of oil, others were mostly boiled or steamed in parts of China and Europe. By understanding this unique history, we understand more about how food has functioned in general throughout the human experience—both as a practicality and as medicine for the human body. It is one of the primary unifying factors that binds us together – the beauty that’s born out of chaos.


References


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