Stories About Merchants Or Cunning Merchant - 23 Stories from Baraz

As the candy merchant Baraz used to say, the world does not stand still; it changes, sometimes not for the best. Not only socially and culturally, but also ecologically. The environment is transformed, mutations of organisms occur, new types of viruses and infections appear. The quality of life is deteriorating. Due to air pollution, water, food, etc.

The man himself, too, has changed, now he does not ride horses on the steppe, does not walk tens of kilometers around the city, does not wave an ax in the forest, does not stand behind a plow. Progress. Almost everything was automated. People in general began to spend less energy, to spend less energy. They began to eat more. But again, more in terms of calories and not a balanced diet.

That is, traditional food, no longer fully ensures health and safety. Previously, people could save on food, in favor of paying for a communal flat, buying clothes, shoes, gadgets, medicines. Now it goes sideways. When only carbohydrates and fats are consumed in the diet, with a small amount of protein and lack of vitamins and trace elements, “good” cholesterol leads inevitably to the loss of some vitamins, such as A and the consequence of anemia, vitamin D and problems with the lungs and bronchi , “K” and “Ca” problems with joints and tendons, etc. As a result, people start to get sick more often.

Here it is necessary to take care of yourself in the first place, it will not be possible to save on food. Since medications for treatment and other medical procedures are much more expensive. It’s worth it?

It would be good if the methods and recommendations were developed or have already been developed, how can and should we eat in modern, modified environmental conditions? Perhaps it would be worthwhile to introduce new complex dishes for a balanced diet.

Well, somehow, thought inspired by the reading of the news, says Baraz. I suppose that he does not know much, they have missed some aspects of healthy eating, but the topic is interesting to discuss. In my not professional opinion.

Somehow Baraz caught a cold, working in the wholesale market is not easy, especially in winter. Doors now and then open, the goods are brought, taken away, drafts. The case is simple, to stand up in one day, if the cold is easy. The main thing is not to start the disease.

Then I remembered the tea with which I regaled in a distant mountain village, my grandfather Farshid.

Tea was made from mint and crystalline sugar. We have such traditional sugar, some spices are added to it, and it is boiled on grape juice. In modern stores, there is already no such sugar, it is crystalline but cooked on regular sugar, although it also helps, but not so quickly and efficiently.

However, it is this sugar that has some healing properties, for example, it strengthens with diarrhea. Black tea with navvat helps well or boiling water infused with this sugar with mint or basil, promotes profuse sweating, which is good for colds.

Of course, a truly environmentally friendly product could be used instead. For example, amber sugar. But its production is very laborious and most likely 1 kg of such sugar will cost as much as 2-3 kg of good cheese. Here it is, it was just and widely used in traditional medicine. But in the realities of modern life, so far, too, I have never seen it in the markets or in specialized shops of oriental sweets.

At hand was the usual crystal sugar and basil, after drinking it, a slight cold passed me.

It should be remembered that each person is unique, has its own contraindications, and apply these or other healing properties of products, only after the “approval” of a qualified attending physician.

…

One summer came to stay. Charged to monitor the garden. Pumpkin, watermelons, tomatoes, cucumbers and yellow-red flowers of Cardobenedict (Cnicus benedictus).

An amazing plant, a substitute for Persian saffron, although how to replace it? Nevertheless, it is also very useful, it is also called Imereti saffron.

But here is a collection of his labor-intensive matter, Ba told me not to cut the flowers and pull out the stamens, there were only two square meters of Cardobenedict. It is planted seedlings. After harvesting, the stamens must be decomposed and then dried and only then used as a spice. Ba added to the pilaf and stewed vegetables. The taste is interesting, and so is the color.

Much later I learned that this plant also uses leaves for seasoning, they seem to have a lemon flavor.

…

I visited relatives in Small An, they were treated to a delicious dish, it was for tourists. But I got a little bit. Expensive it seems to come from the steppe people, others say it from the Mongols. One way or another, they prepare it with us.

They say another five hundred years – seven hundred years ago, this food, was prepared only by noble nobles,

The camel’s meat is fresh, a sheep is put into it, the inside is fresh and a pheasant is put into it, a pigeon is put into it, and a quail is put into it. Inside the quail lay an egg.

A fire was made on the other side, and a pit was dug under it, the fire was removed. The camel is suspended above a pit filled with coals and is covered with coniferous tree branches on top, then a rug or sheep skin is laid, and the ground is covered or stones are placed on top. Prepared within 20 hours.

Depending on the rank, everyone got this or that meat. The servants ate stewed camel meat, the guards of the palace — the ram, the grandees of the palace — the pheasant, the ministers — the pigeon, the main minister got the quail. And the king himself drank, quail broth, which was placed in a bowl and ate a quail egg.

Previously, rich people for medical purposes ate sparrow soup. A dozen sparrows were feathers cleaned, gutted, salted and left for 10-15 minutes.

After the carcass, the sparrows were dipped in cold water and cooked for 1 hour over low heat. Spices were added to the broth.

Cooked to separate the meat from the bones, removed the bones. Finely chopped green onions were put into large bowls or braids, the broth was poured.

Added a spoon of baked fat tail oil. In Asia, especially the mountaineers and steppe men, they like to add melted, animal fat to all dishes, whether it be dessert or soup or tea.

Cooked – broth from quail. The cooking method was different from the passerine in that the gutted carcasses were put in a pot when it was just boiling. And then put the vegetables. Cooked to soften the game. Before the end of cooking, chopped greens were added.

Many traditional dishes that were prepared in our city in the middle of the 20th century, says Baraz, are now difficult to meet in the 21st century.

So for example, I haven’t seen in the city for a long time – rice soup with dried cherries, – corn cobs soup, – jam sandwiches soup, – corncobs cooked in milk, – flour soup with milk and rice.

There are no more simple soups: – dried curd soup, – sour cream soup, with corn and pumpkin.

Now many tourists prefer to cook themselves, passing, workshops on cooking traditional food. Others prefer to eat, unusual dishes, photograph them, discuss the texture, taste, aroma, aftertaste of food, its serving and decor. Develop new types of culinary tourism.

True, with desserts, we are rather weak with only a few kinds of halvah, sweets, dried fruit and greetings.

There are also various beliefs from tomatoes, watermelon peels, grapes, carrots, figs, quinces, rose petals for example.

Here earlier in the yards in the old town, right in front of the house, trees grew, 6 meters high. While the fruits were slightly greenish, they were tasty, slightly sour. And as they ripened, turned brown, soft, the structure of the fetus changed and looked like cotton. The fruit itself was sweet, tart, astringent.

Usually, this fruit was used in traditional medicine to normalize the work of the heart and reduce blood pressure.

The name of the tree is “Zizi; the essence of this; tuschy” or colloquially “Chinese date”.

The leaves of this tree have an anesthetic effect. The fruits themselves are used to reduce the effect of the disease with the FLU, ARVI. Treat bronchi and insomnia.

Koreans love to decorate their desserts with them. The Chinese use fruits, seeds, bark, leaves in their traditional medicine.

Well, for me, they are good yet have not become very soft.

Interestingly in the principality of Shi at the end of the 18th century, they ate three times a day.

In the morning, at 12 o’clock and in the evening. Bread ate every day.

There were two categories of food, for every day and festive.

Food, for every day

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– liquid rice cereal soup with milk

– liquid soup of fine rice cereal, mixed with sour milk

– flour liquid foods like jelly, mixed with milk, butter or lard

– Wheat noodles with milk

– type of sauce; made from mashed cottage cheese mixed with bacon or butter, bread was dipped into it.

Festive – special dishes:

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– dumplings with lamb meat with onions

– rice porridge, with lamb, raisins, onions, peppers and carrots; It is prepared mainly on fat tail, and at its high cost in oil

–shashlik made from pieces of lamb meat sprinkled with pepper and salt and roasted on skewers

– patties with lamb meat and onions, fried in lard

– wheat pancakes

– wheat dough, pre-boiled in boiling water, and then finely chopped, like noodles, and mixed with boiled, finely chopped meat mixed with carrots, onions, salt and pepper

– soup with lamb or beef, rice, onions, salt, pepper and carrots

– pea soup with beef or lamb, with the usual seasoning. Cooked in the evening and is used the very next day, because otherwise the peas would not be boiled

– sauce made from water and oil, fried with onions; it crumbles small pieces of tortillas and eats

– whole lamb steamed in a preheated pit

– scalded liquid wheat porridge, like jelly, used with lard or sour milk.

Ah, it would be nice to open such a restaurant and feed tourists. But I am old, said Baraz. so far only on dream.

Baraz also composes verses, though he doesn’t really succeed in it, well, at least as:

Spicy spirit of Ethiopian foothills

In every grain like oil

Bottled … steaming coffee.

And you know, in it mint and pepper!

In the pepper, the sun and the smells of India,

It is warm as a gift for the fall,

But a mint is fragrant, you see,

She just asks herself in her arms …

This is mint from streams of sonorous mountain,

What touched your flower sky

And holding the stones by the root,

I wanted to be like that too …

Here’s a little bit tart to the touch,

He connected in himself many facets …

And autumn again shines with tastes.

And you pour a cup too?

And a bit of ginger jam

Full of happiness …

It is dissolved in the spirit of coffee

Fleeting these bad weather.

In this case, of course, coffee is not a healthy way of eating. But you can drink a little inula, says Baraz himself.

And so he likes to drink Chinese jasmine tea or oolong more.

I love just boiling water, a student from Sichuan, said that boiling water is even tastier than tea.