The Pauper's Gourmet

Back in the 1950s in Peshawar, Pakistan, my grandparents lived in a small home with mud walls, no fridge, and no stove. With limited means, my grandmother made miracles cooking on an open fire. Her culinary abilities were unrivaled in her lifetime. She could make comfort and joy with the most modest of ingredients. Once every month my grandfather would stock the pantry with basic essentials, particularly dry goods such as flour, rice, and lentils. With these essentials on hand, the weekly/daily grocery bill was cut by a fraction in both the short and long-run. Meat and fresh produce were bought on a daily or weekly basis, while the staples were bought in bulk every month. Even in this day and age, I've learned from my family that having an arsenal of staple ingredients in your pantry is a profoundly important part of eating well and saving money. Once we have some core ingredients on hand, the amount we'll need to make meals for the rest of the month will be drastically less.

I remember being hungry in my bones. It was Peshawar, Pakistan in 1994, after the Soviets had withdrawn from Afghanistan and just before the Taliban came into power. The civil war was raging across the border, and the Afghan militias used Peshawar as a base to re-load and re-group. Every man had an AK-47 slung over his shoulder and the streets were full of Mujahideen fighters armed to the teeth. I was 13 years old, and I was very, very hungry. Two potatoes between four kids every day. That's all we had. Food shortage coupled with dysentery dropped my weight by 20 pounds in 4 weeks. Though normally a skinny kid, I was now utterly gaunt. I remember eating things that were considered garbage. I remember collapsing, as my body failed. As a girl, I had no freedom of mobility to scrounge for myself, so I found myself a pack of hungry kids to run with. We did crazy, stupid, dangerous things for food... and occasionally for freedom. But mostly, we just wanted something to eat. The only dif