Funny but Annoying Experience

somekid37

I was drinking a fabulous lassi and eating at Mawa Kachori (fried sweet with syrup) at the same time the other day in a restaurant and I noticed a woman staring at me rather irritated. When she got up to leave I saw her b-line for me and I am thinking what is this about and she says "sweet with salty. sweet with sweet is JUST wrong." and stomps off. I was a little taken aback and luckily there was another western couple sitting next to me and they were laughing as hard as I was about the seriousness in this womans face. Is there some strange thing about eating a lassi and a sweet together, because my taste buds said it was all good!

shashank.aggarwal

It seems to be fabulous combinations...would give it a shot when I can...[blush]

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atala

Indians can be quite annoyed with food combinations, or with the order in which you eat the dishes of a thali for instance. esp if you are invited...

Aishah

Your experience is funny in the sense of weird to foreigners that is - but normal to many Indians who probably have some sort of 'health' reason for this sweet, salty thing. I love sweet - lassi, lemon soda etc. but most Indians like salty with jeera seeds in dahi (yoghurt) drink, salty lemon drink etc. In hot weather I have heard it said that something sweet and something salty is good for you. Personally, I would go for what you ate 2 sweet things together - yum! yum! Actually sweet lemon sodas are one of the best things you can have for hot, perspiring type weather because you have both sugar and salt in the soda.

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PeakXV

Playing tennis in the hot Indian sun can be a bit draining and always requires gallons of water. However, often the marker or court attendant, when sent for pani will come back with luke warm water - "not good cold water sir - warm much better for health" ..... which may or may not be true but it's not exactly refreshing getting a mouthful of warm water when you're ready to have a major meltdown.

Whether these intake customs have been derived/passed down from ayurvedic postulates - perhaps - but you gotta love the determination and seriousness with which Indians abide by them.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Aishah

Just tonight my UK friend told me it was not good to drink really cold drinks - she didn't know why but adhered to this regime. I drink anything - hot, icy cold etc. and seem to have no ill effects that I know of..

brownboy66

there might be something to that as I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the minerals you loose when you sweat is salt - and it needs to be replaced. Not sure about the sugar though. Its effectively a short term energy boost from what I recall - so not so essential.

shashank.aggarwal

Sweet Salty things is same principal on which ORS works...it rehydrates the body much faster as compared to sweet..

Jeera is very good for digestion and goes very well with salt...Salted lassi is very good for health specially in hot months...it also protects from 'Heat Wave'...plus its much lower is calories when compared to its sweeter counterpart...

Regular Lassi drinkers prefer to have it Salted with other spices..

Indian medical science is lot dependent on Hot and Cold..every thing that is edible is either hot or cold in nature (not temperature).. like Rice is cold..Methi is hot..so in a diet it should be a combination of both the factors...

After lot of Cardio activity, tennis in your case, your body is warmed up...so having Cold water may result in Cough/Cold OR both..you are not supposed to have Cold over hot..however Hot over cold is comparatively accepted..like after having tea OR a hot glass of milk, my mom won't allow me to have water for 30 minutes..

Secondly, body has to bring water to its temperature level to absorb it..so if its cold then it will take more time to rehydrate the body when compared to normal water..

shashank.aggarwal

My last post would give you the reason for the same..!!

Nick-H

How did she know you were drinking a salt lassi, not a sweet one?

In a place like England, this sort of stuff mutates into a massive signal of class and whether one 'fits in' or not. I India it gets elevated to much greater hights, with earnest assurances that an aunt or cousin once did what you are doing ---and was dead three days later!

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shashank.aggarwal

I totally accept and agree

Alohaguy

When living in India, we were told that when you are feeling hot, drink hot chai and not a cold drink. It will cool you better. Has anyone heard of this?

PeakXV

That's pretty well how it was explained to me.

And I even understand, to a certain degree(pun intended) some of the theory involved ..... however I find it hard not to believe that a cooler supply of water can't help but be more reviving and ultimately lower your body temperature faster - especially when applied via a combination of sipping, splashing on the wrists and applied via towel to the back of the neck.

edwardseco

I was warned against folowing a hot beverage with a cold one.
Mentioned this to my dentist and he said they knew what they were talking about and gave me a tirade about people that don't take care of their teeth..

Nick-H

And what's even worse than the threat of imminent death, as what happened to the aunt or cousin?

The Evil Eye!