{"id":2623,"date":"2013-07-24T08:57:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T12:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/?p=2623"},"modified":"2013-07-24T09:14:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T13:14:00","slug":"why-does-south-indian-food-taste-better-when-you-eat-it-with-your-fingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/why-does-south-indian-food-taste-better-when-you-eat-it-with-your-fingers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does South Indian food taste better when you eat it with your fingers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/eRy35QJj4Fo?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I can think of three reasons.<\/p>\n<p>First, there is a placebo effect. For the Westerner\/outsider, eating with your fingers seems exotic. For (many, not all) South Asians, eating with your fingers brings back memories of family and comfort foods.<\/p>\n<p>Second, your fingers are highly versatile and they are often the best implements for consuming these foods and blending together spices, condiments, and foodstuffs themselves. There is a reason why humans evolved fingers rather than forks.<\/p>\n<p>Third, and how shall I put this? A lot of South Indian food is vegetarian and eating with your fingers adds flavors of\u2026meat. The fleshy sort.<\/p>\n<p>Eating a dosa with fork and knife is a very different experience, for Tamil food on the palm leaf all the more so.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/marginalrevolution.com\/marginalrevolution\/2013\/07\/why-does-south-indian-food-taste-better-when-you-eat-it-with-your-fingers.html\"><em>Originally posted on Marginal Revolution<\/em> &#8211; click to see comments and suggestions.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/njalEx6KGU4?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>See also, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/26\/eating-utensils-taste_n_3498425.html\">Eating Utensil Type Can Influence How Things Taste, Study Finds<\/a>&#8220;<\/p>\n<h3 class='related_post_title'>Related Posts:<\/h3><ul class='related_post'><li><a href=\"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/moghul-express-edison-new-jersey\/\" title=\"Moghul Express, Edison, New Jersey\">Moghul Express, Edison, New Jersey<\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can think of three reasons. First, there is a placebo effect. For the Westerner\/outsider, eating with your fingers seems exotic. For (many, not all) South Asians, eating with your fingers brings back memories of family and comfort foods. Second, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/why-does-south-indian-food-taste-better-when-you-eat-it-with-your-fingers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,17],"tags":[788,785,787,786,784],"class_list":["post-2623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tips","category-southern-indian","tag-eat-with-your-hands","tag-eating-with-your-fingers","tag-ery35qjj4fo","tag-njalex6kgu4","tag-south-indian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2623"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2628,"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}