As a child, typically around Christmas, my mother inevitably had candy bowl after candy bowl filled with golden wrapped hard butterscotch candy...........I would eat them by the handful........while I haven't had them in years, I can still remember the distinctive sound made by the golden wrapping as I peeled away the neatly twisted ends......................or how I graduated to the "quick strip" by holding just one twisted end between my thumb and finger, placing my teeth around the candy and then pulling until the force of creamy golden butterscotch candy forced the other twisted end to unwrap and the candy fell perfectly on my tongue.
YUMMMMMMMM!
I am sure that I am not the only one in this world to use this technique..........surely there is some reader out there that has done the same thing.
Since arriving here I have been a student of all things "India"......an observer of life, environment, people, food, art, architecture, the incredible, the rarities and the oddities...........and just when you think you have seen something out of the ordinary, just around the corner there is something else to amaze you.
One thing that struck me as rather odd was what appeared to me was that Indian's are lovers of Butterscotch Ice Cream............a flavor not so popular in the United States..........but why here?............how did this happen? It has been in the back of my mind for almost two years now, after being first served the flavor on a train from Ludhiana.
While I had been meaning to explore this with some of my colleagues, the topic never seemed to come to my mind when I was with any of them.......until......one night at dinner at the Four Points by Sheraton Visakhapatnam (Vizag)......and the opportunity presented itself.
Picture this.............the last plates were cleared.........and the waiter asked the table if it would like some desert...........and since I am an ice cream lover...........I asked what flavors.............Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry and yep...........Butterscotch. I ordered vanilla..........the waiter disappeared.
Immediately, I sprung into action by commenting to the people at the table that I have been observing something for some time, and asked......"Why do Indian's have an affinity for Butterscotch Ice Cream".....the reply I received was counter to my observation and both of the people at the table stated that they did not have a preference for "butterscotch" .....and whole-heartedly felt that my observation was incorrect..........and I quickly repliedthat they were the exception to the rule............that Indian's were truly "in love" with Butterscotch Ice Cream...........and this led to an unofficial poll to be conducted by one of the "naysayers" at the table.
When the waiter returned, my colleague casually asked him........"What flavor of ice cream is your favorite?".....his reply was quick and without hesitation the word "Butterscotch" rolled off his tongue........
One after another, my colleague continued polling............calling over one employee after another.......by the time we had reached the 10th person...........we had 70% that had answered in my favor.............and that was including the two naysayers at the table.......
Needless to say, while certainly not scientific, everyone walked away from the table that night with a better idea of the percentage of Indian's that favor Butterscotch Ice Cream..........but the question remained in my mind as to how and why!
My premise is that it had to be a legacy of the British...........like "tea time" and the Indian Railway system.....could this be one of the simple things that has become so en grained in the Indian lifestyle that no one has paid attention as to how it started...............?
I embarked on my mission to research "Butterscotch in India"............googling these words I found many recipes for butterscotch cakes, etc and even a question posted by an Indian on "Yahoo Answers India" asking "Can I give my dog butterscotch ice cream?"..................
While the recipes were abounding and I even discovered some sites about butterscotch ice cream in India..........I could find nothing about how it became so popular a flavor here.
What did I learn.........here it goes......Butterscotch is British.......and the word was recorded to first be used in Doncaster by a candy maker named Samuel Parkinson..........the year was 1817 and the Parkinson confectionary became extremely popular..........so much that butterscotch became one of Doncasters most famous exports and the "Royal" highlight of the St Leger race week...........where apparently special "tins" were made to be filled with the butterscotch candy to commemorate the occasion. The confectioner's company even carried the "Royal Seal of Approval"...............
So there it was.....the British connection was established...........but how did the candy make it's way from Britain to the shores of India............no doubt, because of it's popularity it made it's way over with several of the hundreds of thousands of British citizens and soldiers during the 200+ years that Britain ruled India..........
I can see it now..............somewhere here in India someone was making ice cream one day..........had a tin of St. Leger race week butterscotch candy............crushed them and mixed them into the creamy vanilla ice cream and the flavor became popular.............
I would like to continue the informal poll...........I would like all of you who read this blog article to please take the time to leave a comment about ice cream......"What is your flavour???..........simple...............but feel free to also write additional comments about the history of butterscotch in India.............I would really like to try and trace the roots!
YUMMMMMMMM!
I am sure that I am not the only one in this world to use this technique..........surely there is some reader out there that has done the same thing.
Since arriving here I have been a student of all things "India"......an observer of life, environment, people, food, art, architecture, the incredible, the rarities and the oddities...........and just when you think you have seen something out of the ordinary, just around the corner there is something else to amaze you.
One thing that struck me as rather odd was what appeared to me was that Indian's are lovers of Butterscotch Ice Cream............a flavor not so popular in the United States..........but why here?............how did this happen? It has been in the back of my mind for almost two years now, after being first served the flavor on a train from Ludhiana.
While I had been meaning to explore this with some of my colleagues, the topic never seemed to come to my mind when I was with any of them.......until......one night at dinner at the Four Points by Sheraton Visakhapatnam (Vizag)......and the opportunity presented itself.
Picture this.............the last plates were cleared.........and the waiter asked the table if it would like some desert...........and since I am an ice cream lover...........I asked what flavors.............Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry and yep...........Butterscotch. I ordered vanilla..........the waiter disappeared.
Immediately, I sprung into action by commenting to the people at the table that I have been observing something for some time, and asked......"Why do Indian's have an affinity for Butterscotch Ice Cream".....the reply I received was counter to my observation and both of the people at the table stated that they did not have a preference for "butterscotch" .....and whole-heartedly felt that my observation was incorrect..........and I quickly repliedthat they were the exception to the rule............that Indian's were truly "in love" with Butterscotch Ice Cream...........and this led to an unofficial poll to be conducted by one of the "naysayers" at the table.
When the waiter returned, my colleague casually asked him........"What flavor of ice cream is your favorite?".....his reply was quick and without hesitation the word "Butterscotch" rolled off his tongue........
One after another, my colleague continued polling............calling over one employee after another.......by the time we had reached the 10th person...........we had 70% that had answered in my favor.............and that was including the two naysayers at the table.......
Needless to say, while certainly not scientific, everyone walked away from the table that night with a better idea of the percentage of Indian's that favor Butterscotch Ice Cream..........but the question remained in my mind as to how and why!
My premise is that it had to be a legacy of the British...........like "tea time" and the Indian Railway system.....could this be one of the simple things that has become so en grained in the Indian lifestyle that no one has paid attention as to how it started...............?
I embarked on my mission to research "Butterscotch in India"............googling these words I found many recipes for butterscotch cakes, etc and even a question posted by an Indian on "Yahoo Answers India" asking "Can I give my dog butterscotch ice cream?"..................
While the recipes were abounding and I even discovered some sites about butterscotch ice cream in India..........I could find nothing about how it became so popular a flavor here.
What did I learn.........here it goes......Butterscotch is British.......and the word was recorded to first be used in Doncaster by a candy maker named Samuel Parkinson..........the year was 1817 and the Parkinson confectionary became extremely popular..........so much that butterscotch became one of Doncasters most famous exports and the "Royal" highlight of the St Leger race week...........where apparently special "tins" were made to be filled with the butterscotch candy to commemorate the occasion. The confectioner's company even carried the "Royal Seal of Approval"...............
So there it was.....the British connection was established...........but how did the candy make it's way from Britain to the shores of India............no doubt, because of it's popularity it made it's way over with several of the hundreds of thousands of British citizens and soldiers during the 200+ years that Britain ruled India..........
I can see it now..............somewhere here in India someone was making ice cream one day..........had a tin of St. Leger race week butterscotch candy............crushed them and mixed them into the creamy vanilla ice cream and the flavor became popular.............
I would like to continue the informal poll...........I would like all of you who read this blog article to please take the time to leave a comment about ice cream......"What is your flavour???..........simple...............but feel free to also write additional comments about the history of butterscotch in India.............I would really like to try and trace the roots!
2 comments:
Vanilla
and I'm from india :)
butter scotch
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