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food / travel

An Omelet Twist, How A Colonial Legacy Lives On In Vegetarian India

Most Indians are vegetarians. But omelets, a colonial legacy, remain popular in India.

Sanjay Sharma, the omelet chef
Sanjay Sharma, the omelet chef
Jasvinder Sehgal
Jasvinder Seghal

JAIPUR — Sanjay Sharma, 53, whips up a buttery cheese omelet at his stall set up in a busy market in this Indian desert city. For more than 30 years, he's been selling omelets — a business he says is growing.

"In the past, I used to sell about 30 omelets a day. But things have changed and people have developed a taste for them," says Sharma. "In the winter, I now use about 1700 eggs everyday to prepare different omelets."

Business is so brisk that, in addition to his stall, Sharma has also opened an omelet restaurant called Egg-dee.

In India, breakfast is almost always vegetarian. In the north, people eat paratha — a kind of flatbread. It was during British colonial rule that omelets began to be eaten in India. And it continues to this day.

"It's a specialty that can be prepared within two minutes. It's very nutritious, healthy and easy to cook," Sharma says.

Interior decorator Amit Soral, 39, is a loyal customer at Sharma's stall.

"I have been coming here for the last 25 years. My mother doesn't cook eggs so my father used to bring me here," says Soral. "I come here everyday. I'm like a child who is fascinated by chocolate. I am thrilled by the omelet."

"Colonial rule may be termed bad but it gave us many good things too and omelets are certainly part of that. Indians are enjoying them still," he says.

In India, omelets have adapted to local tastes. They are fried with chopped onions, green chillies and coriander.

Saurabh Sharma, a historian who has studied traditional Indian food, says that eggs were never part of the ancient Indian Indus civilization: "Tea and omelets were introduced during colonial rule, introduced by western companies invading India. As the officers of these companies had omelets for breakfast, slowly it became part of Indian cuisine."

Although many think that omelets were first prepared by the Romans, Sharma says that's not true. "History books show that this was first cooked in France. In my opinion, Bolestin was the first chef who prepared it. In 1603, he shifted from France to Britain and so did the popularity of omelets."

Sharma, the omelet seller, says he can cook about 150 varieties of the dish. Fashion designer Radhika Sharma, who is a regular at his stall, says his omelets are one-of-a-kind.

"This, we can't get anywhere else. It's just the taste," she says.

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Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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