In Hindustan, the staple food of the rural peasants was khichari, a simple dish of two grains, usually rice and lentils, boiled together in a little water…Tavernier [Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689), a French traveller to India] noticed that Indian soldiers made the meal more luxurious by dipping their fingers in a bowl of melted ghee when they ate.
-Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, Lizzie Collingham
When I invited KhairAllah and the other drovers into central Cairo for a celebratory meal of Kufta and Kebab, we passed a Kushary restaurant with its big piles of rice, lentils, and vermacelli in the front window and its servers clacking metal plates together like castanets in order to grab the attention of passers-by. But no such luck with the Kababish. They hadn’t ridden forty days on the Darb and braved thick Cairo traffic only to eat a bowl of starch salad. They wanted lamb Mashwy, grilled just right.