Editing Customs of Jhelum (section)

== Eating in Jhelum ==

Meals are commonly shared. Diners sit around central dishes and eat with the fingers of the right hand. Flatbread is torn into pieces and used to scoop up rice, lentils, vegetables, meat, and sauces.

Bread should be broken rather than bitten directly from a communal loaf. A person should never return a piece of bread to a shared dish after touching it to the mouth.

A host normally urges guests to eat more. Guests normally refuse once or twice before accepting. Everyone understands this ritual, yet everyone performs it.

=== Common Foods ===

The ordinary people of Jhelum eat well when fortune permits and simply when it does not. Common foods include:

* Flatbread cooked on a hot stone or against the wall of an oven
* Rice with lentils, onions, herbs, and spices
* Chickpeas and other pulses
* Spiced vegetables
* Yogurt, curds, and clarified butter
* Pickled fruits and vegetables
* River fish
* Goat, mutton, and chicken
* Dates, melons, pomegranates, mangoes, figs, and citrus fruits
* Almonds, pistachios, sesame seeds, and other nuts
* Fried cakes and sweet pastries flavored with honey, rosewater, or spices

Meat is a welcome addition to a meal rather than its inevitable centerpiece. Wealthy households serve several meat dishes, elaborate rice preparations, sweetmeats, and imported fruits.

=== Street Food ===

Jhelum's markets remain busy from before sunrise until deep into the night. Vendors sell:

* Skewered meat roasted over charcoal
* Fried chickpea cakes
* Flatbread stuffed with vegetables or minced meat
* Bowls of rice and lentils
* Spiced river fish
* Roasted nuts and chickpeas
* Fresh and dried fruit
* Pickles wrapped in leaves
* Honey cakes and syrup-soaked pastries

A copper dam buys a modest serving. Two dams buy enough to satisfy a hungry laborer. Prices rise sharply near palaces, temples, and foreigners.