(Author's note: Kumbakharna is one of my favorite characters in the Ramayana. On the surface, he's this giant who eats everything– kinda the stereotypical monster. But he's much more unique than that; the story describes him as very intelligent and possesses good character, but his curse causes him to do terrible things. I thought it would be funny to write a story about Kumbakharna's favorite recipes, seeing as he's the hungriest creature I've ever read about).
Kumbakharna's Favorite Recipes
Chef Kumbakharna is the brother of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. At a young age, Kumbakharna was considered by many to be the greatest warrior of his age. When Kumbakharna reached the height of his power, the god Indra tricked him into asking Brahma to grant him deep slumber. Kumbakharna was to sleep six months at a time, only able to spend one day awake in that time.
Ravana lost a brother that day, but the food community gained a new top chef because all Kumbakharna wants to do during his one day awake is eat. They say never trust a skinny chef, well Kumbakharna is the heftiest creature on the entire planet. Please don't actually trust him though, he will eat you.
Chef Kumbakharna is traditionally fed by the servants of his household as pictured above, but he sometimes likes to shake things up a bit. Kumakharna doesn't use a traditional kitchen– the world is his kitchen. Luckily for him, the young prince Rama has brought a surplus of ingredients right up to his doorstep. He's going to make two of his favorite dishes and transcribe them here for his biggest fans.
Recipe 1: Monkey Confit
Ingredients:
- 300 Monkeys
- Salt, to taste
To make monkey confit, you must first wake up Kumbakharna. This task is a little difficult and you will need to acquire several hundred elephants to walk on top of him and some maiden singers to serenade him. Get away quickly when he wakes up unless you want to be in the monkey confit. Chef Kumbakharna will do the rest all by himself. First, he'll drink until he has a .34 blood alcohol level (Kumbakharna likes to cook in the L'ivresse fashion). Next, he'll go outside to gather ingredients. Once he's accumulated about twenty dozen Vanara monkeys (a delicacy in Lanka), he'll eat them all. The salt ingredient is optional and naturally gathered through the tears of his ingredients. There you have it, quel oiseau magnifique! A perfect monkey confit.
Recipe 2: Lakshmana a la Shiskabab
Ingredients:
- 1 Lakshmana
- 1 Javelin
- Salt, to taste
Kumbakharna enjoys the finer things in life and sometimes he has an appetite of a more royal disposition. Luckily for him, he's got two princes to choose from: Lakshmana and Rama. He decides on Lakshmana and begins the cooking process (step 1: throw javelin step 2: enjoy). The ingredients aren't being particularly cooperative. Rama shoots several arrows ar Kumbakharna and things are not looking good for our cannibal giant. Kumbakharna makes one last attempt to finish the dish, but Rama shoots an arrow straight into his heart. Even though the Kharnavores have lost their favorite chef and food enthusiasts everywhere have lost a giant of the cooking world– we still got his final and greatest recipe, thanks to Prince Rama. Kumbakharna a la Shishkabab voila.
Wilson, Richard. "Rama's Quest."
https://archive.org/details/indianstorybook015651mbp/page/n1/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/indianstorybook015651mbp/page/n1/mode/2up
Hey Gus! (I'm practicing the TAG method!)
ReplyDeleteAwesome story. I had a lot of fun reading it. I thought it would end up just being a little recipe, but you made the recipes into little stories. I thought it was really clever and creative. I also liked all the cooking (french?) language you used. I didn't understand most of it, but it reminded me of ratatouille.
I wonder how the story would change if it was written from Kumbakharna's POV? I bet he would have a fun way of explaining the recipes and his excitement about getting to eat! I would also like to see more about the man narrating the story. Who is he? A top chef? A friend of Kumbakharna? He has such a big personality in the writing, so I want to know who he is!
One suggestion I have is with the recipes. The second recipe reads a little funky. I was confused about what was happening with the story. The narrative changes a bit, like it turns into an action scene rather than recipe.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this! Thank you:)
Hi Gus!
ReplyDeleteI am doing a cooking project for this class, so I saw the title and got super excited. Your story was so much fun to read. I like how you did not take the recipe portion too seriously and focused in on the original story. I was not expecting this and I really enjoyed this style of writing. It gave a good amount of relevant information. I wonder what makes Kumbakharna top chef material? Is it just his huge appetite? I know a lot of people with big stomachs, but not the best taste in food. My suggestion would be to fill in this gap. Maybe add in his unique gourmet cooking skills as a child. Maybe he is a super picky eater. Maybe he would dine in the nicest places before he was put in a slumber. Other than that gap, I really liked this story. It sparked my imagination and I am excited to read more. Well done.