Crows of Karachi
orionmagazine.org
Crows of Karachi
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Crows of Karachi
#2Really enjoyed reading this article.
> The wedding was held outside, the food prepared out in the open air as it always is. The crows sat on their electric poles overlooking the venue as preparations were made. If an opportunity presented itself, they did not hesitate: a piece of meat for a skewer, a half-chopped onion, old bits of lettuce and tomato, all went one by one to the crows who commanded the territory.
Aware developing countries have lower work safety standards but didnt realize food safety also missing. street vendor food is all outside, yes..but Pakistani weddings i think would not be street vendor but catering service. To learn food prepared outside in 40+ Celsius heat shocks me.
Re: Crows of Karachi
#3beautifully written
Re: Crows of Karachi
#4Just put out some wasabi coated peanuts... and have a good laugh when you see them with their open beaks trying to relieve the spiciness and cool down their mouths :DDDD.
And... they come back for more. Maybe they enjoy the ride.
Re: Crows of Karachi
#5Really enjoyed reading this article. > The wedding was held outside, the food prepared out in the open air as it always is. The crows sat on their electric poles overlooking the venue as preparations were made. If an opportunity presented itself, they did not hesitate: a piece of meat for a skewer, a half-chopped onion, old bits of lettuce and tomato, all went one by one to the crows who commanded the territory. Awar…
> Pakistani weddings i think would not be street vendor but catering service
Largely depends on how rich you are. Middle-class and above tend to hire a Wedding Marquee, which basically means a hall and catering service along with decoration shenanigans. So, largely, yeah, food is catered.
However, poorer folks will not be able to afford such a thing. Therefore, food is going to be cooked the traditional way. Now, since weddings tend to be fairly big, huge events with over 300/400 people at the minimum. This means that you need big pots and pans to cook lots of food. Kitchen ovens are often smaller sized and difficult to cook on, so specially made massive pots for cooking are used on wood fire outside where cooking is done.
Although, I will say, I've eaten at a fair few weddings, and actually aided the cooking effort in two or three, none would ever allow any bird or any other sort of animal near it, and hygiene was as high as it could be. Food ingredients are kept covered with some sort of netting/clean cloths while pots and pans are always covered with a lid. More so, meat and other perishables that might be affected by the heat are basically brought directly out of fridge and into pot.
Crows and other birds getting some food is only when leftovers are thrown to the side somewhere, so this, hopefully, isn't a common thing.
Re: Crows of Karachi
#6Just put out some wasabi coated peanuts... and have a good laugh when you see them with their open beaks trying to relieve the spiciness and cool down their mouths :DDDD. And... they come back for more. Maybe they enjoy the ride.
And for extra laughs you can just poison them.
Please don’t torment animals.
Re: Crows of Karachi
#7Just put out some wasabi coated peanuts... and have a good laugh when you see them with their open beaks trying to relieve the spiciness and cool down their mouths :DDDD. And... they come back for more. Maybe they enjoy the ride.
I don't know about wasabi, but birds in general are completely immune to capsaicin, the substance that makes hot peppers hot. I grow a variety of hot peppers here in Brazil and the sabiá (a Brazilian songbird) particularly likes the pimenta malagueta, a little chili equivalent to the ones used in Thai food... I've seen a single bird consume like 50 of these small and very hot peppers in 10 minutes.
Re: Crows of Karachi
#8beautifully written
seconded
Re: Crows of Karachi
#9Just put out some wasabi coated peanuts... and have a good laugh when you see them with their open beaks trying to relieve the spiciness and cool down their mouths :DDDD. And... they come back for more. Maybe they enjoy the ride.
I don't know about wasabi, but birds in general are completely immune to capsaicin, the substance that makes hot peppers hot. I grow a variety of hot peppers here in Brazil and the sabiá (a Brazilian songbird) particularly likes the pimenta malagueta, a little chili equivalent to the ones used in Thai food... I've seen a single bird consume like 50 of these small and very hot peppers in 10 minutes.
> little chili equivalent to the ones used in Thai food
Birds-eye chillies, you mean?
Re: Crows of Karachi
#10Just put out some wasabi coated peanuts... and have a good laugh when you see them with their open beaks trying to relieve the spiciness and cool down their mouths :DDDD. And... they come back for more. Maybe they enjoy the ride.
I don't know about wasabi, but birds in general are completely immune to capsaicin, the substance that makes hot peppers hot. I grow a variety of hot peppers here in Brazil and the sabiá (a Brazilian songbird) particularly likes the pimenta malagueta, a little chili equivalent to the ones used in Thai food... I've seen a single bird consume like 50 of these small and very hot peppers in 10 minutes.
There's actually an interesting reason for this! Capsaicin evolved primarily* to keep mammals from eating pepper seeds, since mammalian digestive systems destroy the seeds, but birds' systems do not. Birds use a different protein complex for detecting heat than mammals, so capsaicin binds to the mammalian protein complex and activates it, but does not bind to the avian complex.
* excuse the short hand anthropomorphizing of evolution here - I know.