How did hing aka asafoetida get popular in India? Credit goes to Laljee Godhoo & Ajit Khimji Merchant

Do you remember the scene from the film Queen where Rani (Kangana Ranaut) calls her mom from Paris asking what hing is called in English. To which, her mother replies, 'beta, hing ko toh hing hi kehte hai' (Child, hing is called hing only).

Well, it's true that the word hing has become such a huge part of our lingo that we never bothered to know what exactly it is called in English, or where it came from and how it got popular in India. Well, hing is called asafoetida in English and we'll tell you about its journey to India today.

Though hing is produced from a plant called Ferula Assa-foetida, which grows in places like Afghanistan and southern Iran, Indians use 40% of all the hing produced in the world.

How hing was produced decades ago

Gujaratis, who live on the west coast of India, have been using hing for a long time. They used to bring it from places like Iran and Afghanistan because of their good trading connections with the Middle East.

The emergence and popularity of hing goes back to the 1890s when Laljee Godhoo met a guy from Kabul (a kabuliwala) who was selling hing lumps on the streets of Bombay. Godhoo saw a chance to turn this into a business. After some trial and error, they officially started their company, Laljee Godhoo and Co., in 1894.

In the beginning, they made hing lumps by hand, and they were probably the only company doing this kind of work. At first, they sold their hing mostly in Bombay, but soon it became popular in Madras and other southern states.

Demand for their hing went up, and they opened more branches in the state. Orders started coming in from all over India.

How powdered hing came into existence

However, before 1978, if you had wanted to use hing (asafoetida) in your cooking, it could have been a real hassle. Huge chunks used to be churned into fine powder which was a time-consuming task.

Then in 1978, a merchant from Gujarat, Ajit Khimji, joined Laljee Godhoo and Co. came across this magical spice and introduced just a 50-gram bottle of ready-to-use hing powder to the world.

Because of this idea, the sales of LG & Co.'s powdered hing took off in just a few years. They made sure to use the best ingredients and had a careful production process. LG's hing powder became quite popular in no time.

So, the next time you see a little container with the letters "LG" on it, don't think it's related to the South Korean electronics company. It's actually the name of an Indian company that has been adding flavour to our food since 1894.

Also watch: Mukbang videos: Decoding the Korean trend that's changing our experience of food