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SOCIETY AND TRENDS: FOOD HABITS
World On A Platter
A national food survey reflects the changes urban
India has been witnessing in the past few years as the country rejoices
in a love affair with different, exciting cuisines
By Shuchi Sinha
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DELHI The Sawhneys
Trying out new cuisines at home is fun. We also like to get away
from the smells of our own cooking by eating out.
The Sawhneys are good cooks and a lunch (above) can include soup,
Thai chicken curry, Lasagne, stir-fried vegetable noodles, rice
and mousaka.
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It's official. The
emergence of a new class of willing-to-experiment food lovers, that is.
A countrywide food survey conducted by McCann Erickson in 2000-1 looked
at the historical and current food patterns, interviewed consumers at
food outlets across India and analysed food sales, advertising, cookery
books and TV shows in the past five years. The survey reveals that the
cosmopolitan Indian is now eager to explore new tastes and absorb global
trends and he is no longer limited by geographical or cultural boundaries
in his gastronomical adventures. Novelty is the flavour of the millennium.
Sure, this culinary osmosis has been happening for some time, but the
incorporation and acceptance of regional and international cuisines today
is perceptibly more. At the same time, urban Indians are eating out more
than ever before. The hotelier's hunt for the Indian foodie is no longer
a wild-goose chase.
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FOODFACTS
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Innovative
FUSION FOODS
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PIZZA PARANTHAS: North Indian bread baked with cheese
and toppings.
VADA PAV WITH COLESLAW: Served at McDonald's outlets
in Mumbai.
CHINESE BHEL: Evergreen snack omnipresent at metro sidewalks.
SALMON KA TIKKA: Popular European fish barbecued a la
Punjab.
PANEER DOSAS: Mixes the crispy south Indian pancakes
with north India's cottage cheese.
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The Season's Happening
FOOD FESTS
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DELHI: Squid and shark seafood fest: At
The Oberoi, the supposedly squeamish north Indian stomach couldn't
get enough.
BANGALORE: Vodkart Fest: At the Central
Park. Russian specialities like Kremlin Kromoskies and Okra Swarovski
were an absolut delight.
MUMBAI: Awadh fest: Dum Pukht Biryani and
succulent kebabs brought the nabobs to The Oberoi.
KOLKATA: Parsi fest: Dhansak was just one
of the delicacies at Taj Bengal. And Patrani machi, natch.
CHENNAI: New Zealand fest: The Taj's innovative
idea was not just about lamb cutlets.
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TARLA DALAL, food writer
"As living standards improve and the
reach of satellite tv grows, interest in new foods will rise."
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Cliche dictates that the Sawhneys, like a good
Punjabi family, swear by their butter paneer and chhole bhature. Not any
more. Variety is the spice of the kitchen-crisp, golden rava dosas, Kolkata
prawns fragrant with mustard, and fiery Thai red curry are part of their
usual repast. So is creamy lasagne, with freshly made chocolates for dessert.
And believe it or not, these are as often home cooked as sampled in the
various restaurants dotting Delhi's gourmet map. The Sawhneys embody a
gradual but significant change that is coming about in urban India's table
habits-the emergence of the multicultural foodie.
The kitchen of the average middle-class Indian
is now an exciting culinary arena, its air heady with the scent of previously
unfamiliar herbs and mixtures. Pots and pans bubble with concoctions made
possible now by the availability of ingredients, once considered alien
and exotic, at neighbourhood stores. A weekday lunch for the Sawhneys
could as easily be Burmese Kauswey, an all-in-one rice, noodles and vegetable
meal, as chicken and paranthas. The shelves of their south Delhi apartment
hold an eclectic collection of cookbooks. At the same time, like urban
Indians everywhere, they love discovering new eateries. The Erickson survey
estimates the size of the food service sector in India at Rs 30,000 crore
and there are more than 22,000 registered restaurants in India, with dozens
more being launched every month. Says evergreen foodmeister Tarla Dalal:
"People today get a lot of cross-cultural exposure both because of
professional migration to different cities as well as the media boom.
It has fuelled the popularity of international and Indian regional cuisines."
Over the centuries, not just invaders but also
many of their bills of fare crossed into the subcontinent. In India foreign
foodstuffs easily went native. Tomatoes, an essential part of any self-respecting
curry today, came with Vasco da Gama. Potatoes were part of the war effort
in colonial India, their large-scale cultivation ordered by the British
in the 1940s. The succulent kebab, today's ubiquitous party appetiser,
arrived with Mahmud of Ghazni. And the distinctive Kashmiri kahwa tea
is a close cousin of the samovar tea popular in the Russian steppes. What
is different now is the sheer scale of culinary give-and-take. Broccoli
and baby corn have already lost their novelty as part of vegetable preparations.
Thai curry paste and takrai (lemon grass) are becoming as widely available
as their older oriental immigrant cousins, soya sauce and ajinomoto. Cooking
classes for Mexican, Arabian and Thai food are attracting almost as many
enthusiasts as the popular Chinese and Italian do. Across newspapers,
magazines and TV channels, food writers and telegenic chefs, smilingly
tempting you to try the latest culinary exotica, dish out millions of
recipes spanning the globe.. All this stir-fry has created a new celebrity
subculture-just like Jamie Olivier has become the man who tells England
what to eat, Sanjeev Kapoor, Rashmi Uday Singh and Karen Anand have become
India's food pundits, hosting shows, launching branded foods and reviving
recipes. As the post-liberalisation Indian travels abroad more frequently
and international cuisines tantalise traditional tastebuds at home, there's
also a strong parallel growth in the popularity of regional foods.
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