Imagine you were roaming in the streets of Rome and all you could see were these quaint little eateries all serving Indian food : puri bhaji, idli, dosa, chana bhatura.
This is how a tourist in Hauz khas Village,Shahpur Jat or Meherchand market(all in Delhi) must be feeling considering the mushrooming of restaurants all vying with each other serving lasagna,pizza,ciabatta bread,capuchinos and lattes of the world.
If this tourist wanted a taste of a typical Indian cuisine,chances are he wouldn't be able to..at least not in these areas.And this is when India has a heritage of an extremely rich and a versatile cuisine.
So where have we gone wrong?Failure in taking pride in our Indian-ess or eagerness to ape the west?
Why do we consider to be hip equals to be not Indian?Whether it is in dressing,food or language.
Mumbai to a certain extent takes pride in its local cuisine and there are innumerable paubhaji,vada pav joints that are hygienic & quick to serve and their hand churned ice creams are to die for and can give a run for their money to any Italian gelato.I went to an eatery having a khichdi festival..out of the world khichdi served in authentic brass thalis with brass katoris..now that's what I call taking pride in being an Indian.(I can't see a Delhite going to any restaurant having a khichdi festival).
What I would like to suggest is a restaurant in a typical tourist area serving Indian snacky food like poha,matra chaat,idli,dosa,pau bhaji,vada pav..we do have Haldiram but it's not a sit down and is not in these areas.
Experiment with new ideas,there's nothing wrong in starting an English style tea house or pizzeria, however, do not look down upon anything that is Indian...take pride in your roots.
This is how a tourist in Hauz khas Village,Shahpur Jat or Meherchand market(all in Delhi) must be feeling considering the mushrooming of restaurants all vying with each other serving lasagna,pizza,ciabatta bread,capuchinos and lattes of the world.
If this tourist wanted a taste of a typical Indian cuisine,chances are he wouldn't be able to..at least not in these areas.And this is when India has a heritage of an extremely rich and a versatile cuisine.
So where have we gone wrong?Failure in taking pride in our Indian-ess or eagerness to ape the west?
Why do we consider to be hip equals to be not Indian?Whether it is in dressing,food or language.
Mumbai to a certain extent takes pride in its local cuisine and there are innumerable paubhaji,vada pav joints that are hygienic & quick to serve and their hand churned ice creams are to die for and can give a run for their money to any Italian gelato.I went to an eatery having a khichdi festival..out of the world khichdi served in authentic brass thalis with brass katoris..now that's what I call taking pride in being an Indian.(I can't see a Delhite going to any restaurant having a khichdi festival).
What I would like to suggest is a restaurant in a typical tourist area serving Indian snacky food like poha,matra chaat,idli,dosa,pau bhaji,vada pav..we do have Haldiram but it's not a sit down and is not in these areas.
Experiment with new ideas,there's nothing wrong in starting an English style tea house or pizzeria, however, do not look down upon anything that is Indian...take pride in your roots.
6 comments:
Hi Shakun,
I fully agree- I take a lot of pride in my roots, and am all for authentic Indian stuff - but I guess this is part of globalisation. On the upside- the most expensive restaurants abroad are Indian- serving le meilleur Indian fare! However I think the biggest tragedy is that in Kerala you cannot get authentic Kerala cuisine in restaurants - they have all given over to the Mughal style of cooking, to cater to the tourist volumes, as well as the world's concept of Indian cuisine. And this is so opposed to our traditional cooking, which uses very little to almost no oil, a bare minimum of spices, and the flavour of the vegetables are retained - not suppressed with masalas as in Mughalai cooking.
I so agree with you Shakun. In my salad days we used to drool and slurp over chole bhature at nathu's Bengali Market.
Authentic North Indian snacks , especially chaat and chole bhature is hard to find. Haldiram and some other places are ok, but real flavour seems to be gone from the choles and chaats. My favourite is Bikanervala in the Rajiv Gandhi bhavan Block in CP.
A place like you suggest in Hauz Khas village would be a great success if only somebody did go back to our roots.
Lovely blog design BTW. well done, Krittika
That's the point Bina..look at Goa..you get Goan cuisine in most of the places along with other cuisines to cater to the tourists..so I guess there has to be a balance..One should not forget one's basics..
Runa I have never eaten at Bikanervala..would love to go with you.This thought crossed my mind when I was at Crostini a new place at Hauz Khas Village where I saw three foreign nationals eating sandwiches and I thought what if they wanted to have an Indian snack? The whole of H.K.Village doesn't offer any Indian food..what an irony?
Kritika says a big thank you Runa..thanks for appreciating!
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