Desi food
Snarky Repartee wonders why we Indians are so insular about food. [Hat tip: Some dude]
I remember once when my parents and I were thinking about booking a trip to Europe or South America with a tour group. The big selling point of these tour groups seemed to be that they would provide “Indian meals” for lunch or dinner and sometimes both. I mean, WTF? Why would you want to travel halfway across the world only to eat the same dal-chawal you would have back home?
I agree whole-heartedly. “Foreign food” is not bland like most people assume, there are subtle flavors to the herbs, meats, cheese, sauces used. Be adventurous and try out the wonderful flavors that other cultures offer!
4 comments
Sajitha
January 17th, 2008, 10:59 am | #
Funny part is that very few desis know that even so called indian food was globalized. “The potato, tomato, and chilli pepper—critical ingredients in many Indian dishes—came from Mexico and the New World. Yet, these influences no longer feel “global” since they have been part of the Indian diet for so long. ” from the below article.
http://www.livemint.com/2008/01/15231541/Around-the-world-in-a-plate.html
Shankar
January 17th, 2008, 11:49 am | #
I think the food issue bothers older people, when you have eaten the same kind of food for 50+ yrs of your life, changing will be hard. We should understand the older generation’s perspective. And sympathize with their inability to handle new fangled ideas be they food, ATMs, Skype etc. We are more successful than our parents because of our ability to be open to new ideas.
Balaji Dutt
January 17th, 2008, 6:57 pm | #
I have to disagree with Shankar about this being a problem only with older people. It seems to be a problem even with folks under 30-35, even those who live abroad.
The typical reasons offered are - “I’m vegetarian”; this I can understand because vegetarian food by Indian standards can be very hard to find in most continents.
The other set of folks (and these people really annoy me) are those who say they can eat anything and when you finally get somewhere, you discover their idea of anything is basically something that has lots of gravy, lots of masala and is chopped up into unrecognizable bits. Now that’s truly insular.
sirensongs
January 18th, 2008, 2:00 am | #
I’ve always wondered this about Indians…by the same token, westerners usually assume ALL Indian food is hot, not just spicy and flavourful.
For Sajitha: I’ve been saying this for years….aloo and mirchi are actually new world foods, for Europe as well…they came from the Americas.
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