Check the menu for desi goodness

A typical Indian thali consists of freshly-cooked whole grains,pulses or lentils,lightly-cooked seasonal vegetables,yoghurt,salad such as onion,cucumber and tomatoes,pickles,and papads. These are flavoured with nutrient-rich spices and condiments.

Today,there is nothing common between an Indian meal at home and that served at restaurants and dhabas. In restaurants that serve Indian,particularly North Indian cuisine,nothing is cooked without cream,butter,cashew,khoya (dried milk) or deep frying. Almost everything tastes the same. Lentils are given ladles full of ghee tadka and topped with cream and dollops of butter. Vegetable or paneer too are either deep-fried or drowned in gravies of butter,cashew and khoya. None of this happens to Indian food in mom’s kitchen. True,celebration and special food is always a bit different in cuisines globally,but to completely lose character is something else.

I know only a few who don’t need an antacid or combinations of drugs after an Indian meal outside.
Other drawbacks of our cuisine are limited amount of salad,absence of soups and over-cooking of vegetables. If you walk down the Indian buffet table,you are most likely to be greeted with potatoes,paneer,chhole,rajma. The concept of brightly-coloured,crispy and crunchy vegetables just doesn’t exist. The assortment of vegetables which does appear on the ‘tawa vegetable’ meant to be roasted on a griddle is also an eyewash. Each of those vegetables are deep-fried and arranged on the ‘tawa’,then pan-fried again for you to see ‘live’ cooking,that will do more harm than good!

While we boast of freshly-cooked food and vegetables,the methods of cooking simply take away everything. Worse still,if the caterer prefers to use vanaspati or cheap cooking fats or re-uses oils,not only will the belly rebel,but,sooner or later ‘trans-fats’ will clog the arteries.

The need to address this is far more today than ever before with Indians topping the world figures for type II diabetes mellitus,heart disease and obesity. There is no room for complacency. It’s time we revived our true traditional Ayurvedic cuisine and showcase it to the world.