It was the noodle that waged the war. Wriggling its way past a paratha-pampered palate, it colluded with soy and vinegar, cosied up to the Indian populace and curled up comfortably forever. Invasion had just acquired a new dimension; India had tasted blood. So when Italian came shortly, preening pertly with its pastas and pizzas, tastebuds had little option but to succumb. It was a prelude to the Great Culinary Conquest.

By the middle of the 1990s, when a thriving economy roped in the MNCs, created a new breed of globetrotter and thrust forward an experimentative middle class, the stage was set for global cuisines to launch a crusade. They began with the metros, and Thai took the initiative. Multicuisine became the new mantra, fusion the buzzword. In less than a decade, Thai, Italian and Mexican have given way to other, unfamiliar cuisines, which have exploded into the Indian psyche and cities. So today, as Delhi brims over with flavours like Korean, Japanese and Russian, even cities like Bangalore and Pune are enjoying their fling with Vietnamese and French.

‘‘When I started Kumgang seven years ago, only five per cent of my clients were Indians. Today, they’ve grown to over 15 per cent,’’ says Mi Ran Lee, whose Korean restaurant at Hotel Ashok in Delhi is a favourite haunt for the 3,000 Koreans in the city. There are some who prefer the Restaurant de Seoul at Ansal Plaza, which opened shop two years ago. ‘‘The food is non-oily, healthy and not even bland like the Japanese,’’ adds Lee.

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