Food today: Masterpiece, abstract Art or Mess!!

While I was growing up, food outings were a monthly affair and limited to visits to the traditional chaat joints, ‘chinese’ food corner, ice-cream/ milk shakes parlours, tunde kebab, dastarkhwan and even bhojanalaya for pure veg food at times. Limited outlets, serving standard items on the menu and nearly consistent taste was the norm then. Afterall food is an art and not science, so an occasional extra spice, or missing salt, extra oil was excusable and enjoyable at the same time. Another memory fresh from those times was my Mother experimenting at home pretty much everything that we ate out and we appreciating her efforts always (yes, always, for the good of not having to end-up having bottle gourd for dinner if we offended😊). I am sure everyone remembers the ‘soda maker’ which entered our lives as if we would domesticate cola or the annual visits to trade fairs where some weird kitchen appliance would be bought like a ‘papad maker’ or some vegetable chopper of all the things! Those experiments were so naïve and life changing as they seemed then😊

Fast forward today, Zomato and Swiggy have taken away the fun of eating out. Excessive access to technology is not leaving any unfulfilled desires for everything you crave for is available at a click of a button. Some have even gone beyond to organise cross city deliveries for getting local delicacies of another city to your table.

As if the delivery pattern changing so rapidly was not enough, came in a herd of so called “chaos chefs” who started experimenting with our taste buds (read exploiting!). I was rewiring my mind to accept pineapple pizza for a long time, and was hit completely unprepared with a barrage of weird food combinations coming in. To name a few (and feeling nauseated at the same time), litchi gravy momo, weird cheese sandwich, waffle dosa, mango omelette, fanta maggi, oreo pakoda, dal rice sushi, chocolate Biryani and above all dishes such as omelette, maggi et and all being made using the energy drink, sting!! Oh!! How could I commit the crime of forgetting to name the top most veg (feels like non-veg) starter of all times a.k.a. soya chaap in all its forms from masala to malai to stuffed and what not.

As I recover from an acid reflux attack caused by just thinking about those bizarre food mashups, I wonder what happened to the authenticity associated with our rich food heritage. Let the rawat kachori be their authentic self, let the gol gappe be only with khatta meetha paani and not chocolate, let the Biryani be chicken/mutton (yes, veg is pulao!), let the dosa be with aaloo masala and idli be steamed and not fried with stuffing of aaloo like a bread pakoda!

If our humble staple, samosa and jalebi, can get into a controversy with fake health warnings being tagged to them, this culinary chaos should come with a severe health warning for it is life and death of food ☹

I now get why my parents (and that age group as a whole) swear by home-cooked food over a quick McDonald’s snack, and why even their rare restaurant trips lead them straight to the same desi dishes. Call me old if you want for I would gladly join the ‘boring food club’ than sign-up for this wild ride known as Master (Disaster) Chef era!

As I calm my gut with the thought of dal-chawal, pickle, and papad aka the OG comfort combo, someone out there is already prepping the next volcanic food, ready to erupt on our timelines with #latesttrending and that another chaos is about to unfold.

Abstract art or mess? You decide! Until then Bon appétit