Tandoori chicken to McD: How eating changed in #FreeIndia

In a nation that has always taken great pride in its “home-cooked” food, meals served at home have metamorphosed from dishes containing patiently ground masalas into instant noodles and ready-to-eat pouches that can be zapped in a microwave to be served in less than three minutes. Indians, who earlier ate out only because they didn’t have food at home or it was New Year’s Day, are now trying out all kinds of exotic cuisines from Lebanese to Japanese and getting them home delivered in 60 minutes or less. Here’s a journey through the changing Indian palate over the last 68 years. [caption id=“attachment_1658777” align=“aligncenter” width=“620”]  Source: Flickr Creative Commons[/caption] Moti Mahal: In 1947, owner Kundan Lal Gujral moved the iconic restaurant from Peshawar to Delhi, where he invented the two signature dishes that would forever define the North Indian palate: tandoori chicken and butter chicken. Moti Mahal and its lure of rich mughlai khana began as the ultimate ‘going out to eat’ destination in frugal, socialist India and ended up shaping menus of Indian restaurants from San Francisco to Southall. [caption id=“attachment_1658781” align=“aligncenter” width=“620”]  Flickr Creative Commons/Viren Kaul[/caption] Maggi: The modest packet of noodles was the first instant food to arrive in a country where even an evening snack involved slaving hours over a hot stove. Brought to India by Nestle in 1982, Maggi became a household name, first as a novelty, and soon enough as a staple for busy housewives with hungry, recalcitrant children. Its pleasant yellow packaging, sweet-salty masala and unique texture have become part of our collective memory, be it of childhood or hostel days. While many other fast foods have entered the market since, none have become quintessentially Indian quite like Maggi. [caption id=“attachment_1658785” align=“aligncenter” width=“620”]  Flickr Creative Commons[/caption] Chinese food: Before we discovered the pleasures of penne arabiata and dim sum, there was chinese food. Unlike its more high-brow ‘continental’ cousin, it was the ‘international’ cuisine of choice for the aam aadmi – whose palate helped transform it beyond recognition as it traveled from the kitchens of the Hakka Chinese community in Calcutta to the ‘multi-cuisine’ restaurant round the corner. With the addition of cumin, turmeric, coriander, yogurt and even paneer, the cuisine is more Indian than Chinese. But its lack of ‘authenticity’ hasn’t stopped it from spreading around the world to feed the appetites of a nostalgic Indian diaspora. [caption id=“attachment_1658787” align=“aligncenter” width=“620”]  Reuters[/caption] Home delivery: There was a time when ’eating out’ was an event: making a reservation, dressing up, braving traffic and the company of fellow diners. And then came the delivery boy, first on cycles and then on motorbikes, zipping through traffic to deliver your pizza within the stipulated 30 minutes. As Indians increasingly opt to ‘order in’ rather than slave in the kitchen, almost everyone from small eateries to fine dining is jumping into the home delivery game. That this sea change in our daily diet is also one reason for the rising rates of Type 2 diabetes is another matter. [caption id=“attachment_1658789” align=“aligncenter” width=“620”]  Tarla Dalal website[/caption] Tarla Dalal: The modest housewife who became a household name may be a distant memory in this era of the celebrity chefs, 24X7 food channels, and must-see seasons of Master Chef. But she is the one who started it all, first with a popular cooking class in Mumbai in 1966, and then her first cookbook in 1974 titled ‘The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking’ which was but first of the 100 books she would end up writing. Over the years, her unassuming, no-frills approach has helped generations of rookie cooks navigate the hazards of the kitchen, a record Sanjeev Kapoor can only hope to emulate. [caption id=“attachment_1663155” align=“aligncenter” width=“620”]  First McDonald’s restaurant at Basant Lok in New Delhi. Naresh Sharma[/caption] McDonalds: Until 1996, the ‘golden arches’ were the preserve of ‘foreign return’ types who spoke with enviable confidence of its perfect fries. So when it finally landed on Indian shores, in New Delhi’s Basant Lok, albeit without its signature beef burger, Indians waited patiently in long queues to taste the Maharaja Mac. McDonald’s no longer possesses its original cachet as the cool place to eat, and now has to contend with rivals like KFC, TGIF, and soon to arrive Burger King. But its increasingly ubiquitous presence, spreading now to tier 2 and tier 3 cities, remains the enduring symbol of post-liberalisation India. [caption id=“attachment_1663157” align=“aligncenter” width=“620”]  Naresh Sharma/ Firstpost[/caption] Microwave: It entered our kitchen first as a middle class status symbol and soon became a must-have appliance for busy urbanites who used it to re-heat every leftover in the fridge. Today, store shelves are crammed with microwavable instant packets, there’s a microwave recipe for everything from rasam to cake, and every rental apartment’s list of white goods includes the microwave. For better or worse, the appliance that was once the disdain of everyone’s grandmother is every bit an essential part of an Indian kitchen as the gas stove.