Kashmir 50 years ago :: 4 :: A feast to remember

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Kashmiri pulao

A few days after I arrived in Srinagar in June 1968 on my posting I was out walking in the evening on the Residency Road. I had hardly walked a few steps when I heard my name being called out from the other side of the road. Wondering who it could be calling out to me I stopped to look around. Yes, there he was on the other side of the road frantically gesturing to me to cross over. I did that to go and meet Shafi Bakshi and his beautiful wife Naseem. They too were having a stroll on Residency Road when they spotted me.

The Bakshis were family friends in Bhopal. They were friendly with each member of my family. Shafi was a nephew of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and was in charge of their Bhopal outlet of Fairdeal Motors, an outfit I have not heard about for a long time now. Shafi told me that he hollered for me as there was, among other things, a dinner at his place and he and Naseem wanted me to attend. Naseem asked me not to miss it as it was going to be something special.

If I recall Bakshis were four brothers and each had a bungalow. It was a beautiful complex with four spacious bungalows in, if I recall, Badami Bagh with almost a quadrangle of open space in the middle. As a ”special” dinner was in the offing the place was decked up. As I went into the enclosure it was Shafi who met me and took me to his father and then I was taken to Naseem who was supposed to look after me.

A Bakshi dinner in Srinagar had to be a political affair. I, of course, did not know any of them. What struck me was that the then current chief minister Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq was missing. Apparently, he was from a group that was not aligned to Bakshi. Anyway, that was none of my business. What was important for me at that point of time was the food – Kashmiri food, the best of it that money couldn’t buy, perhaps, even in Srinagar.

Kashmiri food traditionally is rice and meat based. The Kashmir Valley grows rice and it has become over centuries the staple of Kashmiris. It is said that in their feasts called Wazwan, the multi-course affair, there is nothing other than meats (of lamb, chicken, beef) but no fish. It is also said that serving lentils in such a feast is nothing short of sacrilege. As meats predominate the cuisine, the use of various kinds of spices with cans of ghee is necessary. This makes the food very rich.

 Naseem was standing by a table laden with entry dishes that were being heated by a flame below. She said there were eight kinds of pulaos in those entry dishes. She chose for me what she thought was the best, served a huge quantity to me. I could smell saffron and as the lid was taken off its aroma wafted all around.

 Then there were other tables loaded with Kashmiri delicacies of mutton and chicken. I remember the famed Goshtaba – the meat-ball curry, yakhni, the mutton curry that is made with yogurt and, of course, rogan josh. What was out of this world was tabakhmaz (Kashmiri Hindus call it qabragah) which was a dry fried dish of ribs of a goat. I wouldn’t know how it was cooked. Naseem told me it took quite a lot of time. It was delectable. In fact Kashmiri mutton dishes are cooked with a lot of patience. Goshtaba, I recall needs mutton to be beaten into kind of a paste for making balls which are then further processed with myriad spices to create the fascinating dish.

Naseem was a very good hostess and she egged me on to eat as she kept serving me king-sized helpings of pulao and meats. She filled me up so much that I had to refuse the sweet of which there were many kinds and bid good bye to her and Shafi. I came back home with my midriff bursting at the seams with lots of pulao and meat. I have always been a small eater but that evening I was literally stuffed to the gills.

I slept off with a heavy stomach. Next morning I skipped breakfast as I didn’t feel like taking it. I did not feel hungry at lunch time too. The stuff at Shafi’s was so rich that enzymes in my metabolic system proved unequal to its demands.

*Photo from internet

BHOPAL'S SHAME

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The vernacular press has been reporting for the last few days the

A snacks & soft drinks stall in Bhopal

checks that are being carried out by the local food safety inspectors and their findings of utterly damnable conditions in which food items are prepared for being put out for sale.

The news of the inspectors witnessing washing of raw items of vegetables in sewer water – plain and simple sewage, before sending them off to the market was alarming. This is done by the vegetable growers in their farms close to an area (E-8 Extension Arera Colony) where plushest of gated complexes have come up. That the vegetables that are sent out for sale washed in this manner will be harmful for those who consume them did not seem to have occurred to the farmers and those who do the washing in such sordid and filthy conditions. A report also said that these farms are irrigated by sewage that flows in the drains that pass by. So what most of the Bhopal citizens are consuming are various coli forms and other harmful organisms along with the vegetables.

What the food safety inspectors did was to collect samples of vegetables and greens and send them for a scientific analysis to Indore, a little less than 200 kms away. And, instead of ordering closure of the farms, they are now reported to be instructing, gratuitously, the farm-owners and their workers about what all could happen if such stuff is consumed. No legal process has so far been initiated though it is a clear case of wilfully and knowingly attempting to physically harm people and causing injury to their health.

Earlier, a similar squad of food safety inspectors had raided a few fruit juice stalls and kitchens of some nondescript eateries. While at the juice stalls the squad found rotten apples, pomegranates and other fruits and unclean equipment, at the eateries it found kitchens that were filthy and dirty men working therein with bare unclean hands. Using bare hands to handle food items is a peculiarity in this country. Leave alone the West even in many countries of the neighbourhood bare hands are no longer used even by roadside food sellers. But we seem to think people needlessly make a big fuss about the use of bare hands and refuse to see the rationale behind use of protective gloves.

 The sequence of events shows a very casual official approach towards this vital matter. Almost every individual has to buy snacks or food from the market sometime or other and yet it is fraught with risks to one’s health. There is hardly any check when, in fact, it should be of an intense kind. There is rampant indifference mixed with ignorance about hygiene and cleanliness in dealing with food in bazaars. Here, everybody and anybody can hawk on the streets home-made stuff or open a stall for juice or snacks without any check on quality and the environment they are made in. No wonder, the latest reports indicate an increase in numbers of patients of intestinal disorders in local hospitals. The rotting and infected food stuffs become pretty lethal when the ambient temperature crosses 40⁰ Celsius.

Quite apparently, our people are increasingly becoming callous towards others. Concern for others is a virtue which has almost disappeared. Everyone has become self-centred, busy in taking care of his own interests; others could literally go to hell. No wonder, cases of adulteration in food products are on the rise as was noticed two years ago in case of khoa (thickened milk) during the festive season. Whether those who were nabbed in northern India are undergoing jail sentences or not is not known. Maybe, the cases are still lingering on. Not only the laws are weak, the judicial system is also rusty. And, on top of it all, the Food Safety Organisation is poorly staffed, with not enough number of men and laboratories.

While consuming juices and snacks from stalls can be avoided but buying of vegetable from the bazaar cannot be avoided. One cannot make out from their appearance whether fruits and vegetables bought were washed in filthy water, were artificially ripened or they acquired that unlikely sheen with the help of harmful chemicals or have had an overdose of pesticides. It is the government and public bodies which can and should carry out these checks on a regular basis. But there is such a huge deficit in governance that all these vital functions are not bestowed the required degree of importance. As a result we are building up a sick nation – hollow from inside with hardly any endurance. It is such a shame!

Delights of street food

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One need not be a foodie to look out for food on television. With the national obsession with the cat-and-mouse games played by the two national political parties avidly covered by the numerous news channels and weepy, lachrymose soaps on other entertainment channels there is very little choice left for a couch potato like me but to veer round to the channels that can hold the attention. Movies are far too long and not quite the cup of tea. The programmes on food are the ones that are generally short and crisp. And, there are a number of them on various channels.

The Indian channels like Times Now and  TV 24x7 generally have only weekly slots which too can be cancelled for more important and newsworthy shows. NDTV Good Times, Fox Traveller, Travel & Living are some of the ones which schedule a number of half-hour slots where a bit of a ‘whiff’ of the flavours of world cuisine can be had. Food Safari, World Cafe Asia, Twist of Taste, Feast Bazaar, Nigella’s Feast and so on are the ones that are eminently watchable of the programmes. Currently, however, emphasis is on street food with programmes like “Street Food around the World” and “Eat Street. A Street Food Festival – Celebration of Flavours is also being currently telecast.

Although street food in India offers such array tastes and flavours yet, unfortunately, it is fraught. So many imponderables are associated with Indian street food. One can never be sure of its purity and the quality of its ingredients. Adulteration of food items is common and the cooked food can get contaminated in many

Typical Non-veg fare on the streets

ways – by exposure carriers of infection, dust and other contaminants. Even the cooking medium and water that is used could well be contaminated. The cooks of all that is purveyed on the streets of India generally care little for hygiene and added to that is the pervasive insanitation. Occasionally, street food vendors even set up shop openly displaying all that they offer surrounded by filth and squalor. Worse, in India bare hands are extensively used in handling and dishing out food items. No one knows whether the hands are properly washed or sterilised.

In India systems are always put in place but they are seldom functional. Food and beverages monitoring establishments have been installed but somehow these outfits always fail the people. All over the country they are kind of moribund and inactive with all kinds of excuses for being dysfunctional. As their presence is not visible people don’t take them seriously. Generally none has faith in the inspectorial staff as they are taken mostly as bunches of corrupt officials. Mercifully, some efforts at checking the food on the street and that dished out through eateries recently commenced in Bhopal. A few checks carried out revealed startling results. After reading the reports not many people would have the gumption to consume any of the stuff available out on the streets or even in some of the run-of-the-mill eateries. Obviously, a lot of work needs to be done by them. Hopefully, they realise that on their commitment to duties depends the good health and wellbeing of a very large number of people who consume street food – some out of sheer necessity and others for pleasure. Besides if they function properly, they would be doing a service to the healthcare system which is being choked to death because of widespread food and water contamination.

It is indeed a pity that street food in India is so risky for the health and well-being of people. Despite that, however, it is popular. Not only it is cheap, it also provides a means of self-employment to a very substantial

An Indian item being readied in a London joint

section of the people, especially those who are not able to find employments. Such delectable stuff is on offer on the streets all over the country that one is always tempted to taste it. Whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian, a snack or a meal, the stuff is tempting – in appearance, taste and the aroma that it exudes.

No wonder Indian street food has now travelled abroad. London, for example, hosts quite a few joints that serve street food. In “Zaika India ka” hosted on NDTV by the well-known anchor Vinod Dua a large number of young white people were seen tucking in Indian food sitting on London sidewalks in front of joints that dish out spicy Indian stuff. What is more, the snacks of Delhi, Mumbai and Kerala are now crowding the sidewalks of London. Pau bhaji, kathi rolls and masala dosas are progressively becoming firm favourites among Londoners. Kerb at King’s Cross plays host to a number of international flavours where Dosa Deli serves crisp dosas with a wide range of fillings. A joint called Horn Ok Please serves Paani puries and there also are vendors of samosas and chaat. At Tooting High Street even the Bengali snack Jhaal Muri is dished out from Jhaal Muri Express by an Englishman who learnt the art of creating the perfect mix from the street vendors of Kolkata. He hawks around the stuff in his colourful cart concentrating on areas where Indians happen to be the dominant community.

Not exactly street food, but Indian spiced-up items of chicken-tikka-masala, paneer palak, samosas and numerous others have become ubiquitous across the Atlantic in New York City dished out at new breed of Indian restaurants that are neither Michelin-starred nor the no-frills like eateries elsewhere in the city. The dosas and peppery rasam right next to north Indian joints doling out hot butter chicken, biryanis, rotis, aloo-papri chaat, keema naan, kati roll and so on. With a mind-boggling array of affordable dishes to choose from offering sharp, hot and fiery tastes from across most of India, Curry hill is a cheap-eaters’ paradise.

best of the “Indian fast food”, however, is available at what is affectionately called “Curry Hill” at Lexington Avenue on the east side of Manhattan. From hole-in-the-wall snack shops south Indian rustle up oversized

US seem to have emerged as a heaven for street food lovers. “Eat Street”, a programme telecast by Fox Traveller every day, shows the popularity of street food all across USA from San Diego to New York City. Specially designed vehicles parked at vantage points serve the burgeoning clientele burgers with a variety of fillings and an array of sauces. It is a quite a sight to see American men women and children opening their jaws wide to sink their teeth into massive burgers filled with all the goodies The mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, a place made famous by Elvis Presley, was once seen eating off a parked truck and was highly appreciative of whatever he took a big bite of. From Hispanic to Indian, from paella to pies and curried chicken and from nachos, tacos, tortillas, naans and Ethiopian flat bread - everything is available.

A Nonthaburi, Thailand, serving

Bobby Chinn, a street food presenter, in his programme “World Cafe – Asia” on Fox Traveller takes the viewers through the streets of that capital of Street Food, Bangkok, to the colourful and vibrant night markets of Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and other South-East Asian cities where chop sticks keep busy with hordes of people using them to shove in the amazingly rich fare with fantastic aromas and tastes that are available right through the night. Chinn has ventured out to even the Middle East to present some delectable barbecued stuff. Barry Vera, another food anchor of Feast Bazaar eats his way through Morocco. The Food

Market of Marrakesh is mind-blowing with an amazing range of snacks, complete meals and drinks to go with them. Located inside a massive walled court yard in central section of the old city it is a sight to see the food carts wheeled in to convert it in a matter of minutes into a vibrant and thriving Market in the evening that provides visitors culinary delights till late into the night.

Even if it is on the TV, seeing people eat off the streets with such abandon sometimes makes one feel jealous. Assured as they are of the quality of the stuff they consume, they have not a care or worry and have absolute freedom from anxiety. No such freedom, however, is available in this country to the discerning patrons of our mouth-watering street food