A few weeks back, I had tried a new recipe for lunch using black eyed peas - Goan Alsande Tondak. As usual, my daughter D came to the kitchen and asked what's for lunch.
Me: I'm making a new recipe today. It's a dish made by people living in Goa
D : Oh okay
For the next 30 minutes, she kept asking me now and then whether lunch is ready. She was happy to try the gravy along with a few chapathis.
Kids are curious and they love novelty. Not only that - Give a twist to an existing dish, give a new name and they would get all excited. That's how jaggery wheat dosa become pancakes, savory wheat dosa become crepes, veg oothappams become pizza oothappams 😉
The amazing thing about India is that every 200 kms, the cuisine varies, the taste differs, the ingredients change. The sheer variety offered by the various states within India is just mind-boggling. One lifetime isn't enough to try out all the dishes within the various cuisines of India.
The irony is that though there is so much variety, visit any multi-cuisine restaurant, the menu is more or less the same. If you want to eat authentic food from a particular region, it isn't an easy task, even in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore.
The exposure to Western cuisines is so huge, thanks to pizza and burger outlets in every nook and corner. Our aspiration and interest towards procuring cupcakes, sourdough bread and kombucha is so high, compared to trying out a panjeeri laddoo or a bowl of paal kozhukkattais.
I have heard comments like "What's in TN cuisine? Just one brown liquid after another poured on top of rice".
I cannot control what others think or perceive about various Indian cuisines. But what I can do is increase my repertoire of recipes and try out different dishes for my family and ensure my daughter gets as much exposure about cuisines from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.