A bitter platter

Can different food preferences make or break a relationship?

Reading an article online last week on how dietary differences were emerging as the main contention in a number of relationships crumbling was slightly worrying.

Since when did food claim so much stake that it led to a relationship's demise? I had comfortably been thinking that food was one of the most oft and easily utilised conversation-maker/ice-breaker and a fairly uncontroversial topic for a date and more to follow.

"Italian? Yeah...I love Italian too," being one such example. But if one were to read what some of the couples had to say in the aforementioned article, things have certainly gotten bitter on the platter.

While differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians are universal, in the Indian context, there are plenty of other dietary differences that could arise. The big north-south divide for one, but has it reached a point of contention?

"When I got married I was pretty used to south Indian cuisine but I don't think it's difficult to strike a balance between different cuisines if those in the relationship are not extremely particular about the kind of spices used and the style of cooking," says teacher Lakshmi Krishnan.

But for many others, it could be slightly problematic. Living in Chennai for the past four years, Nishant Purohit has had a hard time adjusting to a complete shift in his diet. It didn't help that his partner was not open to cooking other cuisines at home.

Though that was not the only reason the relationship ended up going nowhere, it did lead to a sense that one did not care enough to make the other feel at home.

On the other end of the spectrum there are further extremities like Jain vegetarianism which advocates not eating vegetables grown below the ground like onions, potatoes which do form the base for a fair share of Indian cooking.

But while talking to a few Jains married to people of other faiths, I found that more often than not, dietary acceptance is not very hard to come by in Indian society. A few changes here and there have been a huge part of Indian households and a fair part of cooking has been a give and take between cuisines.

And for those who prefer to stick to their family dietary traditions come hail or storm, especially in arranged marriages, they usually make their preference clear at the very beginning. Clearly it would seem that a family that eats together stays together. And that's food for thought for all.