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Of Kashmiri tastebuds

THE FOOD CLUB

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Marryam H Reshii New Delhi
Last Updated : Jun 14 2013 | 5:14 PM IST
I've just returned from my annual vacation to Srinagar, Kashmir, so bear with me while I rave and rant about the state of F&B operations there.
 
Kashmir is blessed with such wonderful climatic and soil conditions that it is a veritable fruit and vegetable bowl. Spices such as saffron and the highly fragrant black cumin grow in abundance: these spices grow in few other regions of the world.
 
In addition, Kashmir has its own highly evolved cuisine, the culmination of which is the wazwan. Most of the restaurants in Srinagar that are older than one decade have their own garden, so you can have lunch in warm sunshine, lulled by breeze fragrant with hollyhocks and begonias.
 
With all these advantages, you'd think that dining well in Kashmir is as simple as falling off a log. Well, guess what "" it isn't! For one, the ingredients fall woefully short.
 
True, the British did introduce English carrots, radish and cucumber, but there is no lettuce, bell peppers, zucchini or any other vegetable that constitutes premium dining in our metros.
 
Surely, with the resources at its disposal (climate and soil), it would not be rocket science to grow these: hotels in north India have an endless demand for them.
 
My chief grouse is the restaurants themselves. Residency Road has, in the post-militancy years, stopped attracting tourists in any great numbers. Business tends to be entirely local, which gets reflected in the menus of the dozen or more restaurants here.
 
Locals tend not to be demanding customers: many of them have only a notional idea of what north Indian food is. Juice bars and mithai shops too cater to the Kashmiri concept of what chhola bhatura and boondi ladoos ought to taste like.
 
It's the restaurants on Boulevard that are a source of concern. This extremely picturesque two-kilometre stretch of real estate skirts the Dal Lake till Nehru Park. It is the nerve centre of tourism in the Valley.
 
Which is why the sight of grungy rows of Vaishnav dhabas operating under tarpaulins is heart-breaking. They've only sprung up in the last two years, and reportedly the food they serve is lacklustre to say the least.
 
Is it so difficult to cater to north Indian tastes in Kashmir? Is it impossible to have a couple of pure vegetarian restaurants? Krishna Dhaba in Sonawar and Pahalgam Hotel in Pahalgam are famous for their north Indian food.
 
In Delhi, neither would merit distinction. In Kashmir, where lakhs of tourists from all over the country converge, these two are the high points of a holiday.
 
More importantly, is the state doing anything to regulate the rash of dhabas in a once-beautiful city? Are Srinagar's restaurateurs scrambling to find competent cooks who can churn out authentic butter chicken and dal makhni?
 
When Nepalese helpers crowd the juice bars and UP karigars man mithai shop counters, is it an insurmountable task to find a decent Punjabi cook? And finally, doesn't anyone besides me care?

 

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First Published: Jul 01 2006 | 12:00 AM IST

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