Fast foods eating into traditional home items

Traditional home-made food is making way to fast foods today. Some of the once-popular healthy and delicious eatables are no longer made at home, as the convenience foods have made inroads into the food habits of children and adults.

Consequently, the cuisine and the culinary art of such other items are fast disappearing from the palates today.

For instance, jackfruit was a major food item for the people of North and South Kanara areas. They could manage the entire day with a jackfruit grown in their backyard.

The fruit, both raw and ripe, came handy as a fruit and a vegetable during the monsoons when vegetables were scarce or the heavy rains prevented them from going out. They could survive on jackfruit alone with as many as 20-25 items. Today, it no longer are so many dishes made.

Traditional preparations like 'Kendathaddi' (a rice roti), 'Gundal Kaalu' (a nut-like fried item with a small piece of coconut inside) have almost vanished in these areas.

For such a variety of jackfruit-based preparations, they used to store the fruit pieces in salt, extending its shelf life to 1-2 years, whereas its shelf life is just a day or two in normal conditions.

One reason why these 'grandma's' items are vanishing from the kitchen is the elaborate process and the time required to make them. Fast foods, on the other hand, are ready-to-eat and easily available across the road.

As a result, even common dishes like 'Neeru Dose' (thin soft dosa) and 'Pathrode', cooked within a folded banana leaf, are becoming rare these days, bemoans Dhanvanthari Purashcharana Mahayaga Committee President H V Rajeev.

"Earlier, the joint family system offered enough time and opportunity to prepare the culinary items in large varieties. Either, time or elaborate preparation were not constraints," adds general secretary Krishna Hegde.

"Globalisation and changing lifestyles are sidelining our healthy and home-made foods. Fast foods and junk foods are fast occupying their place, causing many health problems," laments covener K S Sadashiva.

The Amrutha Dhara Committee is arranging a food festival on January 5 and January 6 Mysore to offer a taste of about 70 food items of Malnad region of Karnataka.

The 'Malenadu Pakothsava' (the culinary festival of Malnad) is being organised as part of the 'Dhanvanthri Mahayaga' under the guidance of Swami Raghaveshwara Bharathi of Ramachandra Math, Shimoga district.

The food festival is limited to Malnad region because some of the Havyaks of these areas are settled in Mysore and they intend to introduce these items to Mysoreans and popularise them.

"It is basically a 'Satwika' food where vegetables, herbs, leaves, roots, and fruits are abundantly used in preparation and are not spicy. They are healthy and tasty, and cow products like milk, buttermilk, ghee and butter are used abundantly in their preparation," Sadashiva adds.

Another unique offer at the food festival will be a grand meal, 'Shadrasa Bhojana', with as many as 70 items.