Bahar Bharat | Indian Vegetarian Food Making Its Big Mark Across The Globe

Two eateries serving Indian food that the author found abroad during his travels. (Image: Sundeep Bhutoria)

Many years ago, I was in the South Korean city of Incheon, just before it became a destination for international conventions. While one brings back many memories from every trip — and my work and passions have taken me all over the globe, including many unknown places many have never heard of — the most abiding memory from my maiden visit to Incheon was near-starvation!

Being a vegetarian, my gastronomic options are often quite limited in foreign shores, but in Incheon, it seemed as though the very concept of vegetarian food did not exist at that time. I survived on Korean rice and tomato puree for the entire duration of my stay. So, you can imagine the relish with which I fell upon the humble dal-chawal and paneer that I was served by an Indian restaurant in Seoul, which was my destination after Incheon. Though not the best in the business, to my hungry soul, this home food tasted nothing short of the proverbial manna from heaven.

My love for desi food is such that even while travelling abroad, the first thing that I look for is Indian restaurants. My travels in the West have acquainted me with all restaurants that have good Indian food to offer. In the process, I have made friends with several chefs, owners and waiters. In New York, Lexington Avenue has numerous Indian eateries. In Long Island, Murray Hill is commonly termed as ‘Curry Hill’ because of the presence of a large number of Indian restaurants — including Curry in Hurry, Chote Nawab, Handi, Tawa, Dhaba, Food of India, Bhatti, Bhojan, Madras Mahal, Vatan, Pongal, Mint, Copper Chimney, Tulsi and Junoon.

I enjoy my travels immensely, especially discovering new cultures and interacting with different kinds of people. Oh yes, I even enjoy the misadventures! They, after all, make for the best stories later. As much as I love to fly off to far-flung destinations, I always carry India in my heart wherever I go, and look for a little bit of India in every new place I visit. I make it a point to try out new places serving Indian food or look up old favourites that have served me well in the past. Connecting with NRIs is always on my agenda on overseas trips. I meet up with Indian chefs making a mark in the international culinary scene, enquire into how the Indian community is faring or how the lives of Indian expats are shaping up abroad.

I met a girl from Vietnam in one of the shops at the local mall in Montreal, Canada. She works only on Saturdays and Sundays. The other five days of the week she has school. The daughter of a first-generation immigrant, she has three brothers in her family. While talking to her I was struck by her views on gender, when she said that had she been European, she would have been treated like a princess, being the only girl in the house, but since she is from an Asian family, her status is like that of a maid servant. Her brothers make her do all the household chores, all the while making excuses that they are preparing her for marriage.

Canada abounds in immigrants from all corners of the world, braving extremely difficult weather conditions. Once I visited the residence of a couple who had come from Germany and Finland. I saw an interesting photo on the wall depicting the historic rally of the 1995 Quebec referendum — the second referendum to ask voters whether Quebec should secede from Canada and become an independent state. Parti Quebecois (French for Quebec Party) wanted to secede, but the people from the other provinces of Canada reached Montreal for a historic rally on October 27, 1995, to vote against the referendum, which was defeated by a slender margin.

Any tourist’s dream is to visit Switzerland. When I first went to Switzerland, I realised the reason people wanted to visit this beautiful country. The picture-postcard scenic beauty simply mesmerises the eye. But there is something more interesting than that. That something is the presence of Indian food in this European country. There are quite a few Indian restaurants in Geneva, even though not too many Indians live there. Among the top restaurants are Rasoi by Vineet, Sajna Restaurant, Little India, Spice of India, India Curry House and Bombay Restaurant, among several others. Then there are a couple of restaurants that immediately drew my attention, like Rajpoute and Jaipur.

Of course, it is not a surprise that one finds a restaurant by the name of Bollywood in Geneva knowing that ‘Bollywood’ has almost become synonymous with the word ‘India’. As if this is not enough, I found another one by the name Restaurant Indian Bollywood. Next time I come here I am sure to find more restaurants with the Bollywood tag!

It is difficult to say which is more popular — Indian food or Bollywood. On the other hand, the tag of Gandhi also helps one to identify an Indian restaurant, so there it was in Geneva — Gandhi café. I was intrigued by the name Gandhi café, so, naturally, I went there. Although the name was Gandhi, it specialised in Punjabi cuisine, especially tandoor. I was taken aback to find that they served non-vegetarian food as well, even though they profess to be inspired by Gandhi.

I found that this place was quite popular because of its quality. Aloo gobi, palak paneer and naan are the favourite dishes as I gathered from those who have visited the place. A variety of pakoras were also available like gobi, pyaz, aloo, baingan, paneer, and mixed samosas.

I was quite impressed by the number of vegetarian items on the menu. Apart from a few potato dishes, there was dal, chana, bharta, a few paneer-based items, Navratan Korma and vegetable biryani. There were quite a number of rice dishes like lemon rice, jeera rice and saffron rice, to name a few. The page that listed naans was interesting as it featured quite a few innovative ones. There was Gandhi Naan — a naan stuffed with vegetables and garlic, Naan Grapes, Coco Naan, Naan Peppers and some others along with chapati and paratha.

The desserts had gulab jamun, kulfi and something called Gandhi Cup, which was explained as a cup filled with exotic fruits!

(The author is a social activist working for over two-and-a-half decades in the field of welfare, international cultural cooperation and the promotion and preservation of Indian arts. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views)