On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan <[email protected]> wrote: > The present day 30 year old Indian grew up in a country that was dirt > poor, where travel was expensive, and made still more difficult by the > myriad of languages and cultures. He is not used to diverse cultural > stimulus.
This is very true. Income available to dispose on eating out is a recent phenomenon for most of India. And in a country where existence used to be hand to mouth till quite recently even for its middle class, a sense of adventure - culinary or otherwise - was simply not an option. Even today many Indians tend to take the well trodden path rather than explore their true calling. In addition to the US historically drawing to its shores scores of immigrants, policing Pax Americana brought the more rural Americans in contact with foreign cuisine. > That is not to say it was much different in the glorious > past. This, I find to be less true. Let us not forget that Tamil, Gujarati and Keralan traders plied their dhows to East Africa and SE Asia. What is considered Indian cuisine is pretty much a fusion of local, regional and international ingredients and flavors. One more reason for the lack of adventurous palate among most Indians is the belief that food eaten at restaurants (be they Udupi "hotels" or Dhabas) is somehow non-nutritious and leads to illness. Thaths -- "You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel." -- Homer J. Simpson
