Food Overdose

I took a spoonful of the glistening red liquid and swiveled the spoon to observe it from all possible angles and popped it into my mouth. I instantly blurted, “It explodes in your mouth. It pops into a burst of complex flavours, smells mystical and transcends into a different world. The acidity cuts into the sweetness and it’s the right balance of flavours”. A message beeped on my phone, and I was shaken up from my stupor. It was a cough syrup after all. The side effects of watching too much of watching food reality shows, I guess.

Food

Originally meant to satiate hunger and to provide nutrition to sustain the basic life, food has now grown into overhyped and overdose of extravagance. Numerous bloggers, vloggers and influencers have devoted their lives to report distant and unknown ‘hole in the wall’ shops and corner restaurants. These shops and eating places have become gastronomical pilgrimages. Globalization and globetrotters have proliferated world cuisine into far corners of the world. Of course, one can’t overlook the fusion food which is literally mixing up cuisines or stereotypical recipes to create a new flavour profile. Now that would require some amount of bravado to swallow. Not for the faint hearted.

Influencing Could be Killing

Street food ……. Simply add the name of a place on the dotted line and surf the YouTube, Google. Your browser would instantly populate with innumerable influencers trying to influence a food place. Firstly, with so many of them overdoing this, it has become a cliche. There is no surety whether the restaurant is genuine or a foodie trap. The influencers need higher ratings, more likes and many followers. A viral short or reel could well be the next rags to riches story. Conversely, the food stall or restaurant, if worth the hype, would also turn around its fortune.

Weave a Story

People like mystery around food. A restaurant which was established pre-independence, a recipe which was carried in somebody’s mind from Lahore during partition, a dish which was prepared on specific instructions of Jehangir, the Mughal Emperor and the ubiquitous grandmother’s recipe. All of the above, add a mystery to the story. Only God or the cook knows the truth, but I have tried such dishes and I wished Jehangir had died before directing the cook.

Self-Professed Master Chef

Yes! I know my way around in the kitchen. I know the usage of many indigenous and international ingredients and I have tasted diverse international cuisines. I also watch many food shows on YouTube, lifestyle TV channels. I have tried my hand at baking, barbeque and other conventional forms of cooking. So, I am the self-professed master chef who knows too much about food or so I think. This symptom can be observed in many people and its slowly becoming pandemic.

Five Star Food

A Five Star hotels restaurant may boast of Masaharu Morimoto, a degustation menu by Curtis Stone or an expensive menu by a visiting international chef. As a matter of taste the satisfaction is directly proportional to the price paid for the food. Especially, if one has paid a fat check for the artistic gourmet, he/ she dare not exclaim. The check justifies every piece of food item including the garnish (edible/ nonedible) which puts you in a dilemma “Having paid so much, how can the purple flower petals be wasted and not eaten”. Not appreciating such food is purely your limitation, a shortcoming and a sin. It’s an artwork which has been created by a maestro and if you didn’t find it appetizing, it’s your handicap. You are a rustic, a commoner who doesn’t understand food.

Home Food vs Restaurant Food

We go to a restaurant looking for food which tastes homely and forage the internet for recipes to cook restaurant style food at home. It is extremely difficult to make food tasty without generous fat (ghee/ butter), MSG, sugar, chocolate and other such comfort ingredients. Most of the Indian food have the ubiquitous onion-tomato paste which is used in most red curries. The white one has cashew paste or cream. So, the pre-boiled chicken or paneer is only different in name and price. Comparing the time required at home to cook a simple meal how does a non-magical restauranteur conjure up your ordered menu in 20 mins. Remember the footnote on menu….20 mins preparation time.

Pan Asian

The most abused foreign cuisine in India is Chinese. Pan Asian is a fancier name for basically, Chinese. Essentially its noodles, meat and vegetables cooked in the same way with different bottled readymade sauces and dollops of tomato ketchup. Pan Asian also encompasses customized Sushi (there’s also veg sushi in India), customized Thai and Vietnamese, mostly cooked with substitute ingredients.

Eat Healthy

There is this other kind of foodie who promotes only healthy food. One morning you scroll YouTube and realise that everything that you were fond off eating in the life gone past has suddenly been declared dangerous for health. Milk has to be A2. Samosa has to be baked. The final solution to all health problems, Chia seeds or Quinoa. The innocent peanuts are also out of bounds. Only California almonds. Coconut Oil has cholesterol. So only olive oil. Only lean meat. Eat Salmon which is flown in from West. Let go rice and wheat. The list is endless.

Conclusion

Food is the most basic human need. However, global conspiracy has turned it into a much desirable extravagance. The under privileged find it difficult to get two square meals a day and suffer from malnutrition and deficiencies. The accomplished are eating more than the human body actually needs for sustenance and suffer from lifestyle diseases due to FOOD OVERDOSE.