Regional re-look, please?

The city winners from a recent round of awards honouring the best restaurants from across India, shone a light on the continuing lack of presence that the state’s regional cuisines have in Mumbai

The more the merrier.’ We hear this line or use it ever so often in routine conversation. Unfortunately, that does not hold true for the city’s restaurant-scape, especially when we take a closer scan at its diversity, cuisine-wise. It’s not a pretty, or shall we say, delicious picture because our large home state’s numerous and distinctly different regions appear nowhere on the chart. A recent, prestigious award to hail the country’s top restaurants, revealed quite a few from the city. And yet, among those winners, barring one space that was an ode to a hip suburb’s take on its people-inspired cuisine, a thorough look at the rest of the names shows no representation of the state’s or city’s own cosmopolitan, diverse flavours. It held a mirror to how underrepresented we are, when it comes to elevating regional fare, let alone take it to a high-end level.

The city scores alright with mid-level seafood fare, celebrating coastal food from various parts of the Konkan. And that’s about it. Here, too, we are yet to see dynamic, out-of-the-box, inspired fine dine restaurants spring up that celebrate this cuisine with a modern, edgy menu to lure the discerning, well-travelled foodie or tourist. The trusted names tucked in the lanes of Fort and Kalaghoda, and the Dadar-Parel belt, continue to be the big daddies. Where is the R&D to show any growth? What about the robust, spicy flavours of Kolhapuri cuisine? Or Nagpur’s famed Saoji cuisine? Try naming a popular dish or a cooking technique from Satara, Nashik, or Sangli? Chances are we’ll draw a blank. That pretty much sums up the scenario.

Little or no effort seems to have been made by F&B mandarins to develop Maharashtra’s varied fare and make it more accessible in its capital city, where it should ideally be placed on a pedestal. Mumbai is a city that loves to eat out but somehow, and for reasons that we’ll never know, this mix of regional cuisines seemed to have not been able to make its mark. The handful of haunts that we spot are far and few, and definitely don’t make it to the fine dine, high-end level that can grab eyeballs for pan-Indian recognition. The other extreme is the odd five-star restaurant serving Maharashtrian fare. It’s an unhappy reality.

On a visit to Pune a little over a year ago, I was pleasantly surprised to relish some truly representative cuisine with innovative tweaks, from across the corners of our state. Again, it was a restaurant attached to a five-star, and since a friend was residing there, I got the opportunity to savour it. I’d call it a chance gastronomic experience that was good enough to make me want to revisit the next time I return to Pune. It baffled me to wonder why justice hasn’t been done to highlight such refined, flavour-packed regional culinary techniques and traditions. A recent trip to Kolkata was an eye-opener of its fabulous showcase of regional Bengali fare from all corners of the state. Head to any major South Asian city like Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Colombo or Kuala Lumpur that boasts of a rich regional history, and you’ll see their regional restaurants stand alongside their continental cuisine spaces, on a par, and in the same league on the world stage. So, why then is Mumbai not truly representative enough to display its local and state fare on a grand scale?

As another year draws to a close, and the gurus look back to pat themselves on the accomplishments in the F&B industry in Mumbai, this gaping void must be introspected upon. If we are to call ourselves a potpourri of cultures and people, a melting pot, a bhel puri...countless similar-meaning titles to define our diversity that’s a seamless mix in the island city and the suburbs, we must walk the talk and look inland.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee, or shall we say, rassa?

mid-day’s Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city’s sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. 
She tweets @bombayana. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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