Renaissance of regional flavours

Home is a subjective term. It may conjure up memories of your childhood house, fun moments shared with the family, or even the warmth of your old bed. For me, home evokes the smells and sounds from my mother's kitchen that just can't be replicated elsewhere.

Having lived in over 10 cities and travelled to many more in 40-plus years, I have tasted and experimented with many local flavours. From Gujarat's mixed vegetable dish undhiyu with puri and shrikhand to a one-pot meal of bise bele bath in Karnataka, my gastronomic journey has involved a smorgasbord of ingredients, spices, and textures. However, at the end of the day, it's some well-prepared maasor tenga or Assamese tangy fish curry that feels like home.

This growing demand of millions like me for regional cuisines is the reason that the culinary landscape of Tier I and Tier II cities in India is rapidly evolving.

Rooting for home food

The greater the displacement, the deeper the cravings for homely bites. Who better than us would know this - India is the largest diaspora in the world and four out of 10 Indians are migrants! An Odiya's love for khaja from Puri can only be matched by an UPite's love for lal peda from Varanasi. And looking for exact flavours of either at a local sweet shop in, say, western India is a futile exercise. This vacuum is often filled by good Samaritans visiting from our hometowns, handing us dabbas lovingly packed by our near and dear ones.

Discovering local flavours

Even as we crave our hometown's goodies, millennials are rapidly embracing local foods as they travel or settle in different parts of India. A recent survey by a travel portal has revealed that a whopping 92% of Indians put food as their top priority when travelling on vacation. After all, you might wax poetic about bal mithai if you are from Almora in Uttarakhand, but if you're visiting Goa, bebinca and dodol are not to be missed.

Advent of regional food outlets

Be it pop-up restaurants or food carts, eateries serving local fare are cropping up faster than you can say bon appétit! Gone are the days when people in Delhi could experience the taste of the entire country only at Delhi Haat. Now there are Bohri specials in fine-dining restaurants, northeastern food festivals, Kashmiri supper clubs - and that's just the capital city. The Indian food retail market is already the sixth-largest globally and it is expected to grow to 61 trillion by 2020.

E-nstant gratification

Not just restaurants, online portals too are cashing in on the evolving trends of an increasingly foodie nation. Whether you want to savour Hyderabadi biryani in an hour or you want the most authentic ingredients to prepare it yourself - everything is just a click away, even prasad and festive goodies. No wonder 2016 saw a 150% growth in food tech start-ups.

Fusion files

We have embraced Chinese food and made it our own, modifying it to our palates as we go along. And this is just scratching the surface. Experimentation to cater to varied regional tastes is an everyday adventure in Indian kitchens - from the hallowed cook tops of famed chefs to the fast food thelas in the crowded gullies. Just the other day, I tried some fiery vindaloo made with ghost chillies at a dear friend's place. Paan-flavoured rasgulla, Maggi khakhra, unique fillings in dosas and pani puris - we are just getting started. With per capita consumption of snacks standing at 0.9kg in 2018, it's a market that's exploding with opportunities.

Food shows

According to BARC Broadcast Survey of India, television penetration in India increased to 64% by 2017, as compared to 54% in 2013. It was way back in 1993 that India got its very first cooking show on cable, thanks to chef Sanjeev Kapoor's Khana Khazana on Zee TV. Today, there are any number of 24x7 food channels catering to couch foodies with culinary journeys across India to nail-biting cooking challenges.

Social media foodies

According to a 2017 study, 69% of millennials take photos of their food before eating. Cropped, filtered, geotagged, hashtagged, and uploaded food pictures find their way across thousands of news feeds, piquing people's curiosity and building their bucket lists. A video that was released on the food culture of Indore went on to receive 3.5 lakh views - that's the power of food and social media combined.

From where I stand, I see a growing revolution in regional flavours of India. People - armed with smartphones, curious about both the traditional and the untried, and a growing appetite for discovery and rediscovery - are giving new goals and challenges to professionals in the food industry. And we are gladly taking them on.

(The author is co-founder, Salebhai.com)