Food Interrupted

Disruption is throwing up new-fangled ways in which we negotiate food consumption. The city has its version

If it’s disruption the world is seeking – to bring in change and solution, a reinvention, to tide over existing stupor – then some initiatives in the local food scene are part of that bigger picture.

And I am not invoking fat tax. Troubling as it may be in a scenario that relishes fried and fast foods, it manages to train light on health, which is an equally keen obsession. It is quite another thing that the Minister may have the last laugh over the tax, but food has been clever bait. The food-health connect which earns him brownie points, is not new and has been growing in Kerala. Not only is the common availability of organic products in stores a pointer to a burgeoning consumer base, but also its large scale cultivation a sign of conscious disruption. If large tracts of land have changed to grow pesticide-free crops and are producing organic food then closer, in the city, this transformation is seen, beating urban blues in the greening of terraces, balconies and gardens. Grow bags are bywords throwing up seasonally, tomatoes, brinjals and what have you. The health food factor has caught on and today even organic milk is available.

If that, food wise, is replacing the old existing order then a few other initiatives too are disrupting the hackneyed scene. And gladly so.

Concept Stores

The opening of a frozen food convenience store, Buffet, in Panampilly Nagar that offers experiential tasting before purchase marks in more ways than one our changing mindset about the way we now consume food. It projects a clientele that is accepting of frozen products, as much as it is of fresh foods, being organic converts. It also signals the existence of a clientele that is rushed for time and needs quick-fix meals. The freshness of foods is critical and is ensured by scientific freezing.

When Wild Fish, a seafood boutique, opened late last year, it ushered the trend. Today the store, open seven days a week, has sales that any fresh catch fish stall may envy. The store has managed to provide the fastidious fish lover catch, cleaned, cut, deveined and also with options to cook it in a recipe of choice.

Farmer’s Market

The farmer’s market held on second Friday of each month at Gourmet House in Konthuruthy began as proprietor Cheeran Vargehse says, “because of demanding customers.” The idea common in the west and in some Indian metros the farmers’s market offers a chance to showcase local, Indian and imported food and related products. It is a meeting point for producers, brand exhibitors, customers, offering an opportunity to taste and buy, to inform and retail. This face-to-face meeting place of all stakeholders in the chain is enabling the movement of food in a way that it has not seen before. It is encouraging homemakers, SMEs, food start-ups, big banners et al to leverage the opportunity that has its origin in the traditional Indian ‘haat’ (weekly market) concept. Verghese says that almost 80 brands have registered with him ad that every month 20 are rolled on to the floor. Hence new products, big and small, imported, Indian or locally made, home made all find space.

Continental Vegetarian

Kerala’s love for non-vegetarian fare – beef, mutton, chicken, fish, and pork – is an established one but the foodies here are partial to vegetarian food too. It is seen in the existence of some vegetarian restaurants, in the city, for over several decades. These pure vegetarian outlets serving traditional Kerala fare – veg.meals, thali, have thrived and continue to do so. But alongside this we can see, in the last few years, the rise of North Indian chaat, a vegetarian snack, growing in its growing visibility and familiarity. In this backdrop Satish Menon began Ledhi, on South Janatha Road, Palarivattam, that serves continental vegetarian with tagline – ‘Veg is not that veg anymore’ and ‘Veg for non vegetarians’. Ledhi serves five different veg. cuisines – Italian, Pan-Asian, West-Asian, European and Indian.

Food online

If one was sceptical about ordering food online and door delivery, then it is high time we realise that the system is working well. Masala Box and Yummy Kitchens, to name a few, were pioneers in the trend of establishing a network of home chefs and connecting them with customers, offering quality and tasty fare. Daily Fish, an online seafood store has seamlessly fitted into the changed scenario and offers ‘as good as live’ ready to cook products.

Health food outlets

The city has had its tryst with health food outlets that began and shut shop. But they were ahead of the times. Santhosh Narayanan’s Jhivras in Kakkanad serves curated veg. food, which he terms ‘intelligent food’. It is mainly for working people, for corporates because their lifestyle requires that they eat healthy. The concept is having people eat out of their hands. Blend It, a juice outlet, offering a concoction of customised healthy juices has added to the trend.

The Baker’s revolution

One can almost feel the heaving dough as the city witnesses a flurry of home bakers produce and supply different types of breads, healthy and tasty to customers asking for more. The good old bread has become an instrument of disruption.