That’s what would have puzzled him by not just the food, but a veritable feast for thought provided by data supplied by Swiggy, in its latest annual trend report, ‘How India Swiggy‘d 2022’ (bit.ly/3vjfYdK). The evidentiary testimony provided is difficult to digest. A single Bengaluru customer placed a record-breaking order amounting to ₹75,387 during this Diwali, while another in Pune ran up a bill of ₹71,229. Monsieur Brillat-Savarin would have acknowledged that such sums represent a lot of dinero for dinner.
Though no information is available on what specific items constituted these outsize orders, the single-most popular dish on demand this year was biryani, with customers calling for 137 plates every minute, up from 115 per minute in 2021. However, it is not known what kind – or kinds – of biryani was, or were, in demand.
The Great Indian Kitchen produces several variations of this dish, originally said to have been imported from Persia and modified by the Mughals, with each claiming to be the Real McCoy, or the Asli Masalchi. There is the Hyderabadi version, the Awadhi adaptation, the Kerala configuration, the Kolkata creation – which involves the heretical inclusion of potatoes and boiled eggs – and a veggie variant that substitutes meat or chicken with unripe jackfruit.
The second most popular item on the delivery menu was masala dosa. There are reportedly 122 officially recognised derivatives of the basic recipe, with the unfilled pancake itself being based on different ingredients, including rice, rawa, ragi, and spinach, among others. The fillers range from the traditional potato-onion mix to paneer, keema, butter chicken chhana – and chocolate. While unconfirmed rumour has it that a veg manchurian avatar of the dosa might soon see the light of day in a triumph of fusion creativity crossing the LoAC – Line of Authorised Control.
Such cross-culinary inventiveness has also gone into the making of what has been adjudged the most popular snack, samosa, of which some 4 million and counting were on demand this year. Believed to have been introduced to India by Central Asian traders who brought with them sambusaks packed in their saddlebags, it is first mentioned in Abu’l-Fazl’s 16th century Ain-i-Akbari.
During the reign of another ‘monarch’, the snack inspired the mantra, ‘Jab tak samosa mein aloo hain, tab tak Bihar mein Lalu hain.’ While the personage has long since been ousted, the samosa continues to reign supreme not only in Bihar but across all of north India. In West Bengal, the samosa has adopted the alias of ‘shingara’, because of its triangular shape that resembles the ‘singhara’ or paniphal (water chestnut), and can include the addition of cauliflower in its stuffing.
The golgappa in northern India has no less than two other noms de palate — panipuri in west India, and phuchka in the east. Such a bewildering diversity of tastes and tags, representing a veritable epicurean eatopia, could well leave Brillat-Savarin baffled. And even the supersleuth famed for his ability to solve three-pipe problems might pause for thought before proclaiming, ‘Alimentary, my dear Watson.’