Having
travelled millions of miles and thousands of sectors on multiple airlines, in
First, Business and Economy classes, around the world and having eaten all
kinds of so called “vegetarian meals” made by gourmet and “starred” chefs in
all five continents or even better prepared by gourmet Indian chefs and passed
off as Indian vegetarian, I have been left, to say the least, disappointed.
A very
large number of non-Indian airlines classify Asian Vegetarian and Indian
Vegetarian as one and the same. Some even assume that Vegan and Indian
Vegetarian is the same. Nothing is further from the truth than these
misclassifications. Indians who are Vegetarian are not Vegans. Therefore, they
do eat dairy, honey and gelatin products unlike the vegans.
After so
many painful meal experiences, I am writing this open letter to international
airlines to address some very basic points on what do most Indian Vegetarian
travellers like on their food tray, irrespective of the class they may be
travelling in, when they travel overseas.
Milk
products
Indian
vegetarians eat all kinds of milk products. You do NOT need to give them
margarine instead of butter. Yogurt (dahi) is standard fare for all Indians in
their homes and does not need to be excluded from our menu. We can eat butter, cream,
cakes, brownies, pastries, chocolates and all other similar products made from
milk. Your gourmet chefs serve Indian sweets like "Gulab Jamun" and
"Ras Malai" in the same food tray from which they have excluded
butter!
Starters
While
Indians eat all green vegetables, aubergine (baingan), Okra (Bhindi) and
Squash (Kaddu) are normally not our preferred vegetables. In most homes in
India, these vegetables are the "meal of last resort" when all other
vegetables are exhausted in the refrigerator. You can use all kinds of beans,
cottage cheese (paneer) or even deep-fried "samosas" as appetisers if
you need more options to serve us.
Main
Course
We
understand the constraints of serving meals on flights and the fact that in
economy class you will generally have a vegetarian option and a non-vegetarian
option. For special meal requests, you have “Asian Vegetarian” as an option –
we do hope that you realise that Asia is a huge continent with almost half the
world’s population in 48 countries with many more cuisine options!
Indian
vegetarian food, itself, has a huge repertoire of cuisines. Your expert chefs
can come up with multiple options. We are happy with Dal and Rajma as one
option with rice. We do not want these burnt in the ovens and we definitely do
not like "crispy friend basmati rice". Further, yogurt is standard
fare in almost every meal in an Indian home. Why must you exclude this from our
meal tray?
Desserts
Most
Indians have a very sweet tooth and love their desserts. If you are serving the
passengers ice cream or a pastry, give it to the Indian passengers as well. Do
not give them poorly made Indian desserts that your master chefs are trying to
pass off as "Indian". And of course remember that desserts are eaten
after the main course – you do not need to single out vegetarian passengers and
give them their dessert with the starter!
Cheese,
Paneer and Chocolates
Your chefs
forget that cheese is made of milk and Indians eat all milk products. Why
remove cheese from our meals when this is a huge value add you can make on our
meal trays? If you can serve us chocolates and paneer, then cheese can also be
served. Oh, and as a reminder, toufu is not the same as paneer or cheese!
Bread
While we
like bread rolls, croissants and garlic toast, it always helps if you can also
add a roti or a parantha to your bread basket. Rotis are available in various
shapes and sizes in most cuisines of the World. Oh yes, just like the love and
care your chefs give to make their croissants crisp and flaky on the outside
and soft on the inside, our parathas too deserve the same TLC and must not be
converted into a crisp papad (or papadam) because of repeated heating!
Pickle
Packaged
pickle in single servings is available everywhere, just like butter and
preserves, and many airlines add this to the food tray. Indians like a little
pickle with their food but can easily do without it if this adds too much to
your food cost.
Mouth
Freshener
While not
essential, this is an excellent item to round off any and Indian meal and for a
vegetarian, this would go a really long way! Mouth fresheners are available in
simple and cheap sachets.
Alcohol
While
alcohol is not related to Indian vegetarian cuisine, it would help to note that
most of the older Indians prefer their whisky. A selection of whiskies and an
additional malt whisky for good measure served on flights into and out of India
would really earn you serious appreciation.
While most
of us are now conscious of eating healthy food while at home, we are happy to
give healthy food a "pass" when we are on a flight and when we are on
a holiday!
Please do consider
what you are serving to the Indian Vegetarian passengers. Indians form one of
the fastest growing travellers and tourists in the World and definitely deserve
your consideration.
If your
culinary experts are not delivering what they are being paid to, reach out to
Air India and Jet Airways from India and Singapore Airlines to understand what
food they serve to their customers.
*******************
The author is the founder Chairman of
Guardian Pharmacies and the author of 5 best-selling books, Reboot. Reinvent.
Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office; An Eye for
an Eye; The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur and The Buck
Stops Here – My Journey from a Manager to an Entrepreneur.
- Twitter: @gargashutosh
- Instagram: ashutoshgarg56
- Blog: ashutoshgargin.wordpress.com | ashutoshgarg56.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment