BENGALURU: Lately, Indian street food has been getting a bad rep on social media. Chinese influencers mock our hygiene, and American streamers are as horrified as we were when the US bombed Iraq. As an Indian, I have always believed that Indians are more resilient due to our street food. What damage will a new virus do when I have eaten hand-crushed, sweat-mixed pani puri for decades? The response has been predictably jingoistic – by abusing those who bring up hygiene in our street food. But there’s a reason why we love street food. It is our rebellion against ancient eating traditions. It is cheap, faster than fast food, and ubiquitous. But most importantly, our parents asked us to stay away from it – so we HAD to have it!
The affinity for street food begins early. PT Sir’s lashings were tolerable due to the pani puri stall outside. In college, you befriend the street food vendors outside the campus. And in your first job, you notice a vendor outside your office too! As a youngster, I would mock those who ate pani puri in five star hotels where the waiters wore gloves and a chef’s hat. My favourite items were pani puri and chaat – and like CSK and Mumbai Indians – the two alternated in the top rankings.
Of course, horror stories constantly floated around. A sugarcane juice vendor once crushed a snake along with the canes. There was a video of a vendor using the same metal pot to discard the natural urea found in the human body. My parents also warned me that the vendors were mixing drugs in the food. Highly unlikely since a plate cost Rs 5! We knew of the health hazards. But I grew up in Odisha – where cyclones and floods struck us every year. Diarrhoea was merely a pleasant break from school!
Hygiene was never an issue. Our houses are spick-and-span, but we dump all our waste on the streets. We cook with our hands, serve with our hands, and eat with our hands. The sweat, dust and smoke in our street food adds its own taste. Long before Ikea arrived, street vendors had invented a modular, multi-purpose item – the cloth. Usually red in colour; moist but not dripping wet.
It is used for wiping the vessels, hands, and the cart. But I was okay with the hygiene standards as I assumed the vendors were merely trying to make a living.
My opinion changed when I watched the ‘How much do you earn?’ videos. Food vendors earn as much as a newbie software engineer, and much to Narayana Murthy’s chagrin – without even working 70 hours a week! Modern Indian street food is neither ‘Indian’ or ‘street’ – thanks to the entry of three new villains- cheese, mayo, and butter. Slabs of butter so large, you’d assume the stall was secretly funded by a heart specialist. Mayo added to momos, chaat, and eventually - your nightmares. Variants like cheese dosae, cheese pizza, and cheese cheese! burgers, pizzas, and even idli-vadae are sold as street food, and it all seems like an excuse to subvert the rules that restaurants have to adhere to.
Today, I am wary of an upset stomach. Diarrhoea has got an MBA from a posh college and returned as IBS. I have become the guy who warns people against fast food. Like a recovering alcoholic, I steel myself when the smell of street food hits me. In The Godfather, Don Corleone says ‘I have learnt more in the streets than any classroom’. I seem to agree. I have gone from fast food to fasting when I encounter tasty food.
(The writer’s views are his own)