Travel writer Zac O’Yeah has traversed the length and breadth of India, stopping for double breakfasts, a handful of lunches, bottles of stuff, which ranges from grog to branded liquor at many a pub or what passes for a pub in the hinterlands, as well as several dinners, all in leisurely sequence. The result is this book, a neat meld of travelogue and food chronicle, which, to fall back on that clichéd term, really does make for an entertaining and informative read.
Kicking off from his current place of domicile, Bengaluru, the writer raises a warm toast to the city’s OG bar, Dewar’s, in Bamboo Bazaar, then takes paths that lead him to RK Narayan’s home and the eateries the legendary author might have frequented, as well as places that might have been the inspiration for the setting of Malgudi. He visits a small town called Beershop in the Kolar Gold Fields; appam in the “flavourful pantry” that is Kerala, he raises a toast to toddy and appams. He tucks into mutton pallipalayam in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, tandoori chicken in Chandigarh, bedmi aloo and sundry chaat in Delhi, haleem in Hyderabad, and vindaloo in Goa. In Mumbai, he tracks places writers wrote about like the Crawford and Byculla markets, the military eateries, and Irani cafes.
In Assam, he tastes the popular side dish, kharoli. He waxes lyrical about mustard oil (shorshey tel) in Kolkata food, saying it adds an unusual sharpness, “like a winding guitar solo in a 1970s’ heavy metal tune”. And he imbibes an astonishing amount of rustic tipple all along, bravely, even eagerly. Maugham, Forster, Kipling, Graham Greene, Chatwin, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, and MK Gandhi (the epitome of a fastidious food faddist, author of a bestseller booklet titled, A Guide to Health) make frequent appearances; their food preferences dissected for the reader.
The author has been traversing India for almost three decades now (roaming among fresh fishmongers, honey hawkers, pickle peddlers, swine slaughterers, tea traders and the like) and, in the process, has become conversant with humble eateries that serve up little-known delectable victuals. The ease with which he has digested and continues to digest this diverse nation, ingesting some unusual foods, however, still comes as a surprise.
With his trademark wit, O’Yeah, who variously defines himself as a tummy tourist and cholesterol junkie, sends up the dining drunkards of Kerala, the tremulous state of his own stomach, a chocolate chicken dish, carrying Imodium to “bring up the rear”, the olive oil dosa and much else.
We get to learn about the origins of currywurst––curry- ketchup-spiced pork sausage; Bengalureans are reminded that once upon a time, where the Hard Rock Cafe now stands, stood Blighty’s Tearooms. The author parses the dosa and its multifarious mutations, tells us of Rome’s ancient pepper warehouse that used to stock Thalassery pepper, and why the city has the world’s best acrobats and circus artistes.
Furthermore, he tells us why Erode in Tamil Nadu is known as Yellow City, what desert beans are, how a piece of rock art in Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh reminded him of the mixed grill he often orders at Koshy’s restaurant in Bengaluru, how Allahabad’s MG Marg was a living museum of sophistication before the “global junk food machine-gunned its way into our tummies”.
He touches on the Italian strufoli-Indian jalebi connection, informs us it was our monks who introduced limes to China and how, when a tourist asks him if the rhino they are both gazing at in Guwahati zoo is “original or duplicate”, he realises that indeed, the animal doesn’t look authentic but more like a shape-shifter stuck in mid-transformation somewhere between a big pig and an amphibious army tank. Readers, who are familiar with the writer’s strongly developed funny bone via the hilarious Hari Majestic books, will find much to chortle at. The bonus is the many nuggets of information that he has studded the essays with.
Given that India earns “200 billion USD annually from tourism”, this can be a win-win situation not only for the eater and the eatery, but the tourist and the places visited as well. The author hopes that the
book will inspire people to return to the joys of exploring. The reviewer predicts a run on several little-known eateries across the country by the intrepid traveller, duly armed with a copy of Digesting India.