#vegetarianfood | Savvy Raj

What are your immediate thoughts

On the above picture?

I am not a milk consumer, but at home, everyone loves plenty of yoghurts to go along with food. In fact, it is considered to be appropriate for digestion, and as Indians, we often tend to finish the meal with some buttermilk.

For the past few weeks the milk we would curdle to make homemade yoghurt became increasingly slimy, to say the least. The brand I was buying is one of India’s biggest and well known. I have often read about adulterated milk and it’s implications on health and wellbeing but somehow never got down to testing the milk itself.

Recently I came across a Milk testing kit and I decided to check it out myself. It is easily available once I began to check out for it … I truly wonder why I didn’t ever think of doing this ever before.

Although there are just too many milk adulterations in the market today … this particular kit listed the few rampant ones.

Found the kit very user-friendly and it was having four parameters to check the milk on for example.

On the Milk Quality

On the Urea Content

On the Starch Content

On the Soap/ Detergent Content

As suggested the vials were duly filled with the milk and in just a matter of minutes the truth was staring at us!

Here is what the colours indicate.

Blue …. poor quality /no milk content

Sediments urea

Yellow …. starch

Yellow …. pulverised soap

So it was nothing but a concoction of chemicals.

In leaving the milk in the vials for a while after the results came through… at the time of cleaning the kits I was aghast to find that the strip in urea check container was truly stripped out… in fact, there were only a few bits of the strip left it was eaten away literally ….uric acid perhaps!

Wonder what’s happening to our insides!!!

Essentially it was no surprise that what we were consuming was not milk at all.

We have stopped buying milk from this vendor. But as I also read recently almost 65% and more of Indian milk consumption is adulterated.

Here is a video that I received as a forward on Social media. Take a moment although I must add the clip is recorded in Hindi it speaks for itself.

This is just one of the sad reality of our times.

Knowing that a majority of Indians have grown up with the belief that milk is good for health…

What are we actually feeding children?

Who is going to punish the culprits?

Do share if you have had a similar experience…

I would be keen to understand how we can tackle and overcome the rampant milk and food adulteration.

Savvy

Indian food at Maharaja Bhog

For a complete Indian thali experience.

Culturally India has seen many influences from the past to the present times. One of the fascinating things about Indian food is the variety of tastes distinctive in form and appeal from a melting pot of influences and different cultures.

A recent visit to one of the famous traditional Indian Thali eateries with my daughter in tow turned out to be quite a delightful experience…

The Plating: An experience in itself.

The Thali is a distinct offering of varied dishes served on a platter.

The thali or the round plate of food depicts the unique way food is consumed. A visual treat of an assortment of delicacies laid out a plate served in many small little cups, bowls or katoris as they are called.

The richness of the food prepared makes it food fit for a king. For the Indian kings were known to have a history of cooks or Maharaja as they were fondly called had a special place in their lives. The Maharajas thali is a reflection of the opulence of those times.

A plethora of foods prepared in copious amounts and served in unlimited ways back then formed the foundation of the thali experience in today’s times.

The taste: What can be said but the words… A privy to the pleasures of the palate. its all taken care’ of as truly every taste is blended in beautifully in the thali from sweet salty sour spicy, bitter pungent astringent and more …

Found this proudly displayed for those interested in selfies! Replete with a grand turban… A (Maharaja ) king’s chair for a king’s (Maharaja’s) meal.

Cushy and comfy seating in a neat and well-maintained arrangement.

The Service :

Very unique and almost in a meticulous and methodical precision. They have unique sign language to communicate nonverbally between themselves as to how and where what needs to be served. It is such a refined and discreet practice when you actually begin to take note of it.

The result is a smooth rollout of flavours in a flow and you are left flabbergasted at the number of items on the menu.

The typical meal ensures a heady sensory experience on your palate. The usual all-time favourites have been the Gujarati Kadi and Dal and Khichidi as well as the Bhakri and Dal Bhatti. The sweet tooth cravings get deeply satiated with the often repeated Moong Dal Halwa and Basundi which transports you a few steps to heaven and back makes eating a thali like this all a totally unforgettable experience.

To top it all up and wind up a perfectly fine traditional Indian meal, is the refreshing pan they offer as soon as you are done with the meal which works well as a digestive and as a mouth freshener.