Hyderabad: Gone are the days when a steel tiffin box with chappatis and a sabzi was snuck into your office bag and hungrily brought out at lunch time. With so many food options dotting the roadscape, the younger generation is certainly not missing home food.
Roadside stalls have been a boon for the student community and the IT crowd at CyberCity. A variety of food is available, from comfort food to idlis and dosas to Indianised Chinese and North Indian fare.
More often than not, it is edible and tasty thanks to the large dollops of oil and spices the food contains. But with the monsoons approaching, is it safe to continue patronising these stalls?
“Oh no!” said Ms Radhika Sashidharan. “I had a bad stomach infection during the last monsoon. Since then, I have been extra careful. I live on my own and I certainly do not want to risk an upset stomach. For the last few months, I have been taking a dabba from a lady recommended by my landlady.”
Homemade dabbas have always been popular in other cities where huge set-ups are run from homes. The food here is more homely, has less oil and is cooked in more hygienic environs. Of late, this trend is also catching up in the city. Specially now, with the monsoons edging in and bringing with them an overload of bacterial infections.
The homemade dabba has another variation as well. Sometimes, the dabba-providers bring their homemade food and put up a stall outside an office. So, while the outlet is a roadside stall, the food is homemade.
Like the stall run by Mr R. Prakash. “I run my stall in front of TCS from 12 to 2 pm every day. My wife cooks four kilos of rice, one curry and we also fry papads. I charge only '50 per plate and it is a huge hit with the employees. It reminds them of home food,” he said.
Specialised dabba food has also started. Like the Nepalese dabba popularised by Darshana Rai, who runs Aama's Nepalese Food.
Says Darshana, “We are a small home-based kitchen. We try to promote Nepali culture through our food. Datshi, one of our most popular items, is authentic Nepalese cuisine and is priced at Rs 100. Our clients love our food so much that we have also started catering for parties but on a small scale.”
Most health experts are breathing sighs of relief at this slow change from roadside stalls to homemade dabbas. They believe that small home dabba services might be the answer to the problems created by roadside stalls.
Said Ms Deepa Agarwal, nutritionist, “The low quality spices used in the roadside food often leads to gastritis and digestion problems. If the food items haven’t been preserved properly, they will lead to cramps. By eating late, the young crowd should remember that they are setting themselves up for weight gain and lack of sleep. With time, this lifestyle will lead to diabetes and heart diseases.”
Home-based dabbas are definitely a better option. Mr Shirish Talwar, who runs a dabba service in Madhapur, says, “In home-based kitchens, we cook in small quantities according to the orders and use the same kind of cooking methods that we use for our own homes.”
