Food and Booze Gujarati Style

There are cooks who write, conduct TV shows on food and there are wine experts, whisky exeperts and expertson cocktails who write and or conduct tv shows on how to mix a tipple. These are generally pros and they follow two cardinal principles of pros: Talk yourself and your product up and second do not pass opinions on others.

Then there are food and wine critics who nornally write about restaurants they are asked to visit or booze they are asked to sample. These critics are with a few notable exceptions are a part of the marketing exercise of the restaurant or the booze company and are generally invited to wine and dine and if they are still awake at the end of the evening write something good in the morning with a few dashes of "neutral criticism" like the lighting could have been better OR the wine was excellent but the price a tad too high....

Very few people write for consumers with an honest feedback on food, restaurants and drinks and fewer still write practical stuff. It is no point mentioning a dish ingradients of which can only be found either in France or by bribing a friendly airhostess. Or for that matter about a cocktail components of which have to be wholly imported...
I have found two notable exceptions to this rule one writing on food/rstaurants and chefs the other on booze [sans wine]. The first is Vir Sanghvi and the second is Bhaichand Patel. Both write from the consumer point of view and since writing respectively about food and booze are their fourth or fifth pastimes, they write freely without looking over their shoulders... It helps that Sanghvi is a cook himself and Patel enjoys making and consuming drinks...

Unfortunately both of them write in Brunch the Sunday supplement of Hindustan Times and if you do not subscribe to that newpaper you shall not be able to read them. More unfortunately, we just read the last column by Patel last Sunday, he has discontinued writing for Brunch. I Hope Vir wil lcontinue to write his column quite aptly titiled "Rude Food".
Vir is a stake eating gujarati and Bhaicahand is a scotch guzzling one. The former food item is a religious taboo not only among gujaratis but a large number of Hindus. Scotch of course is a political taboo in Gujarat whence the ancestors of both the gentlemen came.

So the best writer on food (especially non-veg) and Booze are both Gujaratis..... Did I hear someone say Indians are dogmatic?