A Matter of Taste: The Penguin Book of Indian Writing on Food

A delectable collection of writing on food and its place in our lives that brings together some of the most significant Indian voices over the last century.

From lavish meals, modern diets and cooking lessons that serve as a rite of passage to fake fasts and real ones, fish and fiery meals that smack of revenge, this book has something to satisfy every palace.

Gandhi's gift-ridden account of his failed flirtation with eating meat starkly complements Ruchir Joshi's toast to the senses as he describes his characters discovering a truly alternative use for some perfectly innocent shrikhant. In unique gastronomic takes on history, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Saadat Hasan Manto ensure that we will never look at chutney, a Tibetan momo or jelly in quite the same way again. Food becomes the les appetizing religious 'line of control' for Abdul Bismillah's 'guest' when a simple meal illustrates the rather thin divide between guest and host, while subtler shades of deprivation mark Anjana Appachana's Anu as she keeps a fast that reeks of prejudice. And in faraway lands, 'across the seven seas', the search for fresh fish accentuates the loneliness of a life without familiar moorings for Jhumpa Lahiri's Mrs Sen even as Anita Desai's Arun learns from his American hosts the importance of 'keeping the freezer full'.

As much about food as it is about good writing. A Matter of Taste serves up a veritable feast for the senses and food for thought to sample or devour, as one pleases.

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction: Setting the Table	xi
INDIVIDUAL PORTIONS
Salman Rushdie     On Leavened Bread	3
Busybee     My First Buffet Lunch	6
Vir Sanghvi     Past Times: First Tastes That Lasted Forever	8
Rohinton Mistry     Gustad's Chicken	14
M. K. Gandhi     Eating Meat	28
Frank Simoes     Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Feni but Were Too Drunk to Ask	34
Sudha Koul     Flesh in the Valley	41
Githa Hariharan     The Remains of the Feast	54
HISTORY ON A PLATTER
Mukul Kesavan     Banquet Nationalism	65
E.M. Forster     The Outsider's Thali	67
I. Allan Sealy     Trotter Laws	69
Geoffrey C. Ward and Diane R. Ward     English Soup	71
Saadat Hasan Manto     Jelly	75
Salman Rushdie     Chutnification	76
Amitav Ghosh     Tibetan Dinner	79
FOOD AND THE SENSES
Raj Kamal Jha     Baby Food	87
Anuradha Roy     Cooking Women	89
Busybee     Charms of Life	98
Radhika Jha     Initiation	100
Ruchir Joshi     Shrikhand	107
LINE OF CONTROL
Mulk Raj Anand     Bread for the Sweeper	127
Suketu Mehta     Black-Collar Workers	134
Sarat Chandra Chatterjee     Majesh	142
Purabi Basu     French Leave	154
Abdul Bismillah     Guest is God	160
P. Sainath     Everybody Loves a Good Drought	168
MASALA MIX
Vir Sanghvi     Bhelpuri: It's All about Texture	183
Bulbul Sharma     The Anger of Aubergines	187
David Davidar     The Great Mango Yatra	193
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni     The Secrets of Spices	199
I. Allan Sealy     Just Desserts	213
DEPRIVATION
Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyaya     Apu's Trials	219
R.K. Narayan     Fasting	227
Manjula Padmanabhan     The Diet	236
Anjana Appachana     Leftovers	246
Mahasweta Devi     Salt	259
ACROSS THE SEVEN SEAS
Jhumpa Lahiri     Mrs Sen's	279
V.S. Naipaul     Mr. Biswas Rebels	302
Anita Desai     Shopping for More	313
Chitrita Banerji     A Barisal Winter	320
Atul Gawande     The Man Who Couldn't Stop Eating	326
Notes on Contributors	349
Copyright Acknowledgements	360

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