Spice of Life: Food on mind than on plate is more inviting

The urgency with which the tastebuds spring into action over these videos sharing virtual nourishment is unmatchable. Those who have fallen for the sensual world can’t wait to experience the magic of translation

I’ve recently come to terms with an idiosyncrasy that I’ve discovered is quite in vogue. I seem to share the boat with countless others who have caught this habit, one way or the other. However, the intimacy of shared experiences has reduced the guilt to some extent.

Trends like What I eat in a day or What I prepare for my husband’s tiffin box are all over. (HT File)

I plead guilty to mindlessly scrolling through Instagram reels, featuring tempting food. Now what is this bizarre connection with looking at the videos and getting satiated by the end of it! This process usually concludes with the person ordering the food item, courtesy the on-the-go food-ordering platforms. One rushes through the menu, checks the ratings and the deal is done.

The urgency with which the tastebuds spring into action over these videos sharing virtual nourishment is unmatchable. Those who have fallen for the sensual world can’t wait to experience the magic of translation. There is no scope for semantic translation here; one needs everything to be translated quite literally, accurately and perfectly. The same fancy setting: The greens, pinks and purple; the easy dollop of cream on the pancakes; the stubborn-ness of cheese when one parts the triangles of a straight-out-of-the-oven pizza, the flair of the chhole-bhaturewala speedily promoting round maida balls to blistering, oil-dripping bhature; so golden and crisp you could almost confuse it with Aurora’s halo.

What usually ends up happening is that the real fails to align with the ideal and instead, we find ourselves hopping from one food reel to another and then another; virtually relishing the delicacies. Food on the screen seems more inviting than food on the plate, courtesy all the dicing and chopping sounds; the splutter and the crackle and colours on the platter. The heightened sensory invocation pulls the strings of the palate and the aroma and the taste is left to the imagination. The quick texture of the process is an icing on the cake, keeping us hooked and mesmerised.

For those of us who were born in the ’90s; Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khana Khazana was the ultimate deal. His meticulous body language and the signature 200-watt smile while preparing a dish was mimicked in several households. Then came the era of MasterChef; making it more diverse and cosmopolitan. The era of instant gratification has made us all puppets in this ready-to-serve world. There’s been a plethora of food-related trends on Instagram that have been consumed with a fervour. Be it the Covid-19 Dalgona coffee or the troupe of healthy snacking, a lot of exotic servings have reached our households thanks to the omnipresent Gram.

Trends like What I eat in a day or What I prepare for my husband’s tiffin box are all over the place. My major takeaway in this process is that croissant and pain au chocolate are not the same and that these gastronomical pleasures would first require some laborious tongue-twisting in the act of enunciation.While we keep page-hopping from one food influencer to another, there is one thing to be grateful for. Food on my mind rather than food on my plate has at least saved us half of our savings and some extra inches on the waist.

(The writer teaches at Motilal Nehru College (evening), New Delhi.)

panwar.priyanka92@gmail.com