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Delicacies of India: One state at a time
Zac O’Yeah is a Swedish novelist, rock musician, and author of the Majestic Trilogy — a trio of detective stories set in his adopted home of Bengaluru
Zac O’Yeah is a Swedish novelist, rock musician, and author of the Majestic Trilogy — a trio of detective stories set in his adopted home of Bengaluru. And if that were not enough, he’s also the author of the brand-new book, The Great Indian Food Trip: Around a Subcontinent à la Carte.
O’Yeah was the featured guest on last week’s episode of Grand Tamasha, a weekly podcast co-produced by HT and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In the book, O’Yeah catalogues his travels crisscrossing India on a gluttonous search for the best food and drink — from the goat’s brain of Mumbai’s Irani cafes to the signature masala dosas of Mysore. The book offers readers a mouth-watering, whirlwind tour of Indian cuisine.
One unusual delicacy O’Yeah dwells on in the book is pickled mussels from coastal Kerala. “I managed to somehow find them in the palm jungle just outside of Thalassery in a factory where they were pickling mussels,” he recounted.
“They sell them in these nice jars that say something like ‘super-hot’, as a warning to customers. Understandably, you don’t get them in many shops. If you try it, it is super-hot — and basically your hair flies off.”
O’Yeah also spoke about the simple pleasure of dining at Koshy’s, the beloved Bengaluru café, and the surprising ‘pizza-lovers’ paradise” that is Puducherry.
He also recounted his boozy night drinking caju, a spirit distilled from cashew fruit, in Goa with celebrated writers Orhan Pamuk and Amitav Ghosh.
Grand Tamasha host Milan Vaishnav ended the episode by asking O’Yeah to name five Indian dishes he would need to survive if he were ever stranded on a desert island. “If there is one dish one can never get tired of, that is dal-roti. When you walk in the Himalayas and you get hungry and tired at the end of the day, there’s nothing like dal-roti. It’s fabulous comfort food and it’s also rich in protein,” he explained.
Next on the list are vada sambar and curd rice, which the author calls soothing and comforting.
“I always think of what RK Narayan, the Indian novelist, used to say: ‘the most beautiful sound in the world is when the curd drips on the rice,’” remarked O’Yeah.
Rounding out the list are thick, Punjabi-style lassi and kebabs. When pressed to name his favourite kebabs, O’Yeah referenced his adopted hometown of Bengaluru, “There’s a fellow who stands in the slaughterhouse area…on a corner and cooks these amazing kalmi kebabs. They’re the best kebabs east of Istanbul, and he sells them for ₹80” for two skewers.
