Getting rude about food

India Diary returns with a small helping of a new book which, I guarantee, will have you asking for more, writes Vijaya Sharma.

India Diary is back after a short break. Yes, I know, all of you were not exactly feeling the pangs of separation but I return with my attempt to bring you some of the new things happening out here which might just interest you.

The break was taken to trek into a different world - the world of trendy teenagers and cool kids. While Hindustan Times launched its new print offering - HT Next - aimed at the youth of today, HindustanTimes.com went online with the entire print edition and a bonus offering - two brand new sections, Juniors and Teens, each dedicated exclusively to the respective age groups.

So, as it happens when a baby is born, it takes time to stabilise the new babe - this one born online with the entire technology at its beck and call but yet, it was no less harried an experience than when a human baby is born - the same special care in nurturing it, giving it those extra vitamins so that it appears appealing to the surfers and side by side coping up with absentee colleagues who fell ill at what I can only say was "the best time"(pun intended!). No fault of theirs absolutely but illnesses do choose their time and so one felt that the best miracle which could occur then would be to turn into one of those eight-handed goddesses which adorn our divine pantheon and achieve the task of handling a new-born channel single-handedly or eight-handedly! Poor attempt at humour, that, right? But well, this is what we were feeling then - humourless, cheerless. But the hard work seems to be showing results and the site has started walking firm and sure.

But back to what is definitely the flavour of the season, literally. Celebrity journalist and well-known food critic Vir Sanghvi's book is out. Like he says, it has a big picture of him on the cover with a I-have-my-stomach-sucked-in look and is published by Penguin. The book is a thorough entertainer along with being an extremely informed view on exotic food worldwide - truffles, durians, canapes, khimchi to the Indian bhelpuris, raans, theplas and more.

It is a foodie's delight as well as for one who is not a food conoisseur as Sanghvi recollects the early days when there was hardly anything called a proper food review in India and all those who wrote only wrote good things about the place. After all they had eaten at the restaurant. Sanghvi's idea of a food review was to take the food and restaurant apart, something unheard of back in the 1970s. He tells us how he wrote under a pseudonym and when the restaurant was ripped apart it had the owners and chefs rolling in agony saying "Oh, we would have served something better had we know he was the food critic" but Sanghvi's idea was to give the exact picture of what was served to the average customer, not the specialist journo.

There are more delightful treats waiting as you discover that China has never heard of the dish called Manchurian and it was the invention of Bombay's rather street smart Nelson Wang who once upon a time worked as a Limbo dancer.

Or try tasting Durian, the fruit, Sanghvi says has the smell from hell, find out about Vajpayee's food fads and why our airlines serve the worst kind of food. And if you are interested in origins then read about the origin of Kakori Kebabs, or the tandoori chicken.

Amusing anecdotes will have you doubling up with laughter. As the book says, Vir Sanghvi has "his finger on the pulse of what we put into our stomachs and why".

You might blanch at some of the descriptions as when he calls eating bacon as eating bits of dead pig and tells you that some Thai hot and sour soups you savour actually use chicken blood but this certainly is a book to be "read, consulted and savoured".

Rude Food also reveals interesting tit bits which until now were secrets. Find out who the "Princess" he mentions in his food columns actually is.