Perennial Plate: The unique charm of India
The Perennial Plate is a two-time James Beard Award winning online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially...
Dawn.com Published
December 13, 2014
The Perennial Plate is a two-time James Beard Award winning online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating. Chef and Activist, Daniel Klein and Filmmaker Mirra Fine are traveling the world exploring the wonders, complexities and stories behind the ever more connected global food system.
The unique charm of India
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Comments (48) Closed
Naxalite
Dec 13, 2014 06:04pm
Superb.
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Saqib
Dec 13, 2014 06:40pm
I am a meat eater so this food is off the table for me.
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Fawad
Dec 13, 2014 07:03pm
So many cultures, so many kinds of food, so colorful, people are poor but happy and alive with joy. That is why everyone who visits India is mesmerized by its vast richness in terms of culture, food and what not. Salute to Indians, who make India. Those were real people, not Bollywood props. Those were coo on man, at work ann enjoying the small moments of life with food made with love. Living with harmony with animals, the Indians mostly are either vegetarian, or eat less amount of meat. Killing animal is not in their nature, and they live in harmony with animals as evident from video.
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Ganga Din
Dec 13, 2014 07:05pm
Nice plate. Little bit of everything, vegetarian and healthy provided sterility is guaranteed.
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pakka paki
Dec 13, 2014 07:16pm
can any one forward this to orya makbool jan who says all the different variety of food in india was brough by us who is us my jaan.
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Mumbaikar
Dec 13, 2014 07:19pm
@Saqib Saqib,
I don't think you would be disappointed, While parts of India are mainly vegetarian, Plenty of options are available for meat eaters as well. I sincerely doubt if the veg food would disappoint you..
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Dr Carla
Dec 13, 2014 07:23pm
As usual it was shot in India's most deprived arias.
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N. Siddiqui
Dec 13, 2014 07:41pm
@Dr Carla Can't help it, most of the areas in India are deprived, there are few islands of prosperity amidst an ocean of poverty and deprivation. The difference between the rich and poor is too stark not to be observed.
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G.A.
Dec 13, 2014 07:56pm
@Dr Carla - An American journalist once told me that they want to make places 'exotic' by filming in such areas. Otherwise American audience wouldn't take much interest if foreign cities look like American cities. Late Edward Said called it 'Orientalism'. It's all deliberate.
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Sunshine(USA)
Dec 13, 2014 08:21pm
I did not see a single sad face in the documentary. Men, women, children .... all happy and smiling , posing for photos.
Being happy with what you have on the plate is being content.
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Ali-Indian
Dec 13, 2014 08:59pm
Vegetarian is healthy!! food should always depend on weather and lifestyle i always prefer veg during work hours as it is light and keeps me fresh all day long where as dry fruits and non veg makes me slumpy and slow
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Shamsher Singh Bajwa
Dec 13, 2014 10:04pm
@Dr Carla Does it matter? They are Indians after all, rich or poor they are our people!
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balwanjee
Dec 13, 2014 10:52pm
Video is fascinating but too short. I wish I could visit India, eat these tempting foods, I love vegetarian foods. Old buildings, narrow streets and mix population with religious marks on their forehead, ladies in clads, men in religious caps. All appears to be very interesting.
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xxx
Dec 13, 2014 10:58pm
@N. Siddiqui so is the case with the entire region of south asia which includes pakistan. India at least is making all the right moves through rapid industrialisation. It today enjoys better human development standards than pakistan which is clear from the HDI indices where pak scores even lower than bangladesh as per the latest indices.
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Gnanesh
Dec 13, 2014 11:16pm
@N. Siddiqui
If that gives you a vicarious pleasure of a downtrodden view of India, then soak in it. YEs there are deprived areas; but they by NO MEANS signify India alone. There are quite a lot of developed areas too. But we are aware that still a lot needs to be done and develop, despite the problems that we have, and despite bigoted views.
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DJ
Dec 13, 2014 11:17pm
The quality of camera was good and the camera man has done a good job by picking very lively and human moments. Unfortunately i can't understand the western obsession with poverty of Indian subcontinent. ( they only show poor and dirty places of this region)
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Nadeem
Dec 13, 2014 11:18pm
Embarrassing is all I can say.
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Dr Carla
Dec 13, 2014 11:34pm
@Shamsher Singh Bajwa Yes it matters when it is deliberate, see what does to people like @Siddiqui, he has completely wrong idea about India (I'm not defending poverty in India)
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Shivaji
Dec 14, 2014 12:00am
Looks to be a great meal.
You all meat lovers ought to try it
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Sam
Dec 14, 2014 12:26am
@Nadeem Perhaps try looking in your environs as well...
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Sid
Dec 14, 2014 12:31am
@Nadeem why???
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Sunshine(USA)
Dec 14, 2014 12:47am
A happy documentary! The small traditional shops cater the best tasting food too.
India and Pakistan are blessed to have a varied cuisine.
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SBB
Dec 14, 2014 01:41am
Brilliant!! Thanks for this... and this is the real India.
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Simran Kaur
Dec 14, 2014 02:05am
I don't see any co-relation between the video & the audio of the clip. The audio is basically a third-class song from some super-flop Bollywood movie, which for unknown reason is being played through-out the clip. And the video has been shot deliberately in the carefully chosen most filthy slum areas of India. Is this all they could find in a beautiful country?
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Rashid
Dec 14, 2014 02:34am
@Nadeem I as a Pakistani will tell you to look into your culture and history......it is what the indian culture and history is...our history did not begin after 1947! Embrace it....secondly learn to appreciate things!
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Anser
Dec 14, 2014 04:01am
Only 31% Indians are lacto-ovo-vegetrians. 50% Brahmins are non vegetarians....recent data NDTV..
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N.
Dec 14, 2014 04:38am
@Dr Carla It isn't really an Opera, "arias."
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syed abbas
Dec 14, 2014 04:49am
look like regular folks ..with a lot of poverty,,,,,,i would try it as long as its not pork
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Nero
Dec 14, 2014 05:02am
@ Dr. Karla & Simran Kaur: I am not sure which country you live in. As a born Indian citizen I don't find anything wrong in this video. I have been to most areas shown in this video, and that is what they look like. The documentary is obviously about the variety of street food. Many of the streets shown don't look like Singapore because they aren't. But the colourfulness and vibrancy of these streets, especially the food, can't be matched by most cities in the world. What is all this defensiveness about? I don't care if the world thinks that many people in India are poor, because there are. There are things which can done about it, but trying to hide it based on some misplaced sense of nationalism is not the way. The also very clearly depicted a lot of happy, even if poor by western comparison, people.
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DN
Dec 14, 2014 05:55am
@N. Siddiqui Have you ever been to India? India has a huge middle class. Most people who seek education (which is available for free-inexpensive govt. sponsored) have enough to live a decent life.
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Gp65
Dec 14, 2014 09:57am
@balwanjee welcome. Indeed there is a very wide variety of food in India. The North Indian food is similar to that in Pakistan. But each part of India has its own cuisines and specialties e.g. Dal Bati Chhorma in Rajasthan; Dhokla, Khandvi, Haandvo in Gujarat, awesome street food of Mumbai like Bhel, pau wada, sev puri, pau bhaji, Akki Roti and Bisibele Bhaat from Karnataka, appam and stew in Kerala, Idli, Dosa, Vadai from Tamilnadu, the famous Bengali sweets like chamcham, ras gulla, sandesh and of course for fish lovers Maccher Jhol.
@Saqib: meat dishes in north India maybe familiar to you. But perhaps you may enjoy the fish preparations from Goa, Kerala or Bengal? You may also enjoy some of the vegetarian dishes due to the different spices and flavors compared to what you are used to.
@syed Abbas: undoubtedly poverty is widespread in India but this particular video distorts how much pverty is there. Anyway welcome and I hope you enjoy the food.
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SKChadha
Dec 14, 2014 10:00am
Excellant presentation of mainstream India. However, it should have been longer in duration, also covering Bengal, Hyderabad, foot hills of Himalaya, J&K, North East, Kerala, Sikkim etc. India is having many more diversified cultures.
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Azeez
Dec 14, 2014 10:27am
@Dr Carla: we have more middle class than the total American population
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Azeez
Dec 14, 2014 10:37am
@Nadeem we have some poor peoples, I agree that but we are not beggars.
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sby
Dec 14, 2014 02:49pm
@Nadeem.. indeed we do have poor people like any other country, however we don't beg for millions from the western countries in the name of coalition support fund. You have long history of criticizing western countries, but your politicians enjoy on the western money. don't you feel embarrassing on this point?
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Dr Carla
Dec 14, 2014 05:47pm
@Nero I don't think you are an Indian, if you are, if you rome in any Indian city for 4-5 hours, you hardly see the places like that. Google/Youtube for Hyderabad and Banglooru and check the pictures and videos. All those places are in India but you hardly see them until unless you want to go to worst possible places in India, it is usually hard to go to those places because of bad roads and bad transport. trust me this is deliberate.
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zak the supreme
Dec 14, 2014 06:00pm
@Dr Carla
you can't change hateful people and their views.
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Imtiaz Akhter
Dec 14, 2014 10:36pm
North Indian food is very similar to Pakistan. South Indian food is different and interesting and delicious.
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Ashok Gautam
Dec 14, 2014 11:31pm
reading Dawn has become a habit. Enjoyed this video very much.
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Javed
Dec 14, 2014 11:48pm
@Imtiaz Akhter
No only Indian Punjabi food is similar to Pakistan. The rest of North Indian non-Punjabi food has it's own unique taste and so does verey state in India.
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Vikram
Dec 15, 2014 02:13am
Due to hostile relations most Pakistanis are missing out on dosas, pav bhaji, bhel puri and other foods that have been introduced to their North Indian cousins in the last 60 years. These are quite literally mouth watering incentives to make peace.
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jo
Dec 15, 2014 03:36am
@Fawad well said
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anony
Dec 15, 2014 04:19am
@Dr Carla Majority of india is 'deprived areas'.
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Imran
Dec 15, 2014 08:07am
amazing with Music..beautiful
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Nero
Dec 15, 2014 12:16pm
@ Dr Carla: The best street food is usually found in the older parts of any city. Not in glitzy malls. Those streets are crowded, but fun. There are many more cities in India than just Bangalore and Hyderabad. Even within these cities there are places more interesting than MG Road. Try them. And try to stop questioning any ones nationality based on a superficial sense of patriotism. Anytime you go to Jaipur, covered in this video too, try the sweets, especially Gulab jamuns, in Suraj Pol. Damn they are good. Just a small 20 feet wide road, teaming with people, dogs and cows. But, the best sweets in the world. I won't trade it for any Singapore!
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Junaid
Dec 15, 2014 03:26pm
To all Pakistani friends Pork is eaten by a very minuscule portion of Indians, mainly Christians, not eaten by Hindus(most of them). You are all welcome here to taste the food. The cuisine in your country and here is almost same(except with South). you will love the veg food also.
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Shazzay
Dec 15, 2014 04:11pm
India is a Cool place to visit. Well May be SOMEDAY :)
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G
Dec 16, 2014 06:27am
Whoa!! This is an image right where I used to live in Mumbai. It is soooo nostalgic to see the shops as they were 15 years before I moved to the US. I can even guess the bus number (Bus no. 42 :-) ) based on the destination banner on the bus.....
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