cookbooks

From An Imperial To A National Cuisine

Shylashri Shankar

If India’s cuisine was influenced by colonial and princely tastes before 1947, the driving force after Independence was the palate of the urban middle-class. The task of shaping the national cuisine was taken up by the menus of restaurants, cookbooks and magazines and later by TV and films

FOOD AND THE FICTIONAL SLEUTH

Shylashri Shankar

Just as one adds a pinch of sugar or jaggery to balance the acidity of a tomato or tamarind, the sleuth’s savouring of a dish offsets and highlights the demon-like aspects of the crime