In The Travelling Belly: Eating Through India’s By-Lanes (Hachette; Rs. 399), Kalyan Karmakar guides his readers through different metros and mini metros in India, giving an insight into culinary experiences.
His viewpoints come from an understanding that he is not and cannot be an authority on food in every city.
When he writes about Kolkata where he grew up, he discloses why Flury’s appeals to him despite many stating that it isn’t what it used to be; he analyses the famed European-style café with nostalgia and the aspirational value it held for him. He knows where to find good Kolkata biryani in small places tourists may not stumble upon. But in other cities, he effortlessly slips into the tourist mode, chats up with fellow diners at tiffin centres to discover local secrets.
Cover of the book
The book, says Kalyan, was initially intended to be a traveller’s guide to eating in Mumbai, where he now lives. “My editors at Hachette felt I should write about other cities as well,” he says. Kalyan discusses food in Kolkata, Lucknow, Delhi, Amritsar, Goa, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad. In each city, he sought food recommendations from his friends and followers on social media.
“In Hyderabad, I had inputs from Siddharth Moghe, chef Mandaar Sukhtankar and Sankalp Vishnu,” says Kalyan. Prior to his visit, he was privy to passionate food debates on his social media page, with foodies divided on the best place for biryani.
Kalyan describes his biryani experience in different landmark eateries in Hyderabad, while noticing how rice plays a starring role in all meals. He also writes about tiffin and South Indian thali experience in the city.
In each chapter, he offers city-specific tips. Some of these seem like broad guidelines for international travellers. Kalyan reasons, “When I started food walks in Mumbai in 2013, the group was a mixed one with expatriates, Mumbaikars and people from other cities who had moved to Mumbai for work. So while writing this book, I kept in mind different readers. I might sound ‘Miss World’ish when I say I tried to be a food ambassador for the country through this book. When I travelled to Singapore, I noticed how they make a big deal out of renovating a 1970s structure and talk about it as history. We have so much history and we don’t package it well for tourists. These tips or takeaways are my way of doing my bit.”
He re-visited Chennai and Bengaluru for the book. “In the initial years of my market research career I had travelled to Chennai but didn’t get a wholesome experience of the food. I wanted to go back and finish that circle,” he says.
As he sampled an assortment of dosas, chutneys, idlis and other delights in these two cities, he marvelled at the texture of dosas in different eateries, each bringing forth a unique experience.
He also considered interspersing the writing with food photographs, but later stuck to the novel format. “To include many photographs, the book would have to be in a coffee table format, which would have pushed the cost up. Also, though I take photographs for my blog (www.finelychopped.net) and instagram, I felt my photographs don’t match up to the work of professional photographers,” he concedes.
Kalyan is considering presenting chapters from this book in audio visual format on online platforms where he has a steady following. In his next book, he wants to present food experiences from cities like Vijayawada, Guwahati, Nagpur, Indore and Pune. “It’s a memorable journey of discovery when you travel to different places and talk to fellow diners at small eateries. It’s amazing how they open up and go out of their way in guiding you,” beams Kalyan.
