The city connoisseur has moved beyond ‘biryani', ‘naan', ‘tarbuza' and ‘mirchi ka salan'. So it is muesli for breakfast, tofu for lunch, a ripe avocado for the in-between meal and Mexican rice for dinner. For dessert there are premium ice-creams such as Haagen Dazs, rambutan, mangosteen, kiwi and rest of exotic fruits to go with it.
The lexicon of a foodie now has Danish blue and cheese varieties, and olives-flavoured, pitted and stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes.
B.V.K.Raju, director of Q-Mart, Road No. 2 Banjara Hills, has been retailing imported cheese, tofu, flavoured yoghurts, broccoli and cold cuts ever since he started his world food store in 1996. Adding to the list of regular customers in the expats are IT professionals and businessmen who travel abroad often and have taken to acquired tastes of Shiitake mushroom and lemon grass.
Exotic food
“Italian food has caught on, as also Japanese and Korean food. People are familiar with what they see on the shelves and the ambience at the stores is similar to what they experience abroad,” he says.
While the neighbourhood supermarket is preferred for the regular grocery and greens, for those occasions when one needs to go for exotic ingredients combined with a bit of retail therapy, the gourmet shopping store, equipped with a live counter and deli, is just the place to go.
“I like Thai and Italian food which I make at home often. I visit these gourmet stores for zucchini, galangal and broccoli as you don't get these in regular store,” says Lata Kopalle, a software professional.
A visit to swanky superstores with their wide collection of vegetables, barbeque sauces, herbs and salad dressings does help the uninitiated learn a thing or two about these ‘vilayati' stuff.
Swing by at the Godrej Nature's Basket where the day's catch - Indian salmon, pearl spot, murrel and more - sourced from Kakinada, Nellore and Osmansagar, prawns, chicken breast and mutton chops, are sold across chic counters.
Ready-to-eat food
The recent Sushi promotion had shoppers get familiar with the horseradish paste- ‘wasabi' as well as the ‘soba' noodles. Ready-to-eat food comes in a new avatar here with do-it-yourself ‘falafel kits'.
With music in the air as you stroll leisurely to pick pecans, decaffeinated coffee and gluten free products, the experience is sure calming, at a premium though.
