Highway Food
Highway food is a 21st century term coined to represent resting and eating places situated near highways, where travellers can pause to satisfy thirst and hunger pangs before continuing on their journeys. With greater connectivity between cities established through highways, faster travel, modernisation of the original tea and food shacks offering tea and seasonal local foods, have witnessed a sea change. This is visible through permanent structures offering service of menus listing fresh beverages, snacks and full meals to travellers on demand.
Gradually, food kiosks have been restructured for automation, self help, and so on with modern sanitation and hygiene facilities replacing the simple charpoy and table, a boy with a duster on his shoulder, serving tea or food. He then also cleared the used dishes and washed them at a tap provided, inverting them for air drying in a basket.
Highway food offerings change as one travels through the various regions of the country from north to south and east to west, as it does in all countries. Being region-specific, the type and level of spicing varies in response to the environment, climate and weather conditions.
India
In India, it is common to find hot spicy food in the northern and southern regions as required. Delhi the capital of the country, showcases the contrasts and diversity in its food flavours, histories and cultures, with its sizzling street food stalls to opulent dining places offering a journey through time and taste. This is encountered by travellers through the country when they stop for refreshments enroute to various destinations.
Delhi also connects us with the world as it forms the hub of international cuisine presented through its food courts and country specific food festivals. Today one finds Italian, Japanese, Mideastern, Chinese, American, Continental, Thai, Vietnamese cuisines and more. Our culinary innovators have also crafted fusion masterpieces, blending international flavours in exciting unexpected ways, reminding us that the world is really on our plates. We can find on streets, food trucks and pop-up markets sushi burritos to loaded fries, Chinese samosas, tacos and chaats that are increasingly getting popular.
North - The food expectations and offerings are associated with dhaba food mostly set up by enterprising Punjabis or those from northern states. Menus offer favourites like butter tandoori chicken, paneer labadar, kadhi, dal, roti and saag paneer or seasonal greens and vegetables locally grown or available. Snacks in the form of mathris, pakoras, rolls, kababs and so on with beverages hot and cold according to seasonal and weather, served on demand.
The favourite desserts of the North, gulabjamun and Jalebi made from fermented batter are a delight offered at every sweetmeat or mithai shop and eatery. The gulabjamun that actually originated in Persia, halwais (sweet makers) in India substituted some original ingredients with khoa (thickened milk) to claim its own version. The jalebi however, is today declared the national sweet of India and served at every celebration.
In fact, we now have gulabjamuns packaged in hermetically sealed containers for export, ready-to-consume. Several brands are now available on supermarket shelves globally some being Haldirams, Amul, Nestle and more.
Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway – A typical menu is overly powered with aloo or potato. The offerings being aloo parwal, alu bhindi, bhujia, fresh potato fingers mostly stir fried with or without other vegetables. These are usually stir-fried in mustard oil served with green chillies and sliced onions along with dal, roti and or steamed rice cooked on a coal fire.
Assam and North East –Travellers will find tekeli pitha (rice cakes) or khulasa porir pitha (rice pancake) and laal chaah (red tea) for breakfast. Meals offer duck cooked in ash gourd or kumara di hanhor, sticky rice steamed in banana or taro leaves called teipola bhaat, served with boiled chicken, pork or fish. These are usually stir fried, served as curries soured with apple, tomatoes and so on.
Bihar – Through Bihar one comes across foods like litti chokha, kheer, chana churra a spicy black gram curry topped with chopped onions and chillies, served with crispy chura, poha or chidwa different types of rice in broken, puffed, flattened or other forms. Top ten dishes of Assam are listed on google for reference.
Orissa (Odisha) – This is predominantly a rice eating state. Through the state one finds the mati handi mutton slow cooked in earthen pots and served with thick rice. Of course I presume there would also be available the usual pulse preparations or dal with rice and vegetables for the vegetarian traveller.
Maharashtra – Here eateries are called khanaval and not dhabas known for serving zunka, pitla and bhaakhri (millet rotis with onion and gram flour) with onion and garlic based dry and moist side dishes along with thecha or chilli based chutneys. Popular are the spicy saoji mutton or chicken of Nagpur, misal with varying degrees of hot chilli, chulivarch misal of Igatpur and Nashik, slow cooked on cow dung and coal fire ovens and smoked with coal. The gavran, coconut and garlic based chicken, slow cooked on coal fire in the Konkan region, with kaala masala in Aurangabad, Beed and Khandesh. There is also the batata vada-sambar that tastes different from the south Indian version, based on a white pea and sprouts ussal of the state.
Gujarat – Offers khichdi, kadhi, kebabs and mutton curry at Chikhli and ulta matka undhiyu in winter around Navsari.
Goa – Here one finds omelettes added to the previous day’s chicken cafreal (curry), cutlet pav, and patal bhaji.
Karnataka – In this state one finds the akkiroti and gassi (coconut based Mangalorean curry), chicken bhaakri as popular dishes served with rice or other cereal combinations of which millets form an important part.
Kerala – Travellers can find parotta and beef, kozhi varuthatu (chicken fry), appam, idiapam and chicken curry at small eateries.
Tamilnadu – This state commonly offers ragi kanji, paniryarum, dosa, idli. Rice is the staple but other cereals too are used, poori being adopted for celebrations or festivals.
Rajasthan – Here one finds ker sangria, malai pyaz sabzi, laal maas, Marwari vegetarian thalis with mangodi, green vegetables, rice and phulkas at vasas near temple towns and sweet shops that also offer kachoris, bhujias, namkeens and more. (www.times kitchen tales.com and Times Life. Feb. 02, 2020).
The most popular of all foods is the chaat, aloo tikkis and golgappas or paani puris that one definitely finds everywhere, although they may vary in their ingredients, texture, flavour and taste, from state to state. The handi biryanis of the nawabs have always been popular and still are famous, though they differ from Hyderabad, Lucknow or Calcutta now Kolkata. Not to forget the regional delicacies from Bengal the mangsher jhol and ksher with bhaat (fish curry rice), with kancha aam sweet and sour mango preparation, rasogola, sandesh and mishit doi all sweet preparations.
Clearly highways across India highlight its food in all its fascinating regional variety and local languages to travellers, not only within the country but also from around the globe. In fact, an international cultural, craft and food festival is organised for two weeks in February each year at Surajkund in Faridabad, called the Surajkund International Crafts Mela. This exhibits carnival-like festive vibrations that celebrate cultural and folk traditions from across the country and the globe.
In every country one finds areas where Indians have settled to create a mini India or a China town and so on. So food cultures have engulfed the globe today. The highways in India are a western concept and with them has come the idea of caravan tourism. Road transport being cheaper than air and rail travel that takes one inroads to small towns and places of interest, while moving in comfort and parking for short stops without packing and unpacking. Travellers can thus get a taste of local foods and learn about the different cultures of the regions through local living styles.
The concept of highway retailing is also catching up with the development of infra- structure and in-roads. Even gas and charging stations for vehicles taking on the look of a supermarket, not only retailing products for vehicular needs but all kinds of packaged foods for a quick pick up by travellers.
Highway retailing in India is today, is not only seen as the modernising of dhabas and vending into food and beverage establishments, but offering diverse shopping and interactive experiences to attract travellers through the fields of recreation, reading, games and more. It is projected that passenger traffic on roads and highways would be 394 million by 2030, the NH48 alone witnessing the passage of approximately 80,000 cars daily. In addition, the opportunity of purchasing shops and spaces on lease or rent, while providing retail opportunity for businesses.
Sadly, these developments are geared to the younger generations and the empowerment push for rural youth, who are now tech-crazy, restless for speed, material comforts and change from rural vocations or family trades. Compare this with the needs of the middle and older generations who enjoyed simplicity of dhabas or road side vending dealing with freshly ordered and prepared food according to taste, and personal contact is becoming a thing of the past.
Well! Can we go back and sit on a jute charpoy (bed) along the roadside and enjoy freshly made parathas with dahi, raitas and pickles or hot pakodas and tea today, even in remote areas overtaken by Wimpy’s, McDonalds, coffee shops and so on.
Its all a matter of being pushed out or coming in line with little or no choice. We cannot reverse the trends completely but can chose to live simple, contented, frugal lives sharing our excesses with those who need them.