Prolog

I started my career in Mumbai in what seems like eons back. The city will always be seared in my memory for teaching the basic tenet of being a professional – being dependable. Mumbaikars will go to office in such pouring rain, that in any other city would be considered an emergency flood situation. But that is not why I remember Mumbai fondly.

Signature Foods

During one particularly lazy weekend, one of my friends told me that i have to go eat Bhel Puri at Vithal’s Bhel Puri shop near VT  - considered to be foundational to the chat phenomenon that has taken over the country. Then the list extended slowly over time to  Sardar Pav Bhaji, Haji Ali Juice Center, Karjat Vada Pav, Parsi Dairy Kulfi and so on..

Ever since, i have been on a quest to discover the “Signature Food” of every city of the world i visit. Once i went to Madurai (in Tamilnadu) and discovered Raja Barley’s Macroons – they have been making that stuff for 100 years now per the shop keeper. I was surprised to later find that many of my relatives who hail from Madurai had never heard of Raja Barley!

When we were in New Jersey, myself and my wife Priya Raju used to hunt down the signature foods whenever we could – H&R Bagels’ signature bagels, Lombardi’s Pizza…

What started this particular Signature Food trip down memory lane, was my recent visit to Pune where i made sure i brought a huge package of Chitale’s Bakarwadi. I also had a chance recently to visit Hyderabad and got the famous Karachi Biscuits for my family. Yummy stuff.

Googling

As is customary, i did some research to see if someone has talked about Signature Foods in detail. I found this excellent quiz on Signature Foods of various American Cities. I also chanced upon this nice article on the qualities of a Signature Food. On the whole, it appears, from the somewhat sparse Google results compared to other popular topics, Signature Foods aren’t top of the mind for people.

“Social” Signature Foods

As a passionate Social media advocate, i was thinking about how Social Media could make the quest for Signature Foods easier. Maybe one of the hot location startups like Foursquare, could introduce a new “Signature Food” feature, which will notify  you of the city’s signature food(s) as soon as you check-in to any location in that city. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Epilog

What are your thoughts? What are your favorite signature foods? Which cities are those from? Please chime in.

Of course, all of them are common vegetables that are a part of our diet the world over. What else is common? Would you believe if i told you that all of them are the same species! Priya Raju told me this bit of amazing information. Wikipedia’s page on Cabbage confirms this. All of them are different cultivars of the same species. But then why do they all taste so different from each other? I am currently reading Jared Diamond’s brilliant book Guns, Germs and Steel and came across the answer on page 122:

Ancestral cabbage plants, possibly grown originally for their oil seeds, underwent even greater diversification as they became variously selected for leaves (modern cabbage and kale), stems (kohlrabi), buds (brussel sprouts), or flower shoots (cauliflower and broccoli) .

In other words, all of these are different parts of the same plant known to us as different vegetables through millenia of cultivation and artificial selection.

Have you ever wondered how a dosa become crisp or how a bread toast is made brown and crisp? Of course, to do any of the above no knowledge of chemistry is required. But a man named Louis-Camille Maillard in the early 20th century decided to investigate. What he discovered is so fascinating that the complex chemical reaction is now called the Maillard Reaction. In normal english, it is called browning. Heat is the key to producing the Maillard Reaction and the resultant torrent of appetizing flavors and aromas. Through this reaction hundreds of new flovor compounds are produced which give the distinctive brown color and taste of the toasts, dosas, roasted meat etc. You can read the Wikipedia page on Maillard Reaction to see how complex it is. The reason I got interested is because I read somewhere that Microwave ovens can’t produce the Maillard Reaction. These days Corning does sell a browner/crisper aid for the microwave. I have tried using this aid and it does do a reasonably good job but not as good as a gas stove. But why is it that something as modern as the microwave oven can’t produce something a common fire or a gas stove or a electric stove can produce? If someone knows the answer please comment.

1. One of the greatest insights i have gained recently from the application of the ABC theory and others is the aspect of feedback loops, measurement etc. Came across this  post on O’reilly titled “If Google were a restaurant” that captures this idea of feedback beautifully. 2. Programming is a key skill that everyone must possess. So it may be better to start kids off with this. Came across this excellent post on O’reilly. But it seemed like one needed to buy expensive stuff. In the comments on this post, i came across the free MIT Scratch which seems to have some great possibilities. [Caution: i don't have kids and haven't tested these ideas on one] 3. You may have seen my post on coffee’s effect on sleep patterns. Here is some tips for a good night’s sleep – from this list, warm milk with honey works well for me. 4. A printer that uses no ink is now in the market. At last, freedom from the ravenous inkjet is just around the corner. can’t wait. 5. Priya Raju picked out the movie “The day the earth stood still” directed by Robert Wise. It is a b/w sci-fi classic from 1951 (a full 8 years before the other Scifi genius Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone hit the idiot box).  This movie is f***ing brilliant. In 1951 to conceptualize something like this and make it is fantastic. Don’t miss this one. Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto – wonder what that means? see the movie. BTW, Robert Wise is also well-known for his other classic movie -  West Side Story.

1. Did you know? Saffron was first documented in Ashurbanipal’s 7th Century BC Assyria. Now Saffron is a key spice across the world’s major cuisines including Indian. 2. BBC’s 15 web principles – captures the essential insights of the modern web. In the neuroscience department –
4. the neurology of phobias – brilliant article <Via Archana Raghuram> 5. How easily our brain can be fooled – an insightful post on how we end up eating a lot
more than we should. <Via Businesspundit> 6. We watched Eddie Murphy’s Dr. Dolittle – as always Eddie Murphy does a great job. In my view,
the director could not leverage the key idea properly – Dr. Dolittle’s ability to speak to animals. The storyline could have been much better. Priya Raju liked it though.