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Food Path: Cuisine Along the Grand Trunk Road from Kabul to Kolkata
Geïllustreerd / Illustrated / Illustré / Illustriert / 9788174363626 / Cookery books / Engels / English / Anglais / Englisch / hard cover / dust jacket / 31 x 21 cm / 143 .pp /
144 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2005
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About the author
Pushpesh Pant
36 books32 followersPushpesh Pant is a noted Indian academic, food critic and historian. He retired as a Professor of International relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 3, 2012
This is a would-be fascinating book. It takes you from Kabul in Afghanistan to Kolkata in India via the Grand Trunk Road. Unfortunately it was published in India and while it is in English, there's a lot that I as an American am missing. An extensive glossary would be a big help, also some re-written text to explain historical items or specific foods that are taken for granted by the authors. The illustrations are interesting but I'm not always sure what is being depicted, especially in the foods. There may be one picture but 2 recipes on the page.
I'm pretty sure that some items that sound familiar are not the same as what I know by that name: whole-milk fudge, 2 kinds of cottage cheese. And there are lots of unfamiliar ones. What is a bottle gourd, and a ridge gourd? Bitter gourdes? What is parmar (an ingredient that ends up stuffed). What is arum that you would want to make a mish-mash of it? Can we get all the ingredients or can something be substituted, or simply left out? What is screw-pine essence? I know about garam masala but what is chaat masala (not explained, just an ingredient). What is mattar dal bori? Drumsticks (in a list of various vegetables)?
One fascinating running collection of illustrations across the bottoms of the pages is a line of trucks, many of them very fancifully painted.
The presentation of the book is rather awkward, being much wider than it is tall, being 12 inches wide by 8 1/4 inches tall. This means that when the book is open it's two feet wide.
Many of the recipes sound like they could be interesting, but I'd have to have them translated into ingredients & instructions that I can follow.
I'm pretty sure that some items that sound familiar are not the same as what I know by that name: whole-milk fudge, 2 kinds of cottage cheese. And there are lots of unfamiliar ones. What is a bottle gourd, and a ridge gourd? Bitter gourdes? What is parmar (an ingredient that ends up stuffed). What is arum that you would want to make a mish-mash of it? Can we get all the ingredients or can something be substituted, or simply left out? What is screw-pine essence? I know about garam masala but what is chaat masala (not explained, just an ingredient). What is mattar dal bori? Drumsticks (in a list of various vegetables)?
One fascinating running collection of illustrations across the bottoms of the pages is a line of trucks, many of them very fancifully painted.
The presentation of the book is rather awkward, being much wider than it is tall, being 12 inches wide by 8 1/4 inches tall. This means that when the book is open it's two feet wide.
Many of the recipes sound like they could be interesting, but I'd have to have them translated into ingredients & instructions that I can follow.
August 24, 2019
I have a fondness for anything "GT Road" and I am an excellent Indian-food home-chef. I traveled this road from Kabul to Calcutta in 1964. At that time the population of Indian was 400 million, about two BILLION less than now. I hitch-hiked all the way, riding in the seat of a Lorry but mostly in the compartment above the cab where the bedding and equipment was stored. The dhabas at that time were mud huts with either thatch or tin roofs with half a dozen charpois (string beds) in the dirt between the dhaba and the GT Road. To eat here was a dusty affair.
The little stories and history of the Road in this book are very entertaining, educational and accurate. The recipes are not from the road and the authors do not claim that they are. They are recipes from the places that the road passes through. The prices on the GT Road were unbelievable. Dal and roti for one rupee, a cup of chai for charanna (NP 25). The recipes of the dhabas were very simple, spiced usually with only a few spices; salt, cumin, coriander and red chili powder. Usually dal fry and maybe a vegetable or meat stew, for the most part Punjabi food. Most of the drivers, but not all, were Punjabi Sikhs.
I have at least 30 other Indian cookbooks. For entertainment, and beauty, this ranks high. For its recipes and layout not so high. The food pictures are not adequately linked to the recipes or described. There is no glossary of terms. I have never seen so many recipes calling for screwpine. The authors seem obsessed with it. In all of Julie Sahni's or Madhur Jaffrey's books, there is not a single recipe that calls for screwpine. If I ever had asked a dhabawalla if he had any screwpine, I would have gotten a blank stare in return. There are also many other ingredients that will not be recognized or available to the Western reader and they are not explained in the least. It's really more of a coffee table book that a cookbook, especially because of it's coffee table format. It won't fit on a bookshelf with your other cookbooks because it is too wide. I gave it four stars because it's a fun read if you have an interest in the GT Road, as I do.
The little stories and history of the Road in this book are very entertaining, educational and accurate. The recipes are not from the road and the authors do not claim that they are. They are recipes from the places that the road passes through. The prices on the GT Road were unbelievable. Dal and roti for one rupee, a cup of chai for charanna (NP 25). The recipes of the dhabas were very simple, spiced usually with only a few spices; salt, cumin, coriander and red chili powder. Usually dal fry and maybe a vegetable or meat stew, for the most part Punjabi food. Most of the drivers, but not all, were Punjabi Sikhs.
I have at least 30 other Indian cookbooks. For entertainment, and beauty, this ranks high. For its recipes and layout not so high. The food pictures are not adequately linked to the recipes or described. There is no glossary of terms. I have never seen so many recipes calling for screwpine. The authors seem obsessed with it. In all of Julie Sahni's or Madhur Jaffrey's books, there is not a single recipe that calls for screwpine. If I ever had asked a dhabawalla if he had any screwpine, I would have gotten a blank stare in return. There are also many other ingredients that will not be recognized or available to the Western reader and they are not explained in the least. It's really more of a coffee table book that a cookbook, especially because of it's coffee table format. It won't fit on a bookshelf with your other cookbooks because it is too wide. I gave it four stars because it's a fun read if you have an interest in the GT Road, as I do.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews