The 2 inches of business

I had a spicy food last night made by mom. That included awesome chicken curry and taste is still roaming on my tongue. But mom shocked me by preparing a spinach dish for lunch box today though she knows I hate spinach but she always keeps on saying the importance of spinach for health being a green vegetable.

Sometime I feel to have my lunch in my office canteen just to have something different and because, “Being irritated with homemade food?” Don’t say this to my mom or else you have managed to have a heavy anger stones falling on me when I go back to home. Still I frequently gulp outside food as others do.

I stay in Mumbai, a metropolitan city, which has variety of food and foodies. All types of restaurants and cuisines are widely spread over all directions in Mumbai. Since childhood I have been fascinated with “Masala Dosa”. Though I visit a pretty good five star hotel, I still order Masala Dosa which costs much less than what my friends order. This particular dish has made a sweet home in my heart and for me it stays at high among all cuisines I tried and will try in future. Mumbai has got around 15,000 odd restaurants for middle class man as per online sources. Most incredible thing is my dosa is still most common everywhere and I get it wherever I go. Mumbaikars are very less food conscious. A common man in Mumbai prefers Vada Pav – The Indian Burger, in his breakout timings. And the list goes on with Bhelpuri, Panipuri, Shevpuri, Pav Bhaji etc. All these are spicy items sold in each corner of the city. On an average Mumbai has got huge turnover of Rs.2.5 Cr including all Vada Pav stalls every day. At the other side all restaurants sum up to Rs. 20 Cr at the end of business every day.

Now all this for my lone Mumbai city, what about universe? Alone US has 5,00,000 full and part service restaurants and they accounting $600 Billion annually. So what if you consolidate all restaurants all over the world. Now don’t imagine, it is out of imagination..! Now if you talk about which is the best cuisine in the world then it counts on the popularity how much population prefers it. So it starts with French then Italian, then Chinese and then Indian and so on.

Spices which are heart of cuisines have their own importance. Saffron – a famous spice costs around $1500 per kilogram. What makes Saffron so popular in taste? Why cuisines made with saffron added are expensive? The most expensive Potato is cultivated in France and that costs around $500 per Kg why because it is only cropped in seaweed fertilized land. Most expensive beef comes from Wagyu Cows in Japan; these cows are grown up in best treatment and are feed best grass that makes the beef tender and expensive. Take an example of liquor; Macallan Fine Rare Vintage, a whisky costs $50,000.

Don’t you feel people and their taste is getting more nutritious? Or it is stylish? Or the place where you eat the food? What makes it so expensive? Why don’t we eat at home, getting raw material and cooking it with our own ease. Why people visit restaurants when they can prepare food at home? Just imagine a common potato costing Rs. 10 per kg in our country, and why the same potato with say very little nourishing difference costs $500 in France. So much of discrimination for eatable things. What happens when the food goes down your esophagus i.e. your food canal which takes food from your mouth towards stomach? Can you taste food in your stomach? What if you eat a grass? Yes you can still remain alive and digest it..! But only thing is your mind is not prepared to eat a grass. We have made our taste such that what others eat, we eat the same food and again your mind and brain controls your interest of food. But what makes this happen, why don’t we eat the things (I can’t call it a food for now) like grass which we can easily digest, because your tongue doesn’t allow it. Again there is only a part of our tongue which has capability of taste. And that part is spread over only 2 inches of our tongue, right from the tip. This part has taste buds which react to all types of tastes you know till now and saves it in the brain and then brain decides which food you like most. So, guys that will not be an exaggeration to say, all this billion of billions of dollars of food businesses are only because of 2 inches part of our tongue. Because of this 2 inches part, I frequently have outside food, that too includes fast and junk food, I keep disputing with my mom for the food I love which she does not prepare, I spend 1000 bucks in every visit to restaurant. At the end I feel, what if I had a food at home, I would have saved lots of money and that too I can I have trust of hygienic food which is a pretty home made. But still, still I need something different, my tongue wants to have something different always. Like this my brain has always Masala Dosa on top of the list. And now after writing so much about food and taste, my 2 inches of tongue's part has again asked and tempted me to go outside now and have some chicken kebabs and chocolate desert. So guys, I am leaving off for a nice treat, and you are most welcome to join me...