Adda With Kalyan: How Regional Food Blogs Are Preserving Recipes #Hangout

(left to right) Anjali Koli, Ishita Saha and Rhea Mitra-Dalal

There was a time when food blogs were usually about restaurant launches. But taking the path less travelled were some who were doing their bit of preserving the regional food culture of their state. From Parsi and Koli to Bengali and Assamese, these food bloggers are today known for digging heirloom recipes and sharing them with the world.

This week, we got food bloggers Rhea Mitra-Dalal, Anjali Koli and Ishita Saha to share their experiences of chronicling regional food stories and recipes through their blogs on Adda With Kalyan.

As a knowledge manager in her previous job and based in Bengaluru, Anjali Koli would often miss her home food. It was around this time she took to blogging to document her food heritage as a Koli. "That's how I started making phone calls to my aunts and grandma requesting them to share old recipes of the family," says Anjali who blogs at AnnaParabramha.

Rhea Mitra-Dalal, who started blogging eight years ago at euphoRHEA, feels that Internet and social media have changed the world of blogging. "It's the ease that people enjoy. All you have to do is just click, and what follows are 500 options for a single recipe!" she points out. Her endeavour is to preserve Parsi recipes from her late mother-in-law, Katy Dalal's kitchen with the help of her blog.

But have regional food blogs been successful in popularising a particular type of cuisine? Dubai-based Ishita Saha, who blogs at IshitaUnblogged, says, "The most common Bengali dishes prepared by my non-Indian friends are mustard fish and mishti doi. So when such regional recipes are translated visually and spread through a blog or social media, it is of great help."

Blogging along with social media has undoubtedly made Indian regional food a hit across the globe. Documenting rare and lost recipes for the future generation is what these food bloggers are trying to accomplish.