Indian Food on the Up

One of the great success of the Indian community is because of its cuisine. Britain has become a big fan of Indian food. Whilst the chicken tikka masala has overtaken fish and chips in the most popular dish, Hinduism per se had helped in the popularity of ‘vegetarianism’.

At the National Restaurants Awards of 2014 in association with Estrella Damm, Gymkhana, a contemporary Indian restaurant that opened in central London last year, won the top prize. It’s the first time an Indian restaurant has topped the list, which is normally dominated by British and European fine dining. “It’s a truly national picture of the restaurant industry,” Stefan Chomka, editor of Restaurant, the magazine behind the awards.

Gymkhana's blend of authentic Indian food and modern British styling helped it become an immediate hit when it opened in September 2013 in London's Mayfair. Chef restaurateur Karam Sethi's commitment to Indian culinary tradition and a refusal to tone down his kitchen's cooking for the European palate has created one of the most striking and well-received restaurants in recent years, with a menu of powerful yet precise Indian dishes matched by a creative drinks offer.

The restaurant beat London’s best known restaurants to win the first place on the National Restaurant Awards Top 100 list, based on the votes of 150 chefs, restaurateurs, and critics from across the country.

Gymkhana, located in Mayfair and themed around the old Raj-era clubs, was set up by Karam Sethi, a restaurateur behind Trishna, a popular Michelin starred seafood restaurant also in central London.

Check out: National Restaurants Awards at  http://www.nationalrestaurantawards.co.uk/

Vegetarianism

According to the 2009 Food Standards Public Attitudes to Food Survey, 3% of respondents were completely vegetarian with an additional 5% partly vegetarian (do not eat some kinds of fish, eggs). Other studies also suggest that vegetarians account for around 74 to 11% of the UK population (4 million people). Recent research suggest that 12% of the UK is either vegetarian or vegan.

The UN FAO statistics (2007) indicate that India has the lowest rate of meat consumption in the world. A Hindu-CNN-IBM State of the Nation Survey in 2006 also found that 31% of Indians (over 350 million) are vegetarians while another 9% consumes eggs. Vegetarianism was most common among the Jain community and then Brahmins at 55%. These surveys indicate that even Indians who do eat meat, do so infrequently, with less than 30% consuming it regularly, although the reasons are mainly cultural and partially economic. (Some data through secondary sources on Wikipedia).