The Veggies Come First...

Kolkata Newsline (India)

I've previously blogged about the impact of the bird flu in India, what with the airlines going vegetarian and a renewed vigor in vegetarian activism in the country due to increased awareness of livestock mismanagement.

The restaurants are also seeing a sizable impact due to the flu:

Arup Roy, food and beverage manager of Teej, a popular vegetarian restaurant in the city, says, “the number of people in our restaurant has increased after the flu. Though a majority of our clients are Marwaris and Gujaratis, who are vegetarian anyway, there is sharp increase in the numbers of the mixed crowd, who are now opting only for vegetarian food. Our business has increased by almost 10-15 percent.”

To meet this sudden spurt in demand for green food, they have introduced new dishes like Matar Methi Malai, Paneer Zaikedar, Aaachari Paneer Tikka and Kasturi Vegetables. The crowds certainly aren’t complaining about missing their favourite chicken dish, “as people are ready to wait quarter of an hour to find a table during weekends,” says Roy.

And while the numbers may be soaring at the veg joints, the dwindling number of people ordering chicken in multi-cuisine restaurants have forced them to take a leaf out of their veggie counterparts’ menu. Sanjay Mukherjee, senior executive manager of Grain of Salt, says, “the demand for chicken is abysmally low, so we had to remove chicken dishes from the buffet menu.” But, he agrees there has been nearly a 10 percent hike in the number of people asking for vegetarian dishes.

It's hard to predict if this will have any lasting impact, but Britain has been increasingly improving its diet since the mad cow scare (and now with this one), so who knows? Maybe some of these increased veggie eaters will enjoy the food so much they'll realize that it's an attactive lifestyle. Of course, much like I hear in the U.S. all the time, some people "just like their meat," so some restaurants are stepping up their fish offerings as poultry declines dramatically in popularity. Can't win 'em all?

Categories: bird flu | avian flu | India | vegetarian