Is the Dhaba dying?

We are a family that spends a lot of time on the highway,always driving to some ridiculously distant destination. As all roadies know,long journeys mean a lot of pit stops en route,usually at a dhaba along the highway. Eulogies to the dhaba abound,and the word evokes romanticised visuals: a genial owner behind the woodstove,charpoys,hand pumps and a quick communion with nature for you-know-what. Thats all very well,but at the risk of sounding uppity lets be honest: if youre of the feminine gender,this food-cum-loo stop translates to a reeking apology for a bathroom,swatting of flies and being leered at by an assortment of truckers,their assistants and sundry other unpalatables.

The only thing that made the dhaba stop palatable was the food. In the past,if you got it right,you ended up with fresh,calendar-appropriate vegetables a smoky baingan bharta,a velvety sarson ka saag or tender cauliflower. And if you happened to be carnivorously inclined,then a simple,unpretentious yet flavourful home-style mutton or chicken curry always hit the spot.

Dhabas acted as extensions of the travellers kitchen,and so by definition served home-style food. Sadly,this is rarely the case today. What is being served,with almost unfailing regularity,is food that no self-respecting north Indian eats at home. In this new avatar,nothing escapes the cream pot. Seasonal produce has been replaced with paneer when did a dairy product become a vegetable?. And if you decide to go non-vegetarian,then you will be offered a succession of cream-based gravies. 

Much of this is due to the fact that dhabas are struggling to reinvent themselves. The erstwhile lean-to shacks,a familiar sight on many of the norths highways,have given way,in cookie-cutter fashion,to large concrete structures,especially up the Grand Trunk Road and other busy tourist routes like the Haridwar/Dehradun highway. Air-conditioning and tepid attempts at a somewhat useable loo have meant that more than a few dhabas now grandiosely style themselves as restaurants,the spelling be damned. Needless to say,there are enough blokes bemoaning the loss of atmospherics. For myself,I cant say I miss either the flies or the filth.

What I do miss and this is the very heart of the dhaba is the food. Almost like a country hick that has become a city slicker,the dhaba has adopted a city restaurant-type menu,thereby losing its soul and its very character. And we all know what a city restaurant-type menu means: Butter Chicken is king.

In just a few decades of its existence,this one dish has achieved ascendancy on Indian menus,edging out an entire range of culinary greats that have been evolving for centuries. Dhaba cuisine getting a creaming seems to be the trend through much of north India. The lasting memory of roadside meals in Punjab is of dairy excess. There are,of course,a few exceptions but these are not in dhabas along the highways but oddly in towns,and in Amritsar in particular.

Amritsars innumerable dhabas,many of which are legendary,have spawned an entire genre of Ambarsari-style dhabas. The originals themselves enjoy a following not only across Punjab,but also in the capital city packed orders constitute a huge chunk of their sales,and Amritsari friends have sent us some honest-to-goodness meat curries and Chajjus drop-dead brain masala,nothing lost in translation.

My old friend and restaurateur Marut Sikka,an Amritsar boy himself,makes the interesting point that these urban dhabas,not to be confused with the highway eatery,have become destinations in themselves,with the proprietor/cook specialising in and selling only one or two recipes. This has meant that authenticity,freshness and economy have stayed alive,qualities that the new highway wannabes have lost.

So does this mean the end of the road for the highway dhabas traditional cuisine? Well,perhaps for those situated along the norths major routes. But if you leave the dairy-fied cow belt,you will find eateries these places obviously dont use the north Indian nomenclature dhaba that are true to their traditional ingredients and eating habits.

On less popular roads,many little places survive despite the demands of a burgeoning multiplex middle class. Here,youll find that comfort curry,made with minimal ingredients and even less fuss.

These curries are not formulaic. They are made with bony cuts making for a rich,stocky gravy; the rest depends on whatever else the cook finds handy on the day. What appeals to me in particular are the military hotels spread across the south. You can be forgiven for assuming that they are run by ex-servicemen they are called so just because they serve non-vegetarian food and booze. Here chilli mutton and beef fry will accompany your fluffy idlis,red rice,soft neer dosa and puttu.

Then there are places devoid of any nomenclature whatsoever. On the road from the Mangalore airport to Mangalore city was an eatery that carried no name,but what it lacked in title,it amply made up for in its food. I remember a superlative meal that comprised clams tossed in a spicy coconut masala,and mackerel rubbed with a tamarind-chilli paste and shallow-fried.

So,havent the insidious twin influences of butter chicken and dairy fat made inroads here? These wayside eateries do attempt their version of north Indian fare,but mercifully,they just dont get it right.

Friends in the south tell me theyve seen butter chicken garnished with coconut and curry leaves,not cream and coriander. The fact is your average Joe south of the Vindhyas is at a complete loss when it comes to cream. So these chaps mostly stick to cooking what theyre comfortable with and the result is that you eat better. But all is not lost. Ironically,starred hotels are keeping some of the simple traditions of the dhaba alive.

Many have a version of dhaba meat/chicken,which may appear at times on their restaurant menus but is almost always available in room service.

The reason is simple: most guests are frequent travellers whod rather order a home-style curry instead of the standard-issue mughlai or butter gravy. Manjit Gill,corporate chef at the ITC Hotels,has another interesting theory. He believes that a dish with the word dhaba does well because theres instant recall value for the diner. There are no unpleasant surprises,unlike dishes with poetically long names and even longer descriptions.

Upscale restaurants are doing their bit too. Punjab Grill,started by Zorawar Kalra,son of food consultant and writer Jiggs Kalra,has a meat curry that blends old-fashioned home-style ingredients with sophisticated modern technique. According to Zorawar,Meat Punjab Grill,which uses no cream or butter and is served marrowbones and all in a smooth European-style sauce does exceedingly well in the chains outlets in Delhi and Chandigarh as well as at the brand new one in Mumbai.

While all this may not quite be your old-style dhaba staple,at least some attempt is being made to wean diners away from an overdose of dairy. Now,if only the actual dhabas could figure this out and get back to what they were best at,they may yet survive the onslaught of super highways and food courts.

I know Id gladly ignore the kids whinging from the backseat,the next time a spanking new McDonalds-Sagar-Haldiram-type drive-through flashes by.