The Facts, Fleshed Out
- Some 80 per cent of South Indians are non-vegetarian, as opposed to 44 per cent of North Indians, according to the Indian Food Intake Survey 2007, carried out by Protein Foods and Nutrition Development Association of India and market research agency Pathfinders: India.
- The per capita consumption of chicken in South India is almost twice the national average. Chicken sales in Chennai and Bangalore have seen a cent per cent increase in the last year, as opposed to 10-15 per cent in the North.
- Tamil Nadu is now second in the country in egg production and fourth in broiler chicken production. Egg consumption, in fact, has increased sharply. The state's mid-day meal scheme, covering 9 million children, offers each child three eggs a day. The Indian Vegetarian Congress (IVC) has objected, saying sathu mavu (mixed cereals) laddu and fruits are cheaper and more nutritious than eggs.
- Fish-eating is also increasing among former vegetarians in Tamil Nadu. Fish is available in plenty, given the state's 1,000-km-long coastline, and an annual catch of 3.70 metric tonnes.
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You only have to ask Bhupinder Singh for confirmation. "Our processed chicken food business in the south is witnessing a 25 per cent growth year on year, compared with 10-15 per cent growth in the north," says this CEO of Vista Processed Foods, which supplies chicken to McDonald's India and also processed items like chicken nuggets, patties, chicken drumsticks and wings.
The Nadar down the street may well say 'I told you so' to that. He has for long griped that "ever since Brahmins starting eating eggs, the prices have gone up". But the Brahmins, it seems, didn't just stop at eggs. Abitha Sathish Kumar, head of academics at the Indian Institute of Fashion Design in Chennai, thinks the only reason so many biriyani shops have proliferated in her neighbourhood, Triplicane, one of the traditionally Brahmin-dominated areas of Chennai, is because many Chennai Brahmins have turned non-vegetarian.
Among the young, peer pressure and a desire to project a cool, globalised image is helping spread the non-veg habit. As one student explained to Outlook, "As a hangout, idli-dosa places suck whereas fast-food joints, with their contemporary music, clean food served by young, hip, English-speaking staff—that's the kind of place we like to be in, and be seen in."
She sure has a point. At a food court in an IT Park, we find a group of college students clustering around a kfc outlet, passing a hat around to collect enough money to buy their overpriced chicken. When they fall short, it's a fellow student, Kartick Balakrishnan, who reaches into his pocket and comes up with his credit card to make up the rest. "It's a small price to pay to hang out with friends," he tells us.
Three eggs... to a mid-day meal
But what does Papa Balakrishnan have to say to that? Parents too have become less strict—and more pragmatic—about their children's changing dietary preferences. "I have many vegetarian Brahmin friends who let their children eat non-veg," says A. Saravanan who runs a career institute in middle-class Annanagar. Some are actually even encouraging their kids to turn non-vegetarian, so that when later they go abroad to study or work, they don't starve.
Others too have made their peace with non-vegetarianism. While staying vegetarians themselves, they are willing to cook non-veg dishes for friends or family. Among them is Abitha, who now enjoys cooking her husband Sathish a non-vegetarian feast. The only rule her parents and in-laws have: "Eat anything you want outside, but don't cook it at home." So every alternate Sunday, Abitha and Sathish get together with seven other couples at a non-veg home, where Abitha helps prepare a meaty banquet. "Sathish grew up in Dubai and his dictum was 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'," she explains. Another vegetarian, Revathi Shanmugham, even caters non-vegetarian Chettinad food for corporates through her Shrishti Catering Services which she started 15 years ago. "Girls who come to my cookery classes, even the ones who are traditionally vegetarian, beg me to teach them how to make chicken chettinad," she says.
Chicken, in fact, seems to be the preferred choice of the neo-converts because, as Kartick confesses, it "does not smell and is not rubbery". Of his initiation, he says, "My friends persuaded me to dig into chicken—and now I dig it!" How popular the fowl indeed is can be gauged from the fact that, in the last four years, at least 15 outlets serving chicken in various forms have come up in Chennai. At Rs 80 a kg to Rs 250 for a kg of mutton, it also emerges as a cheaper choice for fast food outlets, besides being easier and faster to cook. Little wonder then that at the Smokin Joe's outlet in Annanagar, franchisee Albert Rao points out how non-vegetarians now outnumber vegetarians. Interestingly, though, his place at Puraswalkam still has more vegetarian customers because of the area's high concentration of Marwaris.
You could thank restaurants for turning Chennai non-vegetarian, but equally responsible is the techie culture. "Techies love to eat out," points out V.K. Karthikeyan, manager, Gallopin Gooseberries, whose restaurant offers at least 25 varieties of chicken dishes including burgers, fried chicken and sandwiches. "And when they come here," he adds, "they want only chicken. We have vegetarian dishes, but they don't move fast." Sureshkumar Damodaran, manager, Raintree restaurant at the Taj Connemara, confirms the impression. "The corporate and IT crowd come in here and like to unwind over a drink," he says. "And their choice of snacks is invariably non-vegetarian—kababs, tandoori chicken. Seafood is also getting more popular—we get lots of orders for pepper prawns and fish fingers. Eighty per cent of my clientele is non-vegetarian."
Enough for Dr R. Poongothai to think that non-vegetarianism followed her all the way to Bangalore as well. A professor of Surgery at the Madras Medical College, she recalls how during a recent visit to the city, she took a walk with other colleagues after 10 pm, and found that the only places open were fast-food joints, peopled exclusively with the IT crowd which works all hours and then wants food that tastes good and lands fast on their table.
Globalisation, peer pressure among youth, larger disposable incomes which enable more people to go out to eat at restaurants, foods with a pan-Indian popularity, as well as changing attitudes—all have combined to relax the food inhibitions of the Chennaiites and make them more adventurous in their eating habits. But even as idli-sambar is beginning to make way for murgh mussallam on once pure-veg thalis, Chennaiites are paying a price in terms of their health. Doctors warn that the traditional vegetarian diet was a more balanced and healthy one, and these new eating habits bring with them an increasing risk of high cholesterol, blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Chennai, in fact, has the second highest incidence of diabetes (after Hyderabad and followed by Bangalore), 13.5 per cent diabetics in a population of 45 million, according to a six-city national survey conducted in 2000. The figure is now estimated to have gone up to 16-17 per cent, with sharply increased consumption of oil-heavy non-veg food combined with the high consumption of rice in the South and their inability to relax taking a toll on health.
Does that worry the Chennaiite, though? Not really, it seems. For the moment, he's busy saying cock-a-doodle-do.
