October marks the beginning of the great autumnal festivity in India. But even as we look forward to fasting and feasting, to the Navratras, Puja, Dussehra, Id and Diwali period of boisterous ritual and all-round cheer, another celebration seems to have been added to our collection of diverse public festival in this country. In the last two years, Oktoberfest seems to have crept upon us quite unexpectedly. The heavy marketing of this food-and-drink-centric merriment is perhaps reminiscent of how Valentine?s Day became so much a part of our annual calendars a decade-and-half ago. But it is also a fact that Oktoberfest?s wide acceptance in the metros, with its emphasis on F&B, has been much more effective than that for others like La Tomatina (the tomato festival of Valencia) or even Halloween.
For those of you who have come in late, Oktoberfest is, of course, the world?s largest public festival, held over more than 16 days in Munich each year. Because this is such a boisterous feel-good time with fairs and beer tents, music and wurst, the fest attracts as many as six million visitors to Germany each year. But more importantly, there are parallel celebrations with Bavarian food and beer all across the world?largely in the US and now in India as well. This last fortnight as I have gone from one Oktoberfest celebration to another?across hotels and restaurants, right here in the heart of New Delhi?one thing has become clear: you can?t really stave off globalisation of the palate; even the notorious Indian palate, for much longer. For who would have thought that sausage and sauerkraut, potato dumplings and soup, not to mention those superb Bavarian beers, would find such a large audience in this land, for so long obsessed with Black Label and chicken and so loath to experiment, gastronomically at least.
At the newly opened branch of the Beer Caf? on Janpath, which has the largest collection of German beers in India, not only are the Okoberfest beers (the six traditional Oktoberfest breweries are spaten, augustiner, paulaner, hacker-pschorr, hofbr?u, and l?wenbr?u) selling briskly but the small menu of different sausages and meatballs also seems fairly popular. Bratwurst, the best-known and most widely-available of German sausages?this is pork sausage in a natural casing and is grilled or fried in a pan?has flown off the shelves so fast that the restaurant is out of it. Currywurst, a recipe that may have been invented for the Indian heart and tastebuds with its tomato ketchup and paprika dousing chopped-up sausage (but is a legit Oktoberfest invention), is a natural crowd-puller too. And then, there?s the frikadellen, quite well known across northern Europe, that should be a flat minced patty but here, in Delhi, reminds me of masala-wrapped seekh kebabs. Still, despite the little localisation, I am astonished at the popularity of these German recipes.
At the fair that the Lalit has hosted, on the other hand, the offerings are much more Bavarian and unfamiliar to, at least, most of the Indian patrons who buy the tickets to indulge in music, beer and food. Kasseler kotelett, German smoked pork chops, a confounding variety of wurst, and the likes of wiener schnitzel (breaded cutlet, dipped in flour, egg, and bread crumbs, then fried in butter to a golden brown. It?s one of the ?safest? dishes to order in a German restaurant, but naturally) compete for attention.
Astonishingly even the sauerkraut (finely sliced cabbage that has been fermented) has takers and the food would have done well even without help from familiar and pop bakery goodies like apple strudel and black forest cake (the German name for the dessert is schwarzw?lder kirschtorte, ostensibly not named after the black forest or Schwarzwald mountains but after a cherry liqueur from that region that spikes the layered cake).
Of course, marketing by German beer companies and by the tourism/cultural/commerce authorities may be responsible in giving Oktoberfest such a huge push globally. But it is equally true that the efforts are succeeding now because of maturing audience tastes and expectations and the phenomenal rise of the larger restaurant culture in the country.
With middle-class Indians better travelled now and more exposed to global flavours, the effort is naturally on to collect newer dining experiences?both at home and abroad. Oktoberfest fits that expectation. It?s not just the techies and MNC executives back after stints in Germany or the US wanting to recreate their experiences abroad. But a much larger chunk of the urban Indian audience that equates food, particularly international, with a particular kind of upwardly-mobile lifestyle.
It?s a testimony to changing tastes and expectations when I get a phone call from an unlikely man in his mid-30s, who asks me where can he get the food that he sees cooking on Masterchef Australia in India? That?s the time when I realise that for all the talk about conservative palates and food having to be Indianised before it can truly be accepted by a larger audience in the country, the new Indian foodie has finally arrived.
The writer is a food critic