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Khichdi dairy: Some love it, others hate it and Min denies its elevation as ‘national dish’

As the brouhaha over khichdi continued, Union minister of food processing industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, took to Twitter to dispel rumours surrounding the dish.

By Oneindia
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Nov 2: On Wednesday, India cooked khichdi, literally on Twitter. All of a sudden the humble dish was trending on the micro-blogging site over the report that khichdi will soon be declared as India's "national dish" by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Since the sanskari saffron party loves everything 'pure and vegetarian', the choice of the food to be elevated as country "national dish" ruffled a few feathers. Others (the self-proclaimed desis, who are also nationalists) welcomed the news and even cooked khichdi for dinner to celebrate the 'momentous occasion'.

khichdi

If you are wondering what is khichdi, then you have been living under a rock. Sorry, to say that. Nonetheless, we will try to explain the dish for you. You just need rice, pulses, cereals, spices and vegetables (those who like to experiment a bit) to cook the dish, generally considered food for the "sick and poor" by those who can't survive a day without biryani and beef curry.

Whether you love it or hate it, everybody has tasted the dish. Thus the flow of reactions on the gastronomical subject (known to all) helped the hashtag--#khichdi--remained as top trend on Twitter till Thursday.

As the brouhaha over khichdi continued, Union minister of food processing industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, took to Twitter to dispel rumours surrounding the dish.

While a demand was made to declare khichdi as the national food, Badal clarified that the dish will be cooked just for record entry at the World Food India event.

The "fictitious" national dish was cooked on Twitter after report came in that over 800 kg khichdi will be prepared live on November 4 at the World Food India event in the national capital in a bid to create world record and popularise it as the brand India food globally.

According to officials, khichdi has been selected as the brand India food because it "symbolises the country's unity in diversity".

At the event, a giant "kadhai" (frying pan) of the capacity of 1,000 litres and 7 feet in diameter will be used for slow steam-cooking of more than 800 kg khichdi.

The humongous amount of khichdi will be prepared by renowned chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who has been roped as the brand ambassador of the Great India Food Street for the three-day event starting from November 3, being organised by the Food Processing Ministry along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"Khichdi is the wonder staple food of India and is considered the healthiest prepared food in India and it is being eaten across length and breadth of India by rich and poor," Badal told reporters at the curtain raiser event.

Khichdi symbolises India's great culture of unity in diversity at its best. Therefore, khichdi has been selected the brand India Food, she added.

The cooked khichdi will be distributed to about 60,000 orphan children as well as guests present at the event. The khichdi will also be distributed to the heads of foreign missions in India along with the recipe.

Brand India khichdi's ingredients and recipe will be popularised by Indian foreign missions throughout the world. The government will ensure that khichdi is available in restaurants and kitchens around the world, an official statement said.

After all these minute details about khichdi emerged, many questioned the minister's insistence on the point that the dish "symbolises India's great culture of unity in diversity at its best".

As usual we got to see a flood of comments on khichdi on Twitter, which were funny and equally yummy.

Tweets from those who linked "politics" to khichdi:

Tweets from die-hard fans of south Indian food:

Tweets from khichdi fans and pizza haters:

OneIndia News

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