Taste of Life: Impact of tech on food culture
The Victorians loved biscuits, especially when they were served hot at the table. Also known as biscuit warmers, some were engineered with smooth folding out and close mechanisms. They opened out into two halves and were held shut by laurel wreath loose ring handles at the top
Technology impacts food patterns in every culture and revolutionizes the way we eat. It affects food production, distribution, supply, and how people sell, produce, and distribute food.
The general use of automobiles in India was undoubtedly stimulated by their liberal employment at the Delhi Coronation Durbar held in 1903. Europeans and wealthy Indians began to take pleasure in whole-day trips to Karle and Bhaja caves, Khandala, Bedsa caves, Mahabaleshwar, and Panchgani, but their desire to travel in a car was stymied by the lack of eateries.
In January 1904, AG Cargill Gentry, the Honourary Secretary of the Wesleyan Foreign Missionary Society, set out for Poona from Bombay in his newly bought car. In India, he had found the pursuit of driving a car simply invaluable – “better than all your nostrums and panaceas for human ills, and worth no end of ‘rupees per box”, as he mentioned in his article “Motoring in India” (The Autocar, August 20, 1904).
He left in the direction of Kurla and reached Thana at about seven o’clock. The ascent up the ghats after Panvel was not very steep and the locals helped him find the right road after he took a wrong turn.
At the top of the hills was the reversing station at Khandalla, and a short run on a switchback road brought him to Lanouli (Lonavala) where he halted for breakfast. The quaint hill station then had a couple of traveller’s bungalows owned and managed by Parsee gentlemen. They served “murghi” in a variety of sauces, eggs, an assortment of breads, curries, rice, tea, coffee, and biscuits.
After a hearty breakfast, Gentry reached Poona in the evening. He concluded his travelogue by cautioning his readers about buying a car in India. “It may appear very desirable to rush about to the bewilderment of horses and the envy of neighbours, but sooner or later (probably sooner) an accident will happen or a breakdown occurs”, he wrote. For those still enthusiastic about the automobile, he advised one with plenty of storage space for luggage and food. This particular advice was pertinent since there were hardly any restaurants or traveller’s bungalows along the roads in India where Europeans could have breakfast or lunch during their travel. They almost always had to carry their food or make a “khansama” tag along who would cook for them en route.
In 1918, when AC Ardeshir decided to travel from Poona to Cape Comorin and back along the East and West coasts in a four-cylinder seven-seater Studebaker, he made a convenient arrangement of fixing four drums of petrol on the footboards because the tour he had sketched was rather a lengthy one, extending to nearly six months. Two boxes, one for provisions and the other for a cooking stove and utensils, were fixed conveniently on the footboards. In front of the rear seats was arranged an amply fitted tiffin basket.
In 1903, Major Allan Moss accomplished a notable feat in motor locomotion in India by reaching Mahabaleshwar from Poona in Lord Wolverton’s car. Excluding one halt for breakfast at Wai, he covered the seventy-six hilly miles in 4 hr 52 min. Capt Owen Wheeler, while reporting this in “The Navy and Army Illustrated” in March 1903, hoped to see the motor adapted to trans-frontier exploration. But according to him, the “flying cars” would be enjoyed if the European driver and the passenger did not have to worry about their breakfast and lunch. When public transport lorries were employed to ferry passengers between Poona and Mahabaleshwar in 1906, the Western India Motor Company who operated the service, was urged to make adequate arrangements for breakfast and lunch during the travel.
Breakfast during travel was an essential meal of the day and the travellers valued quality cooking. Accounts of travels in a car around Poona written in the first two decades of the twentieth century invariably mention breakfasts at Khandala - Lonavala or Wai and Mahabaleshwar. In the early 1900s, the station master at the Khandala railway station was kind enough to let passengers travelling in a car grab a bite at the railway refreshment room which was otherwise out of bounds for the common public. Wai had a traveller’s bungalow while Mahabaleshwar had three hotels, run by Europeans and Parsees.
When Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, the British explorer, writer, scholar, and military officer, was with the 18th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry in the mid-nineteenth century, he suggested forming a club for mountaineering in the Bombay Presidency. With better avenues of transport a few decades later, guidebooks began suggesting trips to places like Fort Torana, Rajmachi, and Matheran for mountaineering. They never failed to mention places where travellers could have breakfast. James Douglas mentioned in his “A Book of Bombay” that Fort Torana was an intelligent choice for the traveller because a good breakfast could be had at the traveller’s bungalow at the foot of the fort, while James Mackenzie Maclean in his guide to Bombay written in 1893, noted that decent breakfast could be had only at Khandala. This lack of eateries made passengers equip themselves with a tea set, portable stove, ham, bacon, and biscuits while travelling short distances. A biscuit box was always carried. The Victorians loved biscuits, especially when they were served hot at the table. Also known as biscuit warmers, some were engineered with smooth folding out and close mechanisms. They opened out into two halves and were held shut by laurel wreath loose ring handles at the top. Some boxes resembled a pail.
Boxes made of glass and ceramic were in vogue. Silver-plated biscuit boxes with bulbous bodies in clamshell shape, frames, and feet with wooden handles were sought after by well-to-do families. The butler would open the box so that each guest could pick a hot biscuit to eat with his or her meal. The biscuit box was not meant to be carried out for travel, but few options for eating along the road demanded the box filled with biscuits be put in the car.
Advertisements published in Bombay newspapers in the early twentieth century indicate that sardine boxes were carried during car travel. Sardines were popular in Victorian times and were often served with a soup course or as a compliment to tea. They did not stay fresh for long, but the newly developed canning industry made sure that the fish was available all year long. However, serving sardines in a tin was considered a breach of etiquette. The sardine box, thus, was an invention that not only showcased the wealth of the host but also kept the fish fresh for a little more time. The Napier Hotel in Poona sold biscuit and sardine boxes along with portable tea sets for travellers.
In January 1904, Gentry organised an automobile show in Bombay. It was meant to convince manufacturers of the openings for cars in India and become aware of the needs that had to be met while enabling customers to choose the type of car most suitable for their requirements. A report published in “The Autocar” in April 1904, mentioned that the exhibition was a success where manufacturers took cognizance of the demand for more storage space for food.
Chinmay Damle is a research scientist and food enthusiast. He writes here on Pune’s food culture. He can be contacted at chinmay.damle@gmail.com
