The Medu Vada tussle to Rosogulla’s tug-of-war: 5 unforgettable food stories of 2017

2017 was an eventful year for our traditional food items because it's not every year that a Bengali Rosogulla captures so much attention

By: Madhuli Trivedi |
December 29, 2017 6:28 pm

2017 was an eventful year. It was not only cringe-pop artists, inappropriate memes and Bollywood controversies that made news, some of our traditional foods made headlines and became national news. How?

Here’s a roundup of five iconic food moments of the year. Well, it’s not every year when a food item captures this much attention:

1. The Medu Vada Twitter War: In April, when Chef Gordon Ramsay called south India’s most-loved snack, Medu vada as prison food on Twitter, it resulted in an outrage. Gordon drew a lot of flak from Medu vada lovers all over India.

I didn’t know you can tweet from prison https://t.co/rxrPPBonff

— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) April 6, 2017

Every cuisine that you’re ignorant about is not from prison!https://t.co/LlJI65sJD7

— Rangeela Desi (@RangeelaDesi) April 6, 2017

Watch out man, that’s everyday food for half of southern India!

— SlobKebab (@SlobKebab) April 6, 2017

Well at least this prison food tastes a lot better than your half cooked steak

— Rushali Prasad (@godhoonbey) April 6, 2017

2. Chana and Chana Dal entry to the Oxford Dictionary: In June, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) announced the list of more than 600 words and phrases, included in the dictionary this year. And yes, it featured India’s very own chana and chana dal.

chane ki dal (Photo: Dreamstime)

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3. World’s largest samosa
In August, a group of volunteers at the East London Mosque, London made a 153 kgs samosa. Though this happened in London, samosa evokes sentiments in every Indian. Isn’t it?

4. The record-breaking Khichdi
In November, Khichdi made it to the Guinness Book of World Records. Celebrity Chef Sanjeev Kapoor along with over 50 volunteers, prepared 918 kilograms Khichdi, which was cooked in a custom-made kadhai in front of a live audience.

Not to forget, later in the year, there were talks to make Khichdi as the ‘national dish’ of India.

khichdi (Photo: guinnessworldrecords.com)

5. The great war of Rosogulla
In November, we also saw the conclusion of the long-running war between West Bengal and Odisha over Rasgulla. Both the states claimed that the rosogulla belongs to them. However, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted on 13th November that Bengal won the GI (Geographical Indication) tag for the much-loved sweetmeat. No, it is still not sorted. The GI tag is only for ‘Rosogolla of Bengal’, not to the Rasgulla in general.

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Photo: File