: Heard of black garlic or purple lemon? Maybe swiss chard? Probably not. Exotic ingredients like these and many others are entering the kitchens of restaurants in India, driven by the changing Indian taste. With more Indians taking to dishes like sausages and mash, Mee pok, Thai curries, Peking duck from the confines of their kitchen, the market for exotic ingredients and leafy greens like lemongrass, Thai ginger, mitsuba, seaweed, morning glory and bakchoy is growing in India. Startups like Bengaluru-based Licious and Gurgaon-based ZappFresh say curing of the meat requires these ingredients, leading to an increasing demand.
"Belts in Arakonam, Vellore, Nilgiris and Ottanachatiram are hubs for specialty greens needed for cuisines like Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese," said Shankar Subramanian, partner, Dragon's Den, an Indo Chinese/ Asian cuisine restaurant in Chennai. While most greens are available at the Koyambedu market, Subramanian says there are suppliers who deliver fresh greens on a daily basis to his restaurant....Read more

Source web page:Times of India