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| Ethnic Kashmir food has few takers, for desi tourists, veg dhabas have it all | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 13: With Kashmir witnessing tourist boom of domestic tourists, local food places hardly get any benefit, as majority of tourists prefer veg-dhabas.
The bumper tourist season has failed to give fillip to the local food shops as very few tourists prefer non vegetarian food.
"We receive huge number of local tourists and offer them almost every vegetarian cuisine. Majority of the tourists is domestic and that is the reason we try to provide them with the traditional Indian food as they don't taste non-vegetarian as such," said a restaurant owner at Dalgate.
The tourists flock many tourist destinations like Dal Lake, Boulevard, Sonwar, Munawar and Khayyam where vegetarian food shops of outsiders earns a good business. Though, these stalls are not new in the valley but they have earned huge benefits from the present tourist rush in the valley.
"We love Kashmir due to its picturesque as there is so much beauty that one gets lost in the nature. The place feels like home as we there is easy availability of Indian traditional food which further makes it special. There is no difficulty in finding out the Vaishnovi dhabas as there are many choices in the tourist places," said Manoj Thapar, a non-local tourist from Kolkatta.
Majority of the non-vegetarian food streets and stalls which are spread in the entire valley hardly were benefitted from the high rush of vegetarian tourists as they couldn't cater to them. "We hardly faced any losses due to Ramadhan as we offer exclusive non-vegetarian food and have very few tourists as takers. The local food market in the valley doesn't earn a good business from domestic tourists," said Muhammad Ashraf, a local dhabawala.
He said that the huge opportunity of catering to the domestic tourists is only availed by the outsiders as locals hardly find any interest to make their living out of the vegetarian food market.
The tourists also relish chaat and even the locals too have become addicted to the chaat due to the sour and spicy taste as well as cheap rates which is also sold by outside chaat vendors.
"It is not difficult to have chaat from a vendor as their presence is a common sight. The presence of chaat vendors almost in every area has attracted not alone the tourists who are already used to that street food but has even lured so many local customers who now take chat almost every day," said Imtiaz Rasool, a local grocery shop at Khayyam.
Observers in the field say that the tourists visiting the valley should get acquainted with tradition of Kashmir right from food to handicrafts and other rich heritage so that they should get the real feel of the place.
"The visitors should feel the essence of the place in its true value. When we visit a new place we try new dishes and relish the traditional foods of that place which can make the food of that place famous in other places as well. But, in Kashmir the trend is reverse as the tourists hardly taste the food of Kashmir due to the easy availability of Indian recipes," said a tour operator wishing not to be named. "There are very few vegetarian dhabas run by the locals and tourism department is also not promoting seriously to promote the traditional Kashmiri food at most of the tourist places," he said. |
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