Omar Rather and Suheem Khanday’s blogs on the Instagram page ‘Kashmirfoodgram’ have caught the attention of the world, making them celebrities among the food lovers.
Moving beyond “wazwan”, Kashmir’s famous multicourse gastronomical delight, two young food bloggers are introducing the world to the Valley’s undiscovered ethnic cuisine.
Right from “pher” (smoked fish) to street food varieties like “khandhi gaazir” (sugar-dipped dough candies) and roadside barbeques besides forgotten ethnic varieties like “boom” (dried water lily) and “roth” (bread variety), Omar Rather and Suheem Khanday blog about every edible item in Kashmir.
Their blogs on the Instagram page “Kashmirfoodgram” have caught the attention of the world, making them celebrities among the food lovers. They now get invited to review food and are sought-after for information on Kashmiri cuisine and where to buy or taste the local food.
Omar said they decided to focus more on the undiscovered cuisine after a “taunt” by a Delhi-based food blogger.
“Once in Delhi, a food blogger told us that Kashmiri food was only about wazwan and we had nothing else. I did not like this comment and that is when I decided to introduce the outside world to our undiscovered food. Now, for over a year we have been blogging about different food varieties and the response has been unimaginable,” he said. “Now, not only do we get invited to events, food lovers, other famous bloggers and chefs even search for us when they visit Kashmir.”
Suheem said they get an overwhelming response from the local youngsters who were unaware of the Kashmiri food types. “Many of our youngsters are unaware of food like “pher” that is one of the oldest delicacies. Similarly, many are yet to taste “wangun hatchi” (dried brinjals)… and they like it when we post.
Some of their posts even make people nostalgic over forgotten delicacies. When the duo posted a picture of “boom” while mentioning that dried water lilies were used as dried vegetable and cooked with eggs during winters, Shazia Banday commented: “My grandfather used to buy this in my childhood… old memories.”
The youth like them are earning name and fame to Kashmir and its culture. May other young boys of Kashmir follow them as role models and bring laurels to the valley and whole state.
