5 Thoughts We Have While Scouting For Desi Food Abroad

Yes, we’re a money transfer company.

No, we haven’t changed our line of business.

So what have we to do with desi food?

Well, for one, we connect you to your home; just like the food does!

And while we’re on the subject of Indian (yum) food, here are 5 thoughts we’re sure all expats have while scouting for Desi food abroad.

1. We get this for less than one-tenth the price in India

Sometimes when we’re living abroad, cravings for food from our own des get the better of us. No Michelin Star, no Nigella Lawson or even Gordon Ramsay can match Ramu kaka’s chai and Chacha’s samosa. But like everything in life, food also comes at a cost. Sometimes, inflated. We’ve all known samosa to be costing no more than 5 bucks and paneer parantha 30 bucks at max. But in a foreign country, we get into the economics, and switch on our mental calculator. Well the calculation approximately works out to be Rs. 350 for tea, and Rs. 850 for the parantha! Well, let’s drop the parantha order…

2. Wait, that doesn’t even taste like butter chicken

So, here’s how it goes. You order for your favourite dish hoping for it to taste just like you know it from back home. The wait is excruciating. You probably eye every dish the waiters pass you by with and then finally your order arrives. Well it surely does look good. You get your bread, take the first bite and …. You discover a new taste for the dish you have known and loved all your life. Such is the story of having desi food in a videsi land.

3. What do you call that in English?

Sometimes the cost is so unbearable, or the nearest desi restaurant is so far, that we decide to make desi food for ourselves. “Pani Puri”, “Vada Pav”, “Poha”, “Gulab Jamun” … the very sound of these get us hungry. But to shop for these in a foreign land, you need to know how to say them … In English … or whichever language they speak where you are. More often than not, we don’t figure out the term in English or the native tongue and … Is that frustrating or not! Even if we do figure out, they more often than not don’t have it.

4. Mom makes it better

Let’s admit it, craving for food has a lot to do with being home sick. Back at home, every time you craved for something, your mom not just magically cooked it at jet speed for you, but also managed to put together the most heavenly version of the dish. Well oh well, in a foreign land you just make do with what’s served and think to yourself how the chef needs to take cooking classes from your mom.

5. They just can’t make it like they do back home

You may have scouted the entire town for the best Indian restaurants, read every local food blog available to satisfy your cravings but they’re just never up to the mark. Either the spices are not right or the texture feels different or they just plate it weirdly. Let’s just rest in peace knowing that when we go home next time, delicious desi food awaits us.

While we, at InstaReM, may not be able to serve you the rich spicy home food you are craving for right now, there’s something else that we can always help you with — Money Transfers at great rates! So whenever you’re up to it, visit us.

Just so you know, with World Bank listing us as the #1 cost-effective and speedy remittance provider to India and many other countries from Australia, we’re no less than Ramu Kaka’s masala chai.

Share your experience of looking for Indian food abroad.