Drinks

Hot and cold drinks in India are a big deal. There is no tradition of drinking alcoholic beverages with food and so this is not generally the area in which Indians show flair and passion. In fact, Indians don’t ferment their food and water to purify it in the same way as in the West. Alcohol can also make hot food taste hideously hotter. With meals, we drink water, just water. This perceived alliance of curry and beer is something we Indians don’t recognise.

Lassi is the big drink on the Indian street food scene. It is a yogurt-based cooler. In the heat of the Indian streets, people can lose fluid and electrolytes through perspiration. The most popular lassi is thus a salted one. It contains ground roasted cumin and salt and performs the function of an electrolytic rebalancer. It’s funny, on the streets of Leicester a salted masala lassi is the last thing I want to drink, but on a hot Varanasi afternoon, I crave them.