Revise your portion

Before raw, fermented, and protein- packed became Insta buzzwords, Indian thalis had already aced the art of balance

- SEEMA GOSWAMI

The thought struck me first a couple of weeks ago as I sat down for lunch at a traditional thali restaurant. This, I said to my fellow diners, is the best way to practice portion control.

You get a thali with small katoris containing tiny quantities of every dish you are going to sample, with a small portion of rice or roti in the middle. If you don’t want to eat something you just ask for that katori to be removed. And then after you have had a taste of it all, you decide which dish you want seconds of and it is served to you. So, you eat a variety of dishes in small portions, choosing which one to have more of and ask for an extra roti or rice as required. Zero wastage. No overeating. What better example of portion control could there be?

But as I got thinking, I realised that many modern dietary practices and principles have their roots in traditional ways of eating in India. Let me count the ways.