The bites to cheer for

Leave the peanuts and papad back in the Permit Room. Finger food is now top nosh. And one Bengaluru bar is hitting new highs

- VIR SANGHVI

What do you eat when you are having a drink? It's not a question with an easy answer. I find that it changes from city to city and generation to generation.

My earliest childhood memories of watching grownups drink had two components. One: The men always drank whisky (Scotch if they could afford it) and possibly beer at lunchtime. And two: They would eat papad with their drinks.

It’s possible that the papad accompaniment was a Bombay thing (lots of Gujaratis and Sindhis in the city), but all over India, bars would only serve peanuts with liquor. At more upmarket establishments, there would be cashew nuts. And if they really wanted to roll out the red carpet, then they would serve green olives.

Those were simpler days, and though I never believed that cashews or olives went with whisky, most people seemed content with those accompaniments. (I am a Gujarati, so I believe that papad goes with everything.) Peanuts went particularly well with beer, and during the 1970s, bars in Bombay would serve peanuts covered in a masala batter which was especially suited to beer. In that era, Prohibition-type restrictions were enforced so there were not that many bars. The few that existed were called Permit Rooms because you were required (in theory at least) to carry a government-issued permit to be allowed to order hard liquor.

I often think back to those days when I see the bar scene explode all over India. It sometimes seems as though more bars than restaurants are opening in this era, and when so-called ‘restaurants’ do open, they are often just excuses to run bars.