An Asian News International (ANI) story published yesterday spotlighted three Kashmiri food content creators: Omar Rather, Mohsin Fazli and Aamir Rawa. Each of them have a massive following on Instagram and they post about where and what to eat.
Kashmir has become a tourist hotspot in the past three years as more travellers sought to explore picturesque destinations within India. With rise in travel, it is inevitable that the spotlight will be on food and where to find local dishes. Content creators, like Rather, Fazli and Rawa who post content on Instagram, then become like food guides for tourists. The ANI story reports that Rather, whose Instagram handle @kashmirfoodgram has 132 k followers,
has been hired by ‘food bloggers in India’ to guide them on Kashmiri cuisine when they visit the state. A quick scroll through his Instagram feed will reveal reels on the snow trout, nadru (lotus root) farming in Dal lake and khatta lamb which a delicacy of Kashmir’s Dogra community. He doesn’t stick to only Kashmiri foods. His feed with interspersed with content about baklava, milkshakes and popular desserts.
Fazli is not a full-time content creator, says the ANI story: “He is a composite manager for the government of Jammu and Kashmir.” Creating food content is a passion and he runs @kashmir_eats on Instagram. Most of his food reels, from samovar chai to shahi sheermal and tabak maaz (lamb ribs cooked in ghee), do not specify where to find them. One has to dig deeper to know what to eat where.
Rawa who posts food content on the Instagram page @foods.in.Kashmir, follows a similar format—reels featuring food with information on where to find them, but not all posts have the information on the latter.
For a deeper and comprehensive understanding of Kashmiri cuisine, follow food writer Marryam Reshi (@marryam on Instagram), the Delhi-based restaurant Matamaal (@matamaal) and chef Prateek Sadhu (@prateeksadhu) who belongs to the Kashmiri Pandit community.
