A few years ago, if you would crave a good duck roast or stuffed turkey, leave aside tier two Indian cities, you’d have to press hard to find restaurants in metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai. But recently, we have seen a shift in the culinary scene. Big and small and family restaurants – a lot of them have started carrying duck and turkey dishes in their menu.
If we talk individually, duck meat has always been popular in Kerala and some parts of North East. In fact, Kerala has duck meat as a part of their celebratory feasts as well in the form of Kuttanadan Duck Roast or curry. As for Turkey, it has been limited to dishes like vaan kozhi kuzhambu. So, to create a market for that in the mainstream Indian culinary scene took some time, but now that we are finally there, it is only going to grow.
If we talk about high end restaurants, Indian Accent has delicious Duck dishes on its menu, including the smoked duck shammi and the duck stuffed kulcha. Yum yum cha, which has several branches, serves delicate duck dumplings which are very popular amongst people who love duck meat. Mr Choy and Tres too offer dishes like duck rolls and starters. While the meat is already popular in select sections, it sure is gaining popularity amongst foodies everywhere. So, if you really enjoy eating duck meat, there are a lot of options for you and your family.
Talking about Turkey, it is a dish that can easily be made into keemas and kebabs, both very popular dishes in the entire of India. It is also great for health reasons, because turkey is one of the leanest proteins. Turkey meat can be adopted into several traditional Indian recipes because of the meat’s versatility. A few places also serve stuffed Turkey in the traditional manner during Thanksgiving and these feasts are rapidly becoming more common and more loved. Several home chefs too offer these meals with Turkey, which is a niche space that is slowly but surely growing.
A good way to introduce duck and turkey in your palate is by trying them with flavours that we as Indians have grown up with. Making them into curries, adding the meats to gravies or even making biryani out of them. And that is exactly what these restaurants are doing. Familiar flavours with these meats makes the customer try and then like these dishes, which has grown the market for duck and meat tremendously. With all of the changes happening and India’s culinary scene going through transformation, both in terms of demand for new things, and going back to traditional recipes – embracing the wholesome flavours of duck and turkey are surely the way to move forward.