New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has shared her love for Indian food, saying that though she initially took time to adjust, she eventually “fell in love” with cuisines from different parts of the country.
This comes a day after her memoir “Belonging: A Journey of Love” hit bookstands worldwide.
A video posted on the official X account of the veteran Congress leader on Wednesday shows her, along with her daughter and party MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, interacting in the garden of 1, Safdarjung Road residence of the late former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
During the conversation, Priyanka Gandhi also made her mother fondly recall that the latter had even made the Gujarati dish ‘Khaandvi’ for her and her brother, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, during their childhood.
Sharing her fondness for Indian dishes, Sonia Gandhi said: “I love Bengali food. Believe it or not, I love Gujarati food, from Surat.”
However, given her Italian roots, Gandhi said: “It took me time to get used to Indian food. It was difficult for me to enjoy Indian food right at the beginning. I didn’t know how to cook when I came. But later, slowly, I learned.”
The senior leader said that now she loves having kababs, chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, dal makhni, Kashmiri kofta and the ‘haakh’.
To this, Priyanka Gandhi added: “…and ‘Daal Chawal’, we used to have it every day.”
Sonia Gandhi further said: “From the day I came to this house till today, the only dal cooked is ‘arhar ki daal’, nothing else.”
The Wayanad MP then asked her mother about the Gujarati cuisine ‘Khaandvi’ that the latter used to make when the Gandhi siblings were younger, saying: “Didn’t you use to make Khaandvi while we were kids?…can you imagine?”
The CPP Chairperson then said on a lighter note, “Making Khaandvi is easy”.
Further, Priyanka Gandhi recalled: “But, Dadi couldn’t cook,” referring to late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
However, Sonia Gandhi asserted that even though her mother-in-law couldn’t cook, she had a very acute sense of how to make a dish better.
“She knew exactly how to improve something,” she said.
Meanwhile, in the post accompanying the video, the veteran leader shared she fell in love with her husband, former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi, while looking for a good meal.
“Food has always had a special place in my story. It was while looking for a good meal that I met Rajiv, and fell in love,” Sonia Gandhi said.
She added: “Years later, India came to me the same way, one meal at a time. At first the variety amazed me and the spice scared me. Now dal chawal is the taste of home, and I can’t go a day without it.”
(IANS)
