11 episodes

Bad Table Manners pushes the boundaries of food storytelling in South Asia. Despite a universal love of delicious food, South Asian communities’ narratives and food practices maintain social hierarchies, caste inequalities, and racial and gender discrimination. In spanning both “high” and “low” food cultures, this podcast deconstructs monolithic notions of South Asian or “Indian” food by diving into micro contexts of households, restaurants, neighborhoods, streets and communities. It also reveals how hyper-regional and local culinary expressions are shaped by global gastronomic histories and trends.

Hosted by Delhi-based anthropologist Meher Varma, Bad Table Manners is narrator-driven, ethnographic, and playful. It will take you to the seaside, through bustling markets, and the intimacy of the kitchen table in private homes. It reminds you that when good table manners are tossed, great conversation begins.

Bad Table Manners is part of Whetstone Radio Collective. Whetstone Radio Collective creates storytelling dedicated to food origins and culture, with original content centering the perspectives of global majority populations and diasporas.

You can learn more about this podcast at whetstoneradio.com, on Twitter @whetstoneradio, on TikTok and Instagram @whetstonemedia and subscribe to our Spotify and YouTube channel, Whetstone Media, for more podcast content. You can learn more about all things happening at Whetstone at WhetstoneMedia.com.

Bad Table Manners Whetstone Radio

    • Arts
    • 4.8 • 46 Ratings

Bad Table Manners pushes the boundaries of food storytelling in South Asia. Despite a universal love of delicious food, South Asian communities’ narratives and food practices maintain social hierarchies, caste inequalities, and racial and gender discrimination. In spanning both “high” and “low” food cultures, this podcast deconstructs monolithic notions of South Asian or “Indian” food by diving into micro contexts of households, restaurants, neighborhoods, streets and communities. It also reveals how hyper-regional and local culinary expressions are shaped by global gastronomic histories and trends.

Hosted by Delhi-based anthropologist Meher Varma, Bad Table Manners is narrator-driven, ethnographic, and playful. It will take you to the seaside, through bustling markets, and the intimacy of the kitchen table in private homes. It reminds you that when good table manners are tossed, great conversation begins.

Bad Table Manners is part of Whetstone Radio Collective. Whetstone Radio Collective creates storytelling dedicated to food origins and culture, with original content centering the perspectives of global majority populations and diasporas.

You can learn more about this podcast at whetstoneradio.com, on Twitter @whetstoneradio, on TikTok and Instagram @whetstonemedia and subscribe to our Spotify and YouTube channel, Whetstone Media, for more podcast content. You can learn more about all things happening at Whetstone at WhetstoneMedia.com.

    Revolutionary Seed: Voice to Indian Farmers

    Revolutionary Seed: Voice to Indian Farmers

    In September 2020, the government of India approved a series of agricultural acts, often referred to as the “Farm Bills.” What was proposed threatened to change the state of agriculture in India forever, and thus, inspired a long farmers' protest that is only just coming to a conclusion (thanks to a recent announcement that confirms the laws have been repealed). This episode tracks my journey to Tikri border — located on the capital’s suburbs — where thousands of farmers lived as they protested the effects of neoliberalism on Indigenous agricultural systems. Cooking with the community and feeding everyone who came to the site (including the police!) was one crucial way in which solidarity was cemented. My guide, and the guest of this show, is the inspirational activist Navkrian Natt, who along with thousands of farmers, resisted injustice with all her heart.
    Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.

    • 23 min
    How Indian Food Became Frustratingly Hip

    How Indian Food Became Frustratingly Hip

    Thanks to the cool-ification of Indian food, traditional ingredients from the subcontinent, like turmeric and ghee, are now repackaged and resold in Western and Westernized markets as if they were “new” discoveries. Cleaned up, minimalistic design labels are often employed to give the familiar and unfamiliar look, and conceal what one can argue is a recolonization of the Global South by the Global North. The U.S.-based academic Rumya Putcha tells us why this hipster Indian food is problematic, while Vidya Balachander, current South Asia editor at Whetstone, helps us unpack the idea of the global supermarket.
    Topics covered in this episode:

    Min 1:40: Meet Rumya Putcha
    Min 2:08: Meet Vidya Balachander
    Min 3:29: The root of the frustration
    Min 7:24: Logic of “cool-ification”
    Min 9:42: Marketing Otherness
    Min 11:00: Wellness as a form of travel
    Min 15:56: Displays of diversity in supermarkets
    Min 18:53: Aesthetics of Otherness
    Min 21:47: Going beyond outrage
    Min 25:38: Question of authenticity
    Min 28:03: No easy answer

    Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.
    Guests: Rumya Putcha (@snailmobile821), Vidya Balachander (@vidya83)

    • 34 min
    Beyond Momos: Imaginary Homelands and Tibetan Food in India

    Beyond Momos: Imaginary Homelands and Tibetan Food in India

    Beginning with a brief history of Tibetans in exile, this episode explores how food can create imaginary homelands, even if it means that authenticity itself needs to be invented and reinvented. Three Tibetans in the diaspora, Jamyang Phuntsok, Tencho Gyatso, and Nima Dorjee, are the guests on this episode. Through conversations that range from personal histories to current food interests, we will talk about gastronomy and memory, tsampa as a potential political tool, and what role food can play for a community in exile.
    Topics covered in this episode:

    Min 0:00: The idea of home as connected to food
    Min 1:42: Meet Jamyang Phuntsok
    Min 1:58: Meet Tencho Gyatso
    Min 2:40: Meet Nima Dorjee
    Min 4:34: An overview of Tibetan food in India
    Min 6:30: The popularization and adaptation of momos
    Min 10:09: Politics of tsampa
    Min 16:32: On authenticity in the context of exile
    Min 21:05: Chinese influence in Tibetan food
    Min 23:01: Food and solidarity

    Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.
    Guests: Jamyang Phuntsok (@jongtrukh), Tencho Gyatso (@simplytibetan), Nima Dorjee
    Ethereal Relaxation by Kevin MacLeod
    Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/8719-ethereal-relaxation
    License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

    • 29 min
    Ripples and Tipples: How Partition Changed Indian Food

    Ripples and Tipples: How Partition Changed Indian Food

    In 1947, the British finally left India after 300 years of colonial rule. They created many arbitrary borders as they left, the most prominent of which was the line that was to separate India from Pakistan. The aftermath of this divide resulted in the greatest migration in human history, as millions made their way across hundreds of miles in the hope of creating new homes. The impact of this critical event is mirrored in what has become known as Delhi’s food culture, both at home and abroad. The well-known food historian Anoothi Vishal reminds us how partition lives on in India’s capital, while Jonathan Nunn, editor of the shape-shifting newsletter Vittles, shows us how the event created ripples in the imperial city of London. Partition transformed “Indian food,” in both colony and empire, and still shows its effects in new Indian restaurants today.
    Topics covered in this episode:

    Min 0:00: What is Partition?
    Min 1:35: Meet Meher’s grand-aunt, Jeeti Nani
    Min 2:30: Meet Anoothi Vishal
    Min 3:42: From Mughlai cuisine to a dominant Punjabi cuisine
    Min 8:31: Jeeti Nani’s account of dining practices pre- and post-Partition
    Min 12:17: Collapse of a feudal order
    Min 15:14: Meet Jonathan Nunn
    Min 16:25: Ripple effects of Partition in London
    Min 21:55: Complexities behind the modern British-Raj aesthetic
    Min 27:19: Regional cuisines in London beyond Punjabi tandoori food

    Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.
    Guests: Anoothi Vishal (@anoothivishal), Jonathan Nunn (@jonathandnunn)

    • 34 min
    Mid-Day Meal

    Mid-Day Meal

    The Mid-Day Meal feeds millions of schoolgoing Indian children daily, and has widely been considered one of India’s most successful welfare programs. Two economists who have been instrumental in its success, Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera, will uncover the history of this program, but also remind us that because what's on plates is always political, the future of welfare too, is uncertain. A focused discussion on the contentious introduction of the egg in the meal will, in particular, reveal how sometimes, unfortunately, political interests can trump the basic human right to food and nutrition.
    Topics covered in this episode:

    Min 0:00: What is the Mid-Day Meal?
    Min 1:50: Meet Jean Drèze
    Min 2:14: Benefits of the Mid-Day Meal
    Min 6:04: Criticisms of the program
    Min 7:00: Meet Reetika Khera
    Min 10:31: A strong case for the inclusion of eggs
    Min 12:51: The politics behind the egg
    Min 17:52: Why eggs over other sources of protein
    Min 24:11: Lobbying attempts by the biscuit industry
    Min 26:48: What Mid-Day Meal looks like today

    Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.
    Guests: Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera

    • 34 min
    Where There Are No Butchers, There Are Cinnamon Buns

    Where There Are No Butchers, There Are Cinnamon Buns

    This episode flips the script on caste and food by celebrating and exploring the food practices of caste oppressed communities. Is there such a thing as “Dalit cuisine?” Do Dalit chefs and food enthusiasts accept this term? What are Dalit recipes, and how have they been archived and reproduced? Can food be a site of caste abolitionism? The two guests on this episode – Vinay Kumar and Rajyashri Goody – who self-identify as Dalit, offer their own personal reflections on food and food politics.
    Topics covered in this episode:

    Min 0:48: The caste system in India
    Min 3:38: Meet Vinay Kumar
    Min 4:10: Meet Rajyashri Goody
    Min 7:37: Caste and food
    Min 10:14: Is there such thing as standalone Dalit cuisine?
    Min 12:32: Access to food (and lack thereof)
    Min 14:49: Where there are no butchers, there are cinnamon buns
    Min 19:56: When elite words are applied to Dalit food
    Min 25:49: The complexities behind the idea of a Dalit cookbook
    Min 27:43: Limitations to a “recipe”
    Min 31:19: Balancing moments of joy and struggle
    Min 35:15: Food as protest and resistance

    Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.
    Guests: Vinay Kumar (@thevinaygreen), Rajyashri Goody (@rajgoody)

    • 40 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
46 Ratings

46 Ratings

rohan gupta 86 ,

Much needed

This podcast is so well researched and thought out - it’s a culinary journey that makes us realize what it is to eat what we do in a diverse country like India - my go to listening on a drive or a flight or just otherwise….

Also Bored Stiff ,

Enriching, entertaining and touching

Unique podcast. A rich collection of fascinating topics that unfurl gently with deeply personal narratives sensitively presented. Meher’s deep, rich voice provides ethnographic context and keeps steadily focused on issues of social justice. Thoroughly enjoyable. Leaves me hankering for more!

Cnctennis ,

Fascinating!

Worth the time and space on my pod shelf.

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