"In India, each state has unique flavours and delectable cuisines. We felt that the richness of these food experiences should be presented in a unique way."
Not everyone travels for leisure and sightseeing. For many, it's about the food. To make this culinary experience a more fulfilling and authentic one, Cox & King's has started a new venture, Tour To Feast. The idea is to create delicious itineraries, so that travellers can enjoy the region's culture through its food, says Debolin Sen, head of Tour To Feast. "In India, each state has unique flavours and delectable cuisines. We felt that the richness of these food experiences should be presented in a unique way."
To create the food itinerary, the team started off with chalking out different themes for each of the destinations, followed by picking experiences that would fit into those themes. Sen explains, "Our research team is made up of food and travel writers, who reached out to their local connections in each of the destinations — Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Mumbai, Goa — to find the right kind of people. Once we identified the local experts, our team travelled to these destinations and tried out all the experiences to further shortlist the best ones."
One of the key requirements was to ensure that each experience was led by a local whose expertise in the region's cuisine and culture was unsurpassed, says Sen. Their website tourtofeast.com offers a wide range of these custom-made trips. Travellers can pick the one that fits into their budget and interest, directly on the website. The price covers food and accommodation.
Since the focus was to introduce the guests to community-based cooking and stellar regional fare, home-dining experiences with locals, farm trips, market walks and cooking classes with expert chefs, have also been incorporated into the tour. The idea is to recreate a culinary world that now exists only in books.
Several tourist destinations have started to cater to global flavour palates and hence, finding unique things-to-eat was the topmost priority for the research team. Sen elaborates, "With Tour to Feast, we made a special effort to not fall into that trap. We wanted to give our guests a niche and refined experience that lets them wholly explore the culinary haven in their destination, while also seamlessly integrating history and culture into the tour."
Culinary tours around Mumbai
Forgotten Worlds: From an authentic Pathare Prabhu spread at a local's home, to dining at a 200-year-old Portuguese bungalow to exploring the city's mill culture, this retro-themed tour will serve Mumbai's history on a plate.
Foodscapes: In this unique tour, you can feast your way through the different culinary pockets or boroughs of Mumbai where different communities came and settled.
Cook like a local: This one is specially designed for those who like to dig deeper into the city's culinary scene by learning to make regional dishes of various local communities.
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