Chef Dhruv Oberoi has come up with recipes like an amla and strawberry salad and Nilgiri passionfruit cocktail. Photo credit: Dhruv Oberoi
Amla and strawberry salad, shankalu chaat, guava baked into immunity-boosting pizza bases, tadgola ceviche... Indians are rediscovering local, seasonal fruit like never before, with everyone from top chefs to home chefs and caterers using it in inventive ways.
For years, fruit lovers had decried the loss in local varieties as restaurants and homes embraced imported apples, oranges, kiwi et al that were available round the year. Seasonality and local diversity, two cornerstones of Indian farm produce seemed to be getting lost in the process. But post-pandemic, foreign fruit does not command as much a snob value as local desi varieties.