Not many of us knew that veteran Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is such a huge fan of Indian food, neither did we know Gujarati food, especially from Surat, is one of her favourites.
On the sidelines of the release of her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, Sonia Gandhi shared her favourite Indian cuisines in a video on social media. "I love Indian food. I love Bengali food. Believe it or not, I love Gujarati food, from Surat." She revealed that took time for her to get used to Indian food.
"It was difficult for me to enjoy Indian food right at the beginning", sharing that she didn't know how to cook at the beginning. But now that she is a fan of Indian food, she loves her kebabs, chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, dal makhni, Kashmiri Kofta, and Kashmiri haakh. Her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, cuts her saying, "all that you are not supposed to eat as you grow older. Priyanka also shares how dal-chawal is her favourite dish at her mother's residence.
"The day I came, till today, the only dal that is cooked is Arhar ki dal (pigeon pea)," to Priyanka spilling beans on how Sonia used to make Khandvi at home when her kids were young, and found it very easy to make.
Dadi (Indira Gandhi) couldn't cook, informed Priyanka. "But she had an acute sense...developed sense of 'Haan...this is good, but if you put a little bit of this...' So she knew how to improve something," added Sonia.
Sonia Gandhi's released her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, on Tuesday, November 10. The book traces her early life in post-war Italy (Veneto and Piedmont) and her move to Cambridge, England, where she met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965.
It also contains details of her life in India, adjusting to local customs, learning Hindi, and joining the prominent Nehru-Gandhi family. In the book, she also recounts personal and national traumas, including the assassinations of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi (1984) and her husband Rajiv Gandhi (1991), her complicated relationship with her sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi ("Choti Bahu"), and her eventual entry into public life and leadership of the Indian National Congress.
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