Davos – One normally has to travel to India (or maybe to London) to eat the best of a certain style of Indian food. From the centre of the World Economic Forum’s meetings in Davos, one must just negotiate a few (seriously perilous) pavements to get to the Make in India cafe for some super delicious Indian treats.
As the snow turns to ice in this Swiss town, the shopfront for Make in India, an initiative of the government of India that encourages multi-nationals and domestic companies to manufacture their products in India, is a must-stop for many in the WEF community that converges on Davos every January.
As an advertisement for the country, the Make in India spread at lunchtime would be hard to beat. From warming and comforting dahl, through delicately delicious Goan fish curry, to the meaty and robust classic lamb curry, Make in India sets the bar very high.
A group of Indian businesspeople in the cafe, which might be described as the “Indian embassy” at WEF, said they were there for the tea.
One lady in the group told me that the Swiss, like most northern Europeans, didn’t seem to know much about tea. She had found one cafe serving tea, but there was just one variety, she said, both eyebrows raised in shock. At Make in India one can choose from a selection of colours – green, red, black – or flavours of chai, with or without lemon, milky chai, cinnamon, you name it.
Like the country itself, the Make in India pavilion is alive with an explosion of colour and flavours, and all of it served with a beautiful, wide smile. A very good ambassador indeed.
African News Agency