Dine ’n’ dance
Manpriya Singh
Kathak dancer Nandita Puri was born in Madhya Pradesh, grew up in Calcutta, spent her teenage years in England where her father was posted, came back to be in Delhi before spending thirty long and active years in dance in Mumbai. Wait. Currently based out of Chandigarh, in between whenever time permits, she joins her merchant navy husband to explore several different ports. With access to so many cuisines from across the world, what really comes to be the starting point of any conversation on food is the tangy and typical Indian street food. “I absolutely love chaat papris, paani puri, gol gappe, bhel puri,” she gushes with absolute sincerity.
A vegetarian, by conscience
A non-vegetarian who gave into vegetarianism, courtesy all the humanitarian activism in context of animals, the only craving she gives into is fish. “Because I stayed at a coastal area for such long, I like to eat fish once in a while.”
Breakfast means…
Largely south Indian fare. “Since I spent majority of my time in Mumbai, breakfast came to be more south India inspired with things like dosa, idli, poha, upma. That is unlike the north or continental breakfast that Punjabis have.”
Classical dancer, foodie and a good cook
Well, she learnt her signature dishes straight from the community strongly associated with non vegetarian. “I stayed with my dance guru for 12 years, who was a Muslim, which meant that I can make the kormas and biryani really well. Even though I don’t eat non-veg, I still make them whenever family or friends ask for it.” she adds, “And then I also make dosas and south Indian food well.”
Indian dishes she craves for Kadi chawal because of my love for all things tangy. And then rajmah chawal.
Diet and dance
Dancers are used to a certain amount of exercise and that means they are used to a certain amount of food. “But now when the performances are not so frequent, we have to monitor our diet, which we are not in the habit of. But either in terms of food or in terms of exercise, I make it a point to balance.”
Dinner outing Chandigarh
“I am not really a restaurant person.” She doesn’t miss out on Oriental fare when dining out. “I used to like Bombay Chopsticks for their style of Chinese and now Oriental food means either Mainland China or Kylin at Elante. Lately, you might find me eating out at Chili’s too.”
manpriya@tribunemail.com
