Ragi omelette to barley pulav, Indian millet cuisines making waves in China

Millets, the cereal providing staple food dating back to prehistoric times, made a rousing comeback in Indian restaurants across China as Indian diplomatic missions in this country celebrated the International Year of Millets 2023. The year 2023 has been designated as the International Year of Millets after a proposal for the same was brought forward by the Government of India and endorsed by members of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) Governing Bodies, as well as by the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

The proposal was backed by over 70 countries. The Indian Embassy here and the Consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong have announced programmes to popularise this initiative. The Indian Embassy in Beijing has lined up several events for this event, which includes a round table discussion on IYOM 2023 with the participation of the Food and Agriculture Organisation Representative to China. The Embassy will also launch a Millets recipe book and organise a Millets cooking Challenge and Millets selfie competition. Indian restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, and several other Chinese cities have come up with several exclusive millet dishes to popularise them among their Chinese guests.

They have also kept a variety of Indian millets on display in special enclosures to highlight their importance for nutrition and food security. Beijings oldest Indian restaurant, Taj Pavilion, has come up with an exclusive new millet menu that includes, Millet Dhokla, Goti Pokodi, Tomato Ragi Omelette, Chicken Bhuna Sargam, Barlie Barlie Mutton pulao. Chinese are well versed with millets. They have Conjee, a porridge with a mix of total millets and total grains every day, the Taj Pavilion owner M H Pastakia said.

With exclusive millet dishes, we are trying to show our Chinese customers that millets can be tasty in a main course like parathas and desserts, he told

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