India, Dec. 14 -- When you are away from family, there is no better comfort than the familiar taste of home. Whether it's a flavourful paan, warm gajar ka halwa, or seasonal sarson ka saag with makki roti, regional food carries a comfort no restaurant can fully replace. Recognising this emotional pull, brands today are packaging nostalgia into convenient, freeze-dried meals starting at Rs.95. "As young Indians navigate travel, hostel life, and demanding work schedules, the appetite for quick, wholesome, preservative-free meals has surged, with brands scaling their operations more than fourfold in recent years," says Roshni Jaiswal from Bowlful. The food brands are ditching artificial preservatives and instead using tech-enabled freeze-drying methods that retain nutrition without additives. We speak to some of them: Beginning as a daughter's concern and a mother's curiosity, the spark of DryM Foods came from Aayushi Jain's mother, Mranalini Jain, an IHM graduate who, back in 2016, started experimenting with preserving home-cooked meals when Aayushi and her sister moved abroad. "I once brought her a fruit dehydrator from LA, and the first thing she dried was khichdi," Aayushi recalls. Word spread quickly; by 2020, without any marketing, they were dehydrating nearly 200kg of food a day. Today, DryM operates with a 1,000kg daily capacity. "We offer everything from full meals to mitha paan and rabdi. You can even freeze-dry your own home-cooked food by booking online," says Aayushi. Their recipes are engineered to retain flavour during freeze-drying, from precise ghee levels to high-quality masalas. Similarly, Chef's Boutique was born in 2021 when founder Shubhra Garg watched her daughter struggle with inconsistent hostel food. What began with just dal and curry is now a 45-dish freeze-dried vegetarian menu, including baingan ka bharta, neem papdi and special no-onion-no-garlic meals. The best feedback, she says, comes from parents whose children tell them it tastes "just like maa ke haath ka khana." For Bowlful, the idea is simple: people living out of suitcases don't crave variety-they crave comfort. "It's the feeling of eating something familiar without any effort," says spokesperson Roshni Jaiswal. Their meals are cooked conventionally, then freeze-dried at -40degC to lock in nutrition. Add hot water, wait a few minutes, and dishes like Gujarati dal bhaat or rava sheera are ready - warm reminders of home, anywhere in the world....