New Delhi, July 19 -- People who eat drumstick in their sambar fall into two camps.

The first kind loves eating them whole, soaking up all the tamarind and spices of the sambar. They suck out the softened pulp like a meat-eater savouring marrow from a bone. It is also mandatory to chew on the leathery skin thoroughly to extract every last bit of juice and flavour. What remains on the plate is a pile of fibrous scraps, not unlike the leftovers at a sugarcane juice stall.

And then there's the second kind-the bougie crowd. They want the inner flesh of the drumstick neatly scooped out and stirred into the sambar, no mess tolerated. They want the comfort of Indian food, but tidied up, Westernised. The same kind who want their mangoes all pee...