New Year 2018: 5 Iconic Food Milestones That Took 2017 By Storm

Here comes the end of 2017, and what an eventful year it has been for the country! Not just people, some of our foods managed to grab prime time headlines too. What a time to be alive, right? While the year saw many individuals, groups, movies and sport stars sharing the spotlight from time to time, some of our most loved foods travelled from the corners of the kitchen and became national news too, for reasons both good and bad. We have enlisted 5 iconic moments in the year gone by, when a food item captured the attention of the entire nation together.1. The ‘Record-Breaking’ KhichdiKhichdi lovers raise your hand! We made it to the Guinness Book of World Records this year because of our most favourite comfort food- Khichdi. Celebrity Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, with the help of over 50 volunteers, prepared whopping 918 kilograms Khichdi. The khichdi was cooked in a custom-made kadhai (wok) in front of a live audience at the World Food India 2017. Prepared in a kadhai of the capacity of 1000 litres and 7 feet in diameter, the attempt calls for extra attention to the 3 months of planning and trials, that went into the mammoth feat. 
There were also talks of Khichdi being announced as the ‘National Dish’ of India, which were put to rest by Food processing industry’s minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal through twitter. Either way, this Khichdi got a lot of speculations cooking for quite some time. 
 
2. The Bitter- Sweet War Over ‘Rasgulla’This year also saw the conclusion (well, sort of) of the long-running tussle between West Bengal and Orissa over the origins of Rasgulla. Both the states claimed that the spongy chenna delight hails from their region, and is steeped in their culture and history. Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's tweet on 13th November announced that Bengal won the GI tag for the much loved sweetmeat. But there was a catch. The GI tag has been granted only for "Banglar Rasogolla" which translates to ' Rasogolla of Bengal', not to the Rasgulla in general. Odisha is now aiming to get the GI tag for its version of the dish, now called "Jagannath Rasagola".Well, as long as we get to indulge in our much loved sweet treat, we don’t think anybody is complaining.
3. Chana and Chana Dal Entry to the Oxford DictionaryIndia’s favourite chana and chana dal became the newest entrants into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) unveiled in June 2017. Chickpeas (chana) and the split chickpea lentils (chana dal) joined the vast list of more than 600 other words and phrases that the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary deemed popular enough to be included in its quarterly update.4. The Medu Vada Tussle on twitter International star and U.S based Chef Gordon Ramsay created ripples in the subcontinent with his statement on one of South India’s most loved snack- Medu vada. In April 2017, the man who never minces his words went on to dismiss a Mumbai man’s Medu vada as ‘prison food’ on twitter.  Ramsay who for his pastime loves reviewing (Read: trolling) the pictures of food that his fans send him over twitter, tweeted to one of his Mumbai-based follower who goes by the name Rameez on twitter. Gordon drew a lot of flak from Medu vada lovers across the globe for his ‘not-so-considerate’ statement, with several fans taking potshots at his food.
 

I didn't know you can tweet from prison https://t.co/rxrPPBonff

— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) April 6, 2017

5. The world's largest samosaThere is something about a samosa. No matter how many you have, you almost always can make room for one more. This year saw another record-breaking feat, when a group of volunteers at the East London Mosque attempted their hands at making a 153 kilo samosa.The previous year saw several ups and downs, and our dear food making it to some of the most talked about events in the year gone by, means a lot to every foodie across the nation. Here’s to many more iconic food milestones in 2018 and the years to come.