Sonia Gandhi has revealed some of her favourite Indian dishes, including Gujarati food from Surat and a few others. She also recalled how it took her time to get used to Indian food when she first arrived in the country, admitting that the variety initially amazed her while the spices made her nervous.In a video shared on her Instagram account, Sonia spoke about her relationship with Indian food during a conversation with her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi. She said that although she now loves several Indian dishes, enjoying the food did not come naturally to her in the beginning.“I love Indian food. Bengali food I love. Believe it or not, I love Gujarati food from Surat,” she said.Talking about her early days in India, Sonia admitted that adjusting to the country’s food was not easy. “It took me time to get used to Indian food. You know, it was difficult for me to enjoy Indian food right at the beginning. I didn’t know how to cook when I came, but later, slowly, I learned,” she recalled.
Sonia reveals her favourite Indian dishes
Image courtesy: Instagram/@soniagandhi
During the conversation, Priyanka asked her mother about her favourite foods. Sonia listed several dishes, including kebabs, chicken tikka, tandoori chicken and dal makhani. “Oh, I love kebabs, chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, dal, makhani dal,” she said.Sonia also mentioned some Kashmiri dishes she enjoys. “And the Kashmiri kosta and the haakh. Haakh is a Kashmiri dish.” “And dal chawal, that’s my favourite in our house,” Priyanka said in between.The conversation then turned to the food cooked in the Gandhi household. Sonia revealed that arhar dal has remained a constant in the family kitchen over the years. “So in our house, from the day I came to this house, till today, the only dal cooked is arhar ki dal. No other dal,” she said.Priyanka also brought up khandvi, the Gujarati snack that Sonia used to prepare. Sonia agreed that she had made it in the past, adding that it was not something easily available everywhere. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you imagine? Oh my god. Khandvi I used to make. It’s not something you can find all around. It’s very easy, Khandvi,” she recalled.
Sonia remembers the family’s appreciation for food
Another interesting part of the conversation was Sonia’s recollection of her mother-in-law’s approach to food. She said that although her mother-in-law did not cook, she had a remarkable ability to identify what could make a dish taste better.“But dadi couldn’t cook,” said Priyanka. Sonia continued, “She couldn’t cook, but she had a very acute sense, more developed sense of, ah, this is good, but if you put this, if you add a little bit of this, so she knew exactly how to improve something.”
Sonia says food played a role in her love story with Rajiv Gandhi
Along with the video, Sonia shared a personal note about how food has been connected to important moments in her life, including her relationship with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. “Food has always had a special place in my story. It was while looking for a good meal that I met Rajiv, and fell in love. Years later, India came to me the same way, one meal at a time,” she wrote in the caption.She also described how her feelings about Indian food changed over the years. “At first the variety amazed me and the spice scared me. Now dal chawal is the taste of home, and I can’t go a day without it,” she added.