P K Mohankumar, COO of The Gateway Hotels talks to Priyanka Joshi
What’s your favourite childhood memory as far as food is concerned?
I relish home-style seafood recipes. My mom’s Travancore fish curry is an eternal favourite and even today it sets a benchmark in quality and taste. In fact, that’s why I’m listing a fish dish as my favourite recipe for Business Standard readers.
What sort of food do you like eating on a daily basis for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
I am a convert to veganism from a hard core non-vegetarian. The new-age lifestyle centred on wellness is a potent phenomenon and the future, I strongly believe, belongs to organic food, slow cooking, superfoods.
The most important meal is breakfast. I prefer a wholesome helping of active foods, including high fibre and unpolished cereals like muesli with berries, oat clusters and whole wheatgerm. As far as fruits go, I like fruits like blueberry, strawberry, red papaya, apart from antioxidant-rich veggies like bell peppers, carrots, sun-dried tomatoes. For lunch, I prefer lots of greens, including varieties of lettuce such as iceberg, lollo rosso, rocket and arugula leaf, which I combine with olives and vegetables like broccoli, brussels sprouts, knol khol. For carbs, I opt for a basket of olive oil gratine multi-grain bread. Sometimes, I also have palm jaggery with beverages.
I prefer to grab small bites of roasted and boiled protein-rich beans and lentils. With green tea, I eat almonds and seeds, including sun flower, pumpkin, flax and melon. For dinner, I usually opt for broken wheat porridge with vegetables.
What else is a must in your daily diet?
I drink at least two litres of water every morning and evening.
I also make it a point to have fresh juices, including wheatgrass juice, banana-stem juice, bitter gourd-fenugreek juice, apart from fenugreek, caraway, cinnamon and tomato juice.
Don’t you ever miss eating south Indian meals?
My transition to being a committed vegan took 90 gruelling days. So, every Sunday is a ‘fun’ day for me and I indulge my palate with a typical south Indian breakfast of steaming idlis, home dosas or puttu followed by an appetising fish curry, masala grilled mackerels and sardines, with rice and tomato-garlic rasam.
Any sinful indulgences in food?
I cannot resist fresh fruit desserts sans sugar and jelly creations. I would recommend probiotic ice-creams, flavoured yogurt and other fruit-based desserts as well.
Which is your favourite restaurant in India and abroad?
Karavalli and Blue Ginger in Bangalore, followed by Quilon at 51 Buckingham Gate, London. I also love Spice Market in New York. In each of these places, I love the authenticity of the food, the ambiance that they create.
Apart from vegan and south Indian food, which other cuisine do you like?
I like Italian cuisine a lot. Penne arrabbiata, herb-crusted John Dory with grainy mustard sauce or tomato vinaigrette with olives and capers, is what I usually order when I eat Italian food. I also like Mediterranean cuisine, especially olive oil-poached salmon and grilled cod with caper sauce.
FAVOURITE RECIPE
KANE FRY FROM KARAVALLI
Kane fish - 1 kg
Ginger-garlic paste - 10 gms
Chilli paste - 50 gms
Turmeric - 05 gms
Pepper - 10 gms
Lemon juice - 30 ml
Salt - To taste
Clean the fish by removing skin.
Make a marinade with ginger-garlic paste, chilli paste, turmeric, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Coat the fish pieces (10 approx.) with the marinade and keep aside for two hours. Deep fry the fish in hot oil till golden brown. Serve hot.
How can people be so dumb!!! Shouldn't people know about stuff before they write articles about them??
This is like - i m a non-vegetarian but i just eat non-veg.... ummmm.... never!! And it's right. This guy isn't even a vegetarian if he has meat and fish twice every week!!!
A joker?not just the man, but also the newspaper for writing something they barely understand. And even without the vegan bit, this is a plain silly boring article. The man eats everything that's imported and nothing local. Just think of the carbon footprint by consuming stuff that's grown thousands of miles away and then air freighted or shipped to India! He is insane, as if nothing healthy grows in the tropics or in India. The good we grow is a function of that agro-climatic set up and best suited for the person living there. The reporters deserves criticism for not nailing him?she must have been in awe of him when he rolled out names she had never heard before!
This guy is no vegan. He is just trying to show off. Look at the stuff he says he likes to eat everyday - nothing desi all videshi stuff. None of the stuff he mentions are available in local markets only in the upmarket niche shops. Maybe he gets it free from the hotel kitchen, who knows :-)
It is a pity that Mohan Kumar uses the word 'vegan' without understanding it. There cannot be '6 days vegan' or '90% vegan'. A person to be called 'vegan' has to exclude all cruety and cruelly produced products and services including those of animal origin. I request the author of the article to correct the mistake by withdrawing it forthwith.
Boycott Taj Group Hotels.
Hotel management does not know meaning of Vegetarian forget Vegan. I am afraid, if they were serving fish and fish ingredients to Vegetarian/Vegan guests in their restaurant.
I feel pity about Mr.P MohanKumar.
How can you be so careless and call someone vegan in spite of him 'indulging' in fish every sunday! What was the reporter even thinking?! Priyanka Joshi just google 'vegan' and send the results to this COO of 'Gateway Hotels' so both of you know what it means.
It's too bad the animals don't get to decide that they can have a 'fun day' on Sundays by not being murdered. Can the writer of this article please clarify whether he meant he cheated while he was in the transition phase? Or if he always has so much fun eating animal products on Sundays despite what he's doing for the rest of the week.
I am never entering a Gateway hotel in my life. I think others vegetarian(lacto etc) should not too.
P K Mohankumar, COO of The Gateway Hotels Does not KNOW THE MEANING of VEGAN. Not VEGETARIAN!!!
I am sure in Gateway hotels if you go on a sunday, they will add fish to your Vegetarian stew, or make the veg burger with beef.
What is Gateway doing, PR suicide!!!
Priyanka, you can contact us in case of any problem as regards to your vegan life. Our website is indianvegan dot com. I, Manish Jain Indore also available on facebook.
Vegans excludes all products/ingredients which derived/originally sourced from Animals, birds, worms and insects like milk, milk derivatives,eggs meat, chicken, fish ,sea foods, leather, woolen, silk etc etc.
One must go Vegan for the people, for the planet and the animals too.
Guys I think he is a vegan for 6days a week.. As he says I like toindulge in on Sundays... Vegan can be a choice not a jail routine... It's all right to be vegan with a purpose of 6 day a week
Posted by: tim marshall
April 07 , 2010, 17:15 IST
no , actually it isnt, Vegan, unlike vegetarian, cannot be applied to a diet , especially not a parttime diet, its an ethical choice, the conscious exclusion of all forms of animal products where possible.
its a binary state, on or off, vegan or animal user,like being pregnant or not pregnant , racist or not , using slaves or not .. the guy doesnt know what he is talking about, if he tried it six days he is experimenting with veganism but isnt a vegan
Mohankumar has no clue what he's saying when he talks about being vegan. Vegans don't eat fish-- they shun all animal foods, including honey (because it's made by bees), eggs and honey. Can this guy get a reality check, please?
P K Mohankumar's transition to veganism just plain old "wasn't". He is not vegan if he is eating fish curries and the other things he describes.
And in my experience, veganism is incredibly easy!!
P K Mohankumar clearly does not understand what it means to be a Vegan. He claims to be a convert, after 90 grueling days of transition, but speaks of eating fish, ice cream and yogurt, all non-Vegan items. If P K Mohankumar is eating fish, ice cream and yogurt, after 90 grueling days of a Vegan transition, he wasted 90 days because, plain and simple, he is not a Vegan, committed or otherwise.
lol - you're not a vegan - you're not even a vegetarian for that matter
crazy "article"
"i'm vegan, and it's really hard, but I eat one baby lamb on wednesdays, and a bloody steak every sunday"
Content Guide
KANE FRY FROM KARAVALLI
