As onion prices continue to soar in India, restaurants and eateries have started to cut down on the use of the vegetable, while some are looking at using alternatives such as cucumber and cabbage.
While bigger restaurants in Chennai are yet to remove onion bhajji and raitha that accompany biryani dishes from the menu, smaller eateries have cut down on the purchase of onions.
M. Venkata Subbu, Tamil Nadu Hotels Association president said: "Restaurants have removed onion uthappam from the menu as price of the vegetable has risen 3-4 fold across the state. Some have reduced the number of orders. The quantity of onions used in sambar is also reduced and carrot, cucumber and cabbage have replaced onions in raitha.”
In Madurai, another city famous for its food outlets, many restaurants and eateries have started using onion sparingly while rustling up meals. Most have removed dishes like onion bhajji and raitha from the menu till the prices, which touched Rs 100 a kg in the retail market, cool off. Onion bhajji is not available in many eateries, and so is onion raitha in many hotels and eateries in Madurai as the price of the basic ingredient in 90% of the dishes has skyrocketed to Rs 100 in the retail market.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
