When we went out for Indian food last Saturday night, our drinking water was served in copper cups. Why is it that (in New York City, at least) most Indian restaurants, and only Indian restaurants, serve water in metal cups? The Indian beer came in a glass bottle and the waiter poured the beer into a glass goblet, so I’m guessing that glass is a substance known to the Indian Subcontinent…Why metal for the water?
That’s a good question.
My WAG, with no cite, is that they are displaying old world traditions, and at some point glass was.much more expensive/harder to make than beating a soft metal into a molded shape.
Also, until your last sentence, I was going to ask, ‘circle or dot?’
Europeans used Pewter for glasses and plates until the mid 20th century. I still occasionally see it at garage sales. It was durable and easy to make.
Metal drinking cups (or small jars) for water instead of glassware are used more in India than in the US. The restaurant is just being all culturally authentic-like.
Likewise, Indian culture uses metal plates more than ceramic ones. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case: it’s not as though they don’t have potters.
Maybe in a hot climate, the “food getting cold on metal plates” problem isn’t so much of an issue.
Cups, plates, bowls, serving dishes, and food storage containers are often metal in India. This includes everything from cheap dishes served by street vendors to heavy heirloom quality stainless steel dinner ware.
I doubt there is any good reason for this- you may as well ask why we choose to eat on heavy, breakable ceramic rather than lightweight and durable metal. It’s just how they do things.
But water tastes different out of metal, so serving it in metal makes a lot of sense from an authenticity standpoint.
I’ve been told by my relatives that it’s a matter of hygiene. Metal is seen as clean, free of contamination once washed. Other materials for serving food are not considered hygienic, except for disposable single-use items like palm leaves or paper plates.
God, they’re all just so much better than us, aren’t they?
We have much to learn from them.
???
Your comments have nothing to do with the OP or the factual answer I provided, and are bringing snark board stuff and personal jabs into someone else’s question. If you really need to play schoolyard bully with me, do so in your own thread.
Nah, I’m done with my eye-rolling. Bye.
Indians (particularly northerners and the Bangladeshis who run most “Indian” restaurants) also like to keep dishes separate, so compartmented tray-dishes (“thalis”) are popular. Hard to make ceramic ones.
Upper-class Indian people (and high end restaurants) typically use porcelain in their homes nowadays.
However, metal plates and dishes have always been popular in India because they’re relatively easy to sanitize (just boil them); before metal, Indians used disposable “dishes” like banana leaves.
I thought it was “feather or dot?” Who are the circles?
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Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Thanks. If I were to get a beer in India (or Bangladesh), would it more likely come in a can than in a bottle? If I were in a restaurant, would they pour my beer into a metal drinking cup?
As far as I know, Kingfisher (the most popular Indian beer) only comes in glass bottles or draught.
Indian here.
Copper cups are believed to impart health benefits to the water is stored in them. This practice is more prevalent in northern part of the country.
The restaurant is just being authentic:-)
Beer is always served in glasses and never in metal cups.
(Looks at name. Looks at location)
Story seems to check out.
I am the real deal.
I spend a couple of weeks in India last month, and covered quite a bit of ground. Mostly we ate in hotel restaurants or high-end-for-India places or at suppliers’ private restaurants, but I never drank out of a metal cup. Not once.
You may not find this in posh restaurants, but in peoples homes. I personally know some north Indians who still keep water in copper pots to drink later.
That said, some dhabas do have copper pots, I remember eating in one such place near Delhi in mid-90s. Copper being costly, could lead to more thefts.
India is huge, and impossible to generalize. And not everyone likes the taste of water stored for long in copper pots in India.