How The Tikkiwala’s Feeling The Heat Of US-Iran War

For some days now, ‘offer of the day’ messages, of neighbourhood food stalls and diners, have been replaced by posts of ‘regret’, for their inability to serve bestsellers. Restaurants are removing popular dishes from menus. Cloud kitchens are tagging items ‘temporarily unavailable’. Delivery apps show kiosks and outlets are pausing signature offerings, which require cooking on gas stoves. Street vendors, selling hot food, are nowhere to be seen. And papdi and golgappa sellers are stumped by punditry that they “look for baked variants”. All of this, because commercial LPG deliveries have slowed or stopped.
Commercial LPG cylinders power the majority of India’s restaurant-kitchens and street-food stalls. Fuel availability is not simply a supply chain issue, but also, a stark reminder of the fragility of one of India’s most important employment and consumption engines – when a single critical input is disrupted.