On the road again: How taxi drivers find food

Recently, while driving through Assagaon in north Goa, my taxi driver nodded at Avo’s Kitchen, a large Goan restaurant we were passing. Did I know, he asked me, that they offered a meal to drivers who waited while their customers dined inside?

Retailers in tourist destinations often give incentives to taxi drivers who bring them customers. But Avo’s arrangement seems less transactional. Amey Naik, one of the two brothers who run it, described it as general courtesy: “Our guards tell drivers sitting in our parking area that they can come to an area we’ve created near the kitchen. We cook extra curry, which we give them with rice and fried fish.”

This was particularly welcome in Assagaon, where, as in many parts of Goa, soaring land prices have made affordable eateries scarce. Tourists complain about Goan drivers’ high fares and refusal to use apps, but one driver explained this in terms of food. Apps worked in densely populated cities, with clients around each corner, but Goa was spread out. “If I take a client to one area, I have to wait a long time to get a ride from there,” he said. “Either I have to pack food along or drive home and lose money.”

Such problems were recognised in London 150 years ago. One cold night, George Armstrong, a newspaper owner, couldn’t find a horse-drawn cab because the drivers had taken refuge in pubs. He decided to create shelters, with plenty of space for cabs around, where drivers could rest and get refreshments but still be easily available to customers. Alcohol sales weren’t allowed, to prevent drivers from getting drunk. Starting in 1875, over 60 shelters were built, of which 13 are still in operation.

Elsewhere, similar arrangements evolved informally. Taxi drivers are experts at finding restaurants that combine good, affordable food, long hours, and plentiful parking. In South Korea, gisa sikdang (‘drivers’ restaurants’) portioned meals for one person, rather than the group quantities more common in Korean restaurants. The food was simple and comforting, with dwaeji bulbaek, marinated grilled pork, becoming a signature dish. This became so popular that so-called gisa sikdangs have opened around the world, offering dwaeji bulbaek to all diners.

A German equivalent is the TaxiTeller, or taxi platter, popular in the Ruhr region. It is said to have been invented late one night when a driver, finding that the gyros grilled meat he wanted was almost over, asked for a supplement of currywurst (mildly spiced sausage).

Gyros themselves were Gyros themselves were popularised in Germany by Turkish migrants, many of whom worked as taxi drivers. This has always been a profession that attracts migrants, and their food habits follow. The USA’s many South Asian taxi drivers have resulted in desi restaurants like New York’s Haandi becoming unofficial community and social networking centers.

But everywhere, taxi drivers are facing pressures from app-based alternatives and changing habits, like working from home, that erode their margins, making any restaurants unaffordable. This is shown in Mumbai Taximen, Tarini Bedi’s depiction of the state of the city’s kaali-peelis (yellow and black cabs) in an exchange between a taxi union leader and a representative from an app. The latter soothingly suggests that the app isn’t competition but a supplement, like in an Udipi restaurant, where “you get sambar and chutney at no extra cost.”

The union official retorts, “What is this idli-dosa-samba chutney nonsense? What taximan is sitting in a restaurant? He is sitting on the roads.”

If more restaurants were like Avo’s Kitchen, more taxi drivers might be able to get a meal without leaving their work on the road for too long.