Srinagar, Aug. 11 -- The trigger is the now-infamous "rotten meat scandal," in which sacks of decomposed mutton were seized from a cold storage in Srinagar.

What might have been dismissed as a routine food safety raid has, instead, hit a nerve, reviving a public debate about how the valley abandoned its centuries-old fresh food traditions and whether it can win them back.

"This isn't just about one storage unit or a few corrupt sellers," said Nazir Ahmad, a wazwan chef from Srinagar. "It's about how we lost the discipline our elders lived by: buy fresh, eat fresh, waste nothing."

For most of the 20th century, freshness in Kashmir was non-negotiable.

Families knew their butcher and their chicken seller by name. Meat was bought in the m...