[Firstpost]- South meets North: Chennai weddings turn over a new leaf

If you are good at film trivia, you’ll recall that a certain Shekhar Subramaniam, video game inventor, stirred up emotions when he stirred curds into his noodles. Curds in noodles?? That’s atrocious! At the most some may add a dash of sambar powder while cooking noodles, but this is a wrong and unfair depiction of South Indian food preferences by Bollywood, protested many film goers... And with that SRK’s Ra One box office earnings may have suffered a bit in Chennai.

Yet fusion food, (or should that be confusion food) is drawing the crowds to rave reviews in halls everywhere. I mean wedding halls, not cinema halls. I have just returned from a grand wedding reception myself, and have witnessed a kind of national integration through food. On my large Melamine plate, (but it had a banana leaf pattern on it), Karnataka’s bisi bele bhat mixed readily with Punjab’s paneer makhani; and Andhra’s pesarattu flirted with Maharashtra’s shrikhand; while a colourful Kashmiripulao found compatibility with Kerala’s avial. What’s more, some declared the bakedmacaroni au gratin to be a fine accompaniment for the puris, even as it added a dose of the international…

From the puliodharai to the pachidi to the pooshnikai kozhambu to the pal payasam, this was Tamilian food at its authentic best.

Now before Chennai food purists start throwing idlis at me in protest, let me hasten to add that all was normal and perfect in the morning wedding session when we sat down for a traditional lunch served on banana leaves. Ah! Absolutely nothing like our South Indian wedding food, we declared. From thepuliodharai to the pachidi to the pooshnikai kozhambu to the pal payasam, this was Tamilian food at its authentic best.

Served to us by ‘Mountbatten Mani’ catering service (any avid wedding attender in Chennai would know that this legendary cook earned his nickname by once pleasing Lord Mountbatten himself with a delicious badam halwa…and his family continues the legacy).

But my cousin Balu sitting next to me at the lunch wasn’t as happy as I was. Apparently at his sister’s wedding, they had a far more innovative chef who had served tomato soup rather than rasam, and a gupta curry (I think he meant kofta curry) to go with mini pancakes. Yes, pancakes.

Anyway, coming back to the reception…just as the bride and groom turned up in a glittering ghagra choli and sherwani (Karan Johar’s dramatic influence on wedding reception costumery); the fare too was designed to embrace new trends. But before we gave in to our food cravings, we stopped to admire the food carvings. Displayed at the entrance were carrots sculpted into popular goddesses, rising proudly from pink lotuses that were shaped out of water melons. And holy macaroni. There was even a Ganesha made from a variety of pasta pieces, artistically glued together.

All around the hall colourful canopies served different cuisines. But we were frequently interrupted from reaching them by several men in green pointy hats: these were specially costumed servers who leapt before us every three minutes, compelling us to try an array of finger foods; including mini idlis decorated with carrot gratings.

Then we jostled with a thousand guests, piling on eagerly from stall to canopied stall. Now why didn’t somebody tell us earlier that there was a chaat stall too? We would have held back on the puran polis and gulped gol guppas instead…

Finally smiling hostess ladies with identical blue and gold saris showed us the way to the dinner’s finale; where even the diabetic-prone said, what the heck, and fought sweet tooth and nail in the scramble for desserts.

Next week I am going to a North Indian wedding. I am heading straight to the chaatstall first this time. But I do hope it’s not the North-meets-South kind of surprise …I’m not sure if I am going to like gol guppas with rasam inside, however innovative that may be.

This article was featured on http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/south-meets-north-chennai-weddings-turn-over-a-new-leaf-535866.html

Email: indubee8@yahoo.co.in

[Firstpost] In Chennai, we have our gold and eat it too

In September, Chennai’s gold prices touched an alarming new high at Rs 3265 per gram. While that news may have been hard to swallow, many Chennaiites seemed prepared to swallow the metal itself— in the form of a Gold Aappam, a fancy food innovation launched by Nalas Aappakadai in our city.

Yes, there’s real 24 carat gold in them thar rice-flour hoppers. And if you are willing to pay Rs 499 a plate, your Gold Aappam will arrive with 100 mg of pure gold flakes sprinkled all over, giving your dish a sparkling luxurious sheen.

Picture courtesy Nalas Aappakadai

Intrigued by an ad in the papers, I set off to this popular food stop in T’Nagar’s ever-crowded Pondy Bazaar. As I waited to see the incredible edible golden wonder, I chatted with Mr Ramesh the restaurant’s MD. And I hear that it’s not just for the wealthy, but for the healthy too. Of course one has heard of the curative effects of gold in Siddha and Ayurvedic medicines, and its age-old use as a detoxifier and rejuvenator. So, swallowing gold with this aappam was going to do no harm, in fact perhaps some good too. But I am told not to over-indulge myself (!) and to allow at least a week’s gap between eating one gold aappam and the next.

I am shown a tiny plastic box with pretty little bright yellow flecks: 100 mg of pure edible gold: the exact amount that will get into a single aappam. This itself costs the owners about Rs 450; so on second thoughts, aappam + 3 side dishes + dessert at Rs 499 a pop suddenly seemed like a reckless indulgence by the restaurateurs, not the curious diner!

My gold aappam arrives. Diners in the next table peer to catch a glimpse of it. Well it certainly looks sensational. Tiny sparkles all over the most perfectly made aappam I have ever seen. The generous accompaniments –vegetable stew, ulli theeyal, kadalai curry (mutton curry, fish/chicken fry curry, if you are a non-vegetarian), plus a complimentary juice and fruit salad thrown in— make this a full meal in itself.

“We had 20 orders on the very first day, and on an average now, we sell about 10 plates every day,” says Ramesh, the shop’s MD.

I take my first gilded mouthful. Hmmm. The gold adds a feeling rather than a flavour. It’s delicious anyway, so I smile and nod…(mainly for the benefit of the family in the next table staring at me for a reaction).

After that unusual meal, I step outside to find that I’m only a gemstone’s throw away from Chennai’s bustling gold haven –Usman Road—where thousands flock everyday, fuelled by a gold obsession that’s hardwired in our DNA. There are 64 listed shops you can buy gold jewellery from in this street alone! Gold is in the air here… and, apparently on the pavements too.

I recall an interesting picture essay on Chennai in National Geographic recently, where an American photo-journalist Randy Olson writes about a bunch of women sweepers who turn up well before dawn to ‘pan’ for gold flakes amidst garbage every day— outside every leading gold ornament shop on Usman Road! They do this in stealth before the garbage collectors arrive—and lucky ones end up getting a gram of gold a week, sifting minute particles from trash in the streets.

No worries that any such ‘wastage’ flakes ever gets back to the consumer: in this case, the aappam consumer. What I had was gold in a pure edible form, not the type that makes ornaments.

Walking back to my car, I hoped the gold I swallowed would do its health-enhancing bit… It had many choices: it could improve my complexion or make my heart function better or make my brain sharper or guard me against a lung disorder. Or increase my longevity: a useful immunity to have as I nearly get run over by the manic evening traffic on the road…

Meanwhile, I hear there’s a dosa innovation in Bangalore whose ‘masala’ is real gold too, and priced at Rs 1100 a plate. National Geographic is right, we are indeed gold-hungry Indians.

This article also appeared on http://www.firstpost.com/living/in-chennai-we-have-our-gold-and-eat-it-too-480503.html

[iDiva] Who Moved My Paneer?

Image courtesy: ©2009 Jupiterimages

A handy tip for health-conscious fat- fighting travellers zipping down the highway of temptations: do not exceed the feed limit.

Aha! But you're on holiday here…and don't we all need some extra fuel for those jam-packed holiday activities ahead? And what's jam without a generous layer of butter first…

That's why I love those Breakfast Included places to stay in. And although I have a careful less-cheese, more-paneer, less eggs, more fruit plan in my normal day, I reach the free-breakfast buffet table on my holiday and a compelling voice inside me says: "You have paid a lot of money for this free breakfast already! Now tank up. Eat for the whole day… You're only being sensible, not greedy!"

So suddenly eating nine types of breakfast foods, from three types of plans, and also squeezing in "live dosas" made on the spot, (and hey look, hot pancakes and syrup too; now how did we miss that?), …becomes quite the thing to do on holiday. And when there's a daylong safari through elephant country ahead, eating like one is in order.

Anyway after this one indulgence, I figure I'll be eating like a bird for the rest of the day. Only by the time lunch comes around, I'm eating like a bird all right-and the bird is a raven (so how else do you explain the origins of the word "ravenous'?)

So just give up and give in. And when you come back to good earth and wonder, where did all that holiday money go?? Stand sideways and look in the mirror.

This article was featured on http://www.idiva.com/opinion-entertainment/who-moved-my-paneer/2079