Requiem To Traditional Kerala Vegetarian Cuisine

I am an avowed foodie and looooove my food. Apparently people who are born under the same 'nakshatram' as me are all foodies.

I enjoy all kinds of food. Am not partial to any one kind of cuisine. The kind of food I grew up eating was our Kerala vegetarian food with sambar, molgutal, mor kootan, thoran, avial and the like. I certainly enjoyed eating North Indian food (the spicier the better), Maharashtrian food and Italian food as a change from the home fare.

All visits to our family home in Kerala were replete with typical Kerala vegetarian fare. Obviously what one gets, one takes for granted. Never did I realize this was a luxury one got only at home. 2014 when I visited Cochin - the first time in Kerala when i was not at home - I was shocked to realize how difficult it was to find vegetarian food anywhere. That was followed by a trip to Waynad this Feb. Veg food when available was either the regular idli and dosa which one could get anywhere or badly made North Indian food. Any inquiries about the avial which was conspicuous by its absence would be met with a smile as if to say "Are you crazy?"

I was told that Thiruananthapuram was a place where one could find homes selling home made vegetarian food. Coming here for work, I was indeed hopeful of getting true blue Kerala fare. But no, even here it is the same story - Punjabi and Chinese food. Eventually I found one restaurant serving a 'mini' meal including about 7-8 dishes yesterday. The amount of rice they sent ... well i am not complaining. It will last me until tomorrow! Am just grateful for having finally gotten my daily quota of vegetables.

"Why does the West think Indian food is only 'curry' and 'chicken tikka masala' " was a question that used to always bother me. The answer is now clear. Even Kerala feels obliged to serve North Indian and Chinese food over the local Kerala fare. This is how culture, including culinery culture dies out. Avial, where art thou?

 

Lucky you, Viswa! Times seem to have changed so drastically. Either one has to eat a sadya or sorry, no avial ! :-D Impossible to order just rice/chappati with one vegetable! Though you can certainly order chappati and North Indian veggie.

Yes, people are very kind. In fact I had a strange experience the other day. I was coming back from the temple in an auto rickshaw and asked the driver to stop for 5 minutes. The 5 minutes stretched to 10 mins and then to 15. When i came out, I found the guy had vamoosed. Could understand he must have been mad at the delay, but felt really bad about his having gone away without collecting his fare.

Two days back I went back to Padmanabha Swamy temple. I was told that typical Kerala food was cooked and sold by Mamis there. Unfortunately they seem to do so only in the afternoons and it is not possible for me to get there from work which ends only at 1.15. So while I was asking around, one lady led me to her neighbour who told me she had some kootu left from morning. I told her I'd be very happy to take it. I wanted to pay, but they absolutely refused to take any money for it.

It is nice to see well educated auto wallahs. I am struck by the greenery of the place, Kerala on the whole is an extremely clean state.

 

Yes, Viswa. I went to the temple for days of Auld Lang Syne. I had visited TVM as an 8 year old with my parents and had vague images of the temple in my mind and went looking for it. I found the place as well as the sand inside the temple precincts, but did not dare to ask about the treasures! Who knows where that kind of question would land me!!! Anyway, the rest was a far cry from the old days. Getting darshan was a crazy experience which left me feeling like a sugarcane which had been passed through a mill of human bodies. Not at all pleasant. Anyway, had my darshan and I shall rest satisfied with that for this lifetime.

As for the food, i am sure if I had a weekend in between, I could go to the area in the afternoon, buy some food and put it in the frig to last me for the week.

 

Thanks a lot RRaj. I went there and found that te kind of food I was looking for is available only in the afternoons. Also I am put up very far from there. Next time, if I am here on a weekend, I can surely go in the afternoon and enjoy the fare.

 

Wow! A definite must go!