The Parotta Story

The ubiquitous Malabar Parotta – and its meandering journey I love the Malabar Parotta, and ever since I first tasted it during our college days in Calicut in the 1970s, it has remained a favorite. There was even a time when we only ate it during vacation visits to India since there was just one Pak…

Sambhar - Marathi or South Indian?

Sambhar – the curry and its origins The other day, we discussed the origins of Idli, and a few days later, I came across a different version of Rasam, popularized by a well-known wedding caterer, cook, chef, and restaurateur, Nataraja Iyer, which turned out quite good. (However, it should be even be…

Idli – A Delectable Dish

And its origins Without a doubt, it is a favorite of mine, and I eat a couple of fluffy Idli’s manufactured to perfection by my wife, for breakfast, at least two or three days every week. Sometimes, it is eaten with chutney, or with onion chutney (Ulli Sammandhi) made the Palghat way, but most of th…

In transition - Malayali Culinary habits

A little about the food habits of yore Early Malabar was quite cosmopolitan, especially around Cannanore, Calicut and Cochin, but we see hardly any permeation of foreign food habits into the Hindu food scene. While Moplah cooking was influenced by the Arabs, the Jews are all gone leaving behind jus…

The story of Aviyal

When my children were small, we would all cuddle up and I would tell them some of the stories I remembered. But however many times I tried to change the stories to new ones, my sons would want to hear a few of the standard ones. I used to wonder why for they were basic Aesop’s fables or Panchatant…

The Malabar Biryani

Hari Nair in his blog mentions about his newly acquired taste of the ever famous Malabar or Calicut Biryani and wondered about its origins and preservation. Thanks to CKR for the link . Well I do not want to get into the cooking aspects and recipe preservation part myself; others like Indiandoc have…