Food to me, is an emotion, is an ecstasy!
I abbbsolutely adore people who are fluent in languages and literature, Likewise, I freaking love people who make and appreciate good food! ❤️ From what I ve heard from my family, I started cooking as early as when I was eight!
My maternal grandmum and aunts still say that I would chop up the potatoes by myself, put a stool in front of the kitchen slab where the stove was placed, and make my own "uralakizhangu fry", the very first recipe I've ever cooked!!
Coming from a family that has a sweet tooth with humongous fondness for culinary sustenance, my very early memories are that of those times spent with my cousins at my maternal grandparents’ place during vacations and festivals. It meant all the eight of us sitting together in a circle and eating hot food as my aunts served us and having "nila choru" (dinner under the moon lit sky) talking stories while we gobbled up delicious food.
I don’t in my strongest memory, remember a day when there weren’t at least ten people eating at meal times in that house. There was food available at all time for anyone who bothered dropping in and irrespective of the time of the day.
My maternal grandmum was/is no less an Annapoorni, used to make us amazing telugu delicacies (as she was from andhra), one of sister's most favourite was sugantulu, a crispy on the outside yet soft on the inside sweet balls made of cooked green gram dhal mixed along with sweetness of jaggery dipped in a flowy white batter of rice flour and deep fried till crispy. A lot of holidays and weekends were spent there where we would spend our days cycling around the locality, wander endlessly and play plenty of games. The day would invariably begin with a tumbler of boost or horlicks with milk bikkis (in a glass jar) for dipping. Lunch was simple South Indian fare with sambar, rasam with vegetables and the likes. I can almost taste aunts' sambar as I think about it now. It was always less spicy than my mom’s and had a touch of tartness to it as aunts add tamarind and mum doesn't! We also grew up eating keema meat balls so delicious that the taste still lingers on my tongue sold by a neighbourhood paati at my grandparents village back then.
My love for chopping vegetables started when I used to offer amma help, to chop up veggies as she went about cooking ten different things for the four of us in lightning speed before she headed to work, and over time chopping vegetables became a favourite! Our weekend meal at home always consisted of a staple menu as kids. Saturday mornings always had the waft of fresh ghee with s subtle hint of hing in air along with the splutter of curry leaves that got tadka-ed over the mushy pongal, paired with kathrika gosthu (a humble lentil based savory staple made using moong dhal and aubergine).
And Sunday lunches were invariably meant for spicy rich biriyani either made at home or bought from the legendary Arcot star biriyani, a quaint little shop that would sell out the biryani in no time. Arcot biriyani is a nawabi delicacy where the short grains of slow cooked jeeraga samba rice is cooked on dum along with the spicy marinated meat gravy making it the ultimate comfort food, eaten accompanied by what's locally called as the kathrika pachidi, yet again, a tangy rather thick gravy with an egg plant base and an onion raita.
At school, we’d all sit together under the shades of those large trees, share food during lunch break watching the trucks and buses that pass by! My mum's tamarind rice aka puli sadam and vegetable pulao along with potato fry/banana fry was a huge hit among my friends. One in the gang used to bring yummy Chinese style fried rice, the other marwari friend used to bring some paratha ( i don't remember the name of it even remotely) along with boondi raita, my god, it used to a blast of flavours! I've never seen or eaten that parata anywhere else ever,i guess it would be a family recipe, no? Snacks during our childhood were even more special, sister and I love snacks more than meal. Post school, there hadn't been a day where we've not stopped the thallu vandi thatha who used to sell snacks. My picks were plain pori, kadalai (plain rice puffs with fried channa) and wheel chips while sister's would be masala pori with a sprinkle of onion over it, pattani (fried peas) and pori urundai. We'd buy aloo samosas, matar kachoris and pani puris sold by our neighbourhood bihari bhaiya. Dad also used to buy us mutta bondas and chicken bondas from a local shop here. All of us in the family have a sweet tooth, so dil pasand always used to be in stock at home along with bread, homemade jam, butter and butter biscuits that mum would make on her free time. Not to mention the melt in mouth pudding cake and Japanese cake bought from DVP bakery that's been running since 1875!!
Chennai, fondly called Madras then, was visited as often as every two weeks, the renowned Spencer plaza was just a five minutes walk from my aunt's apartment, we went there whenever we felt like, that was the first place where I ve had my first pizza, my first burger, my first softie cone ice cream, so on and so forth! Infact, Spencer's was one of pioneers that sold western food, then came our very own papa johns that sold the bestest pizzas in town!
Moving to Chidambaram to persue medicine, the town was so distinct and different in its culinary heritage both by preference and by culture, The town has amazing eateries that sells finger licking food. It's fascinating how such a small temple town has eateries that sells traditional thinai arisi dosai to Chinese szhewan chicken to cheese pizza to choco lava cake! I explored many amazing places like udupi sreekrisna bavan (the bestest podi dosas and kathrika gothsu), haja biriyani that my friend and I used to visit every Sunday, a small eatery called chick punch that sold amazing Chinese dishes, moorthy cafe that used to a place where birthday treats were given to friends, apple bakery that sold lovely cold sandwiches and baked items, Sharadharam where unit treats were given, Dubai restaurant which sold creamy shawarmas, etc!
I candidly remember those days in the first year where my roommate and I order every Sunday night and eat together, that was our favourite part of the weekend.
Moving to Thrissur for a while after my UG, made me fall in love with subtle aviyal and creamy ada pradhaman that the kerala cuisine had to offer! And moving to Bangalore for another temporary phase, trying the Thalassery biriyani made me fall in love with the malabar cuisine to the point that I've mastered the art of making it! (if I can say so myself😉) and hands down to the best dosas one could ever find in this world, is undoubtedly from Bangalore!
Being locked at home during the pandemic made me a baker of sorts I could say! That's when I truly started having my me-time along with my adrak chai post dinner.
Even now, when I visit Bangalore or when my sister comes down to Chennai, hunting down and heading to every dessert joint that is newly opened in the city is an activity I thoroughly enjoy including the occasional fancy-ass buffet lunches with family and cousins.!
Now, at this stage of my life, my love for food has grown much much more, so has, my cooking skills! I've started exploring the world of food tasting and trying out new flavours and cuisines.
I love to cook for people I love. To me, food is a love language, and after all this, my mum's biriyani and sambar sadam with potato fry was, is and will always be my comfort food for the rest of my life. What's yours?
