Wednesday, October 22, 2003
The magic of Kerala cuisine
Yesterday, I had made a post about a little-used weapon in India's soft power arsenal -- Bollywood. Today it's the turn of food. I am a food fascist. Let me explain that -- while I like to try food from just about everywhere, I am not polite towards food I dislike. And after careful thought and examination of the issue, I have no doubts whatsoever that Indian food is simply the best food there is. In my highly subjective opinion, it beats out competitors like Thai, Italian, French, Ethiopian etc hands down. The biggest plus to Indian food, alongwith spice and flavour, is the sheer diversity of the food. Each state has pretty much its own distinct cuisine, though folks in the west are only used to the food from the north-west of the country.
Time to take this post on a distinctly parochial path now. Of all the Indian cuisine I have tried, I think the food from Kerala stands head and shoulders above the rest. The spice trade of yore has resulted in a fantastic mish-mash, which when mixed in with native spices and flavours makes for a terrific combination. The influence of Kerala food can be seen all the way from east African cuisine through to south-east asian cooking, not really a surprise when one considers the routes of the spice trade. Funnily enough, food from Kerala also remains one of India's best kept secrets, with very few restaurants serving it outside the sub-continent, though London is the exception with 3 decent Kerala restaurants I know of. Otherwise, the best option would be to eat Malaysian or Sri Lankan food, which come closest in character to Kerala cuisine. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find the New York Times carrying Kerala cuisine as its lead story in the Dining section today. And boy, it was one hell of a long and descriptive story.
For centuries, long before the steamship, long before the jet plane, venturesome traders rode the trade winds to Kerala. Romans, Phoenicians, Chinese, Arabs, Portuguese, Frenchmen, Dutchmen and Britons all came here, and so did Jewish merchants from Venice. St. Thomas the Apostle is said to have landed along this coast in A.D. 52, and Christopher Columbus was headed west in search of Kerala's fabled spices when he stumbled upon America.
Each group of outsiders brought along their own culinary traditions, and each adapted to their new circumstances. The Arabs contributed fennel and fenugreek. On their quest for black pepper, the Portuguese carried the cashews and chilies they had discovered in the New World, changing forever the way the subcontinent eats. The Jews clung to kosher dietary restrictions, but they added green chilies and coriander to their meals. Blending all these influences with the abundant native spices and coconut has yielded a light, bright and vividly varied cuisine, little known to the rest of the world and totally different from the hearty tandooris and creamy curries of arid northern India.
Though there is probably an overdose of subjectivity in this post, I will strongly advise those of you who havent tried it yet to try it out. I think it'll be worth your while.
Time to take this post on a distinctly parochial path now. Of all the Indian cuisine I have tried, I think the food from Kerala stands head and shoulders above the rest. The spice trade of yore has resulted in a fantastic mish-mash, which when mixed in with native spices and flavours makes for a terrific combination. The influence of Kerala food can be seen all the way from east African cuisine through to south-east asian cooking, not really a surprise when one considers the routes of the spice trade. Funnily enough, food from Kerala also remains one of India's best kept secrets, with very few restaurants serving it outside the sub-continent, though London is the exception with 3 decent Kerala restaurants I know of. Otherwise, the best option would be to eat Malaysian or Sri Lankan food, which come closest in character to Kerala cuisine. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find the New York Times carrying Kerala cuisine as its lead story in the Dining section today. And boy, it was one hell of a long and descriptive story.
For centuries, long before the steamship, long before the jet plane, venturesome traders rode the trade winds to Kerala. Romans, Phoenicians, Chinese, Arabs, Portuguese, Frenchmen, Dutchmen and Britons all came here, and so did Jewish merchants from Venice. St. Thomas the Apostle is said to have landed along this coast in A.D. 52, and Christopher Columbus was headed west in search of Kerala's fabled spices when he stumbled upon America.
Each group of outsiders brought along their own culinary traditions, and each adapted to their new circumstances. The Arabs contributed fennel and fenugreek. On their quest for black pepper, the Portuguese carried the cashews and chilies they had discovered in the New World, changing forever the way the subcontinent eats. The Jews clung to kosher dietary restrictions, but they added green chilies and coriander to their meals. Blending all these influences with the abundant native spices and coconut has yielded a light, bright and vividly varied cuisine, little known to the rest of the world and totally different from the hearty tandooris and creamy curries of arid northern India.
Though there is probably an overdose of subjectivity in this post, I will strongly advise those of you who havent tried it yet to try it out. I think it'll be worth your while.
