This month has been a busy one. Considering how I haven’t travelled anywhere in a long time, there were lots of travel and meetups in the last few weeks. The highlight was my week-long trip to my hometown- Kerala. I usually visit Kerala once a year but, thanks to Covid, the visit gap was close to three years! I look forward to a lot of things when I go there. Meeting relatives (specific few), hanging out with cousins, relaxing, doing nothing productive (like, that’s something new), but, most importantly, I look forward to food! When I say look forward, I mean to relish as much as my tummy can accommodate from the wide variety that Kerala cuisine has to offer.
I am not deprived of mallu food when I am outside Kerala. I mean, I eat that everyday at home here, but the amount of stuff you get from that land is phenomenal! I always look forward to snacks that you get there. I am a sucker for fried stuff, so fried snacks is what I seek. All the upperi (banana chips), sharkara varatti (jaggery based banana chips), murukku of all shapes: round, stick, ribbon, achappam (rose cookies) – fritters of all kinds are my absolute favourites! I also like sweets but not too much of it. ‘Aluva’ or halwa is something I don’t miss when in Kerala. Nothing beats kozhikodan black halwa which is now easy to procure from any part of the state or country.
In addition to these, I love baked goods. There are few old bakeries that have stood the test of time. Their businesses have been thriving for over 50 years and their product recipes probably stay with them. One such bakery that we always visit is ‘Eastern Bakery’. You get all sorts of snacks there. Their exclusive cakes and cookies are the most sought after. They have small paper wrapped tea cakes and star shaped sponge cakes that I love! My uncle always gets me one of those. Yum! The only thing I missed having was masala biscuits from that bakery. Couldn’t buy them this time. I usually buy lots to bring back home too. Somehow, I poorly managed my time during this short trip plus the heat wasn’t welcoming to strut outdoors.
We did the occasional food orders via delivery apps (can’t leave my habit home). Loved ordering breakfast there. Idiyappam, appam, and puttu – traditional heavy mallu breakfast was something I made sure I had daily. The only thing I am not a big fan of is set dosas which are commonly eaten there for breakfast, so, I stuck to crispy thin dosas which was majorly a tamil-influenced style of cooking.
My trip coincided with Vishu festival (Kerala New Year) so we celebrated it in our small way. The highlight was the Vishu sadya (meal) which was pre-ordered, because everyone around me is too old to cook an elaborate sadya, and I am not too helpful in the kitchen during holidays. The meal was scrumptious and the payasams(sweet) were out of this world! Two types of my favourite payasams were part of the meal – milk ‘semiya payasam’ and jaggery ‘ada payasam’. Slurp! It was some great food!
I want to take a moment to mention an absolutely lip-smacking beef fry that I had in a restaurant while enroute to my dad’s hometown – the traditional Kerala Beef Fry that I always go searching for in Bangalore. My dad and I belted it like crazy! Perfectly cooked with the right spices. Yum. I have come across very few restaurants in Bangalore that make it with the same level of authenticity.
While I may talk about my extreme fondness for fried snacks and everything unhealthy, the after-effects of its ravenous consumption are not pleasing to my body. I have to deal with its effects for the next couple of days. But, knowing that I can hog like a hungry beast for a short period of time and then go back to my routine of avoiding (minimizing, to be precise) all those, is both compromising and satisfactory. I would definitely like to take more short trips just for the food experience, and I would love to revisit Kerala soon because,obviously, one week of binge eating was not enough!
P.S: Bought at least 2 kgs of snacks back home! 😉
