Who doesn't love a good biscuit? Ever since we were little we have been devouring these baked beauties by the dozen. These cereal based dishes have been a part of mankind as early as the seventh century. An early form of biscuits known as hardtacks was taken aboard ships for sustenance. Almost all ancient civilizations like Egyptian and Roman had some form of biscuit In their cuisine. The modern confectionery biscuit was developed in Europe and from there was passed on to the rest of the globe. There is no difference in composition between biscuits and cookies. What is...

The sound of bells, the smell of camphor and incense filling the air, flowers adorning a beautiful idol. Along with all this, the one thing that we all look forward to during a visit to the temple or even after a pooja at home is the prasadham. Delicious traditional treats like ven Pongal, Chakkara Pongal, Sundal etc are offered as neivedhyam to the gods and after the pooja is distributed as prasadham to the devotees. After a pooja at home, everyone receives a bowl of prasadham however simple it may be. One item which is synonymous with prasadham is the...

  South Indian Mixture – A Party in the Mouth Our mothers and grandmothers are literally prepared for any situation. We think that certain times failure must be admitted but they swoop in and save the day. But sometimes they need to be saved too. Especially during the situation called ‘Surprise Guest Visit’. Initially, they would run into the kitchen in full panic mode not knowing what to serve. But soon they would realize that they have a packet of Mixture stashed somewhere in the shelf. Soon the packet would be out, and the day and everyone’s tummies would be...

For most of us, spending summertime at our grandmother’s place meant a lot of things. Delicious food, fun games and exploring the area. We would also have many responsibilities, like helping grandmother with her traditional summertime routine- making Appalams, Vathals and Vadams. We would have to help her spread out the sheets on which the Vadams would dry, spread the vadam dough on plates or leaves and of course get to sample the first batch of vadams for that year and to review its taste. Of course, we wouldn’t be doing much of reviewing as we would start stuffing our...

  For most of us, spending summertime at our grandmother’s place meant a lot of things. Delicious food, fun games and exploring the area. We would also have many responsibilities, like helping grandmother with her traditional summertime routine- making Appalams, Vathals and Vadams. We would have to help her spread out the sheets on which the Vadams would dry, spread the vadam dough on plates or leaves and of course get to sample the first batch of vadams for that year and to review its taste. Of course, we wouldn’t be doing much of reviewing as we would start stuffing...

India, our motherland is a soil of difference and how! We have multiple geographical features ranging from the freezing 6,000 meters high Himalayan ranges to the blazing deserts of Thar. We have plains, plateaus, mangrove forests and islands all next to one another. We are one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse nations on the planet with 9 major religions, 22 major languages, 720 dialects, and more than 100 different communities or cultures. Each home has customs and traditions that are radically different from the one next to it. We may be one of the few countries where each...

Whenever we think of villages and food what are the images that flash by in our mind? Men roping in harvests of rice, women hand pounding rice, clay pots simmering over firewood stoves and of course grandmas hunched over an Ammi Kal grinding an aromatic spice paste to cook up a fabulous feast. Occasionally mothers would be at the corner smashing and mashing rice and urad dal in an Aattu Kal to make idli batter. Ammi Kal and Aattu Kal are two iconic South Indian kitchen implements which when first discovered would definitely have taken the art of food to...

As children, we all had our favorite in any kind of food. We had a favorite fruit, vegetable snack, sweet and even a favorite type of Vadam or Vathal. For most of us, the Javvarisi Vadam would have been the favorite. We would ask our mothers to make extra and would eat them after finishing our meal. We would want them for snacking, and we would want them in our school lunch. As we grow older our palates changes and we start to accept different types of flavor profiles but the Javvarisi Vadam is something that we would never get...

Come summertime and mango season our grandmothers start scheduling their whole day around one thing – pickles. Armed with baskets of mangoes, boxes of spices and bags of salt they spend months curing, salting, seasoning and drying. And god forbid we decide to sample the pickle before it is done or try to touch it. For most of us, those are the only times we will see our grandmothers and mothers truly angry. And for a justified reason, one wrong move and all that hard work will go to waste. But if the process is successful the end result is...

Whenever we are voyaging far away from our homeland our family never fails to load up our luggage with goodies from home. From the mandatory foodstuff like Murukku, Laddu, Avakkai Urugai and Podis of all kinds to the one of a kind items like Veppilai Katti and Maravalli Appalam it would seem like we would need extra baggage just to carry these in. And to those living there, it would seem like we have carried our entire store cupboard with us. But carrying all that weight is worth it for when we are sitting alone, miles away, feeling homesick, that...

It’s winter, the air is chilling and the floor is freezing. You are bedridden with the flu. Sneezing, coughing and wheezing you wait for relief from the torment of nature. In comes Grandma with a bowl in hand. The air is filled with the smell of pepper, garlic, and coriander. The whiffs of hot, steaming Rasam makes you get upright. Grandma waits for the Rasam to cool down a bit and then hands it over. One sip and you suddenly start coughing even more. But after a few more sips the warm Rasam soothes the throat, caressing it as it...