Truck of Treats

                                           (This was published in BLink on 5 July, 2014)

A gleaming knife cuts effortlessly through a charred brisket to reveal a juicy and glistening pink interior. The meat is quickly sliced up, piled on to fluffy white bread slathered in rich butter, laden with pickles, topped with stretchy, melty cheese and toasted gently, a sandwich fit for the gods. 

While some could call this a slice of heaven, I had friends watching this scene with expressions of misery on their faces for this was extreme food porn designed to torture all those who love to eat. Even as the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson and Sofia Vergara slurp up fresh-from-the-stove herby pasta or dig into a melty-cheesy Cuban sandwich, strangely enough, your attention is drawn away from these beautiful women — to what they are eating. In Jon Favreau’s Chef, the screen is set ablaze by the food that is in turns sexy, playful, nostalgic, homely, sophisticated and always delicious. While the film itself is not without its flaws, the food that Jon Favreau pays homage to, is most definitely flawless. From the exquisite farm-fresh, and inspirational dishes crafted in his tiny home kitchen and presented on rustic wooden platters — the meal that could have impressed Internet millionaire and food critic, Ramsay Michel, once and for all, to a simple buttery, three cheese grilled sandwich that Chef Carl Casper makes for his son, every dish is honest and intends to please the person it is created for. His journey from Chef de Cuisine at a celebrated L.A. restaurant, to an out-of-work Internet joke, to a food truck hero, is one of discovery and love — of both the culinary and the human sort.

Jon Favreau’s Chef celebrates food and there is a beating heart at the squishy centre of this indie offering that is bound to leave you feeling warm and very, very hungry. This little film from the director renowned for his big ticket outings like Iron Man follows in the tradition of Chocolat (directed by Lasse Halstrom, 2000), Julie and Julia (directed by Nora Ephron, 2009), Woman on Top (directed by Fina Torres, 2000), Eat Drink Man Woman (directed by Ang Lee, 1994), Like Water for Chocolate (directed by Alfonso Arau, 1992), Babette’s Feast (directed by Gabriel Axel, 1987), and the delightful animated classic Ratatouille (directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava, 2007), among others. 

This mix of big studio Hollywood films as well as indie and foreign cinema has a common thread. All of them capture the interplay between the cultural, emotional, sensual and extremely visual aspects of films food. Cooking and eating remain at the centre of the narrative while cultural mores, myths, stories, love, loss, sex and humour are stirred in as the secondary ingredients in food films, which can tickle the appetite like no other. 

Just like Chef Carl Casper, other underdogs of the culinary world include Remy the rat from Ratatouille whose biggest dream is to cook and Julie Powell from Julie and Julia who wants to transform her life through the magic of Julia Child’s recipes. These characters overcome great odds through determination, spirit, a little love from food critics, an occasional friendly chef spirit and some Internet hits and trends. Their stories are ones that leave the cockles of your heart toasty as well as inspire you to take that step, even if it be only off the edge of a first floor sublet above a grimy pizza parlour in Queens.

Cinematic representations of food intertwine myth, storytelling, culture and community. In Chocolat Juliet Binoche’s Vianna Rocher mixes together her decadent chocolate filled confections in a little French town under the disapproving aegis of its stern mayor, stirring up emotions and unraveling the true nature of people who live together in this apparently tightly knit community. Sometimes food takes on magic realist proportions and is used as symbolic representations of the protagonist’s emotions, be it love, lust, betrayal or sadness. The food that Tita cooks at her lover’s wedding feast causes sickness as well as great longing in the hearts of all those who eat it in Like Water for Chocolate. It is as much a reflection of her Mexican heritage as it is of her own personal dilemma. An enchanted crab and a stunning Penelope Cruz all clad in tomato red dresses (probably the only saving grace of the film) cook up a sensual repast that make strangers fall in love in Woman on Top. Food can be the connection and the bridge between estranged lovers, family members and members of a community. There is nothing more comforting than the warmth of a large family meal and it is this idea that forms the central tenets of Babette’s Feast and Eat Drink Man Woman. From lives and worlds as far apart as a small village on the Jutland coast in Denmark to Taipei, Taiwan, food plays the common role of a healing salve as well as the glue that holds families together. Thus Babette’s marvellous feast costing 10,000 francs and featuring quail with foie gras and truffle sauce, a blue cheese, fig, papaya, grape and pineapple platter, turtle soup, endive and walnut salad and rum cake with glaceed fruits is hardly all that different from Mr. Chu’s extravagant dinners for his daughters where he whips up delicacies like steamed chicken with black mushroom, shrimp and water chestnut croquettes and San Pei chicken from the fish he has raised and chickens he has bred to ensure his extremely high standards. 

Chef is in most parts a worthy successor to these films. It draws on many of their tropes and whips them together with a dollop of New Orleans jazz, Latin dance music, Facebook updates and Twitter feeds, making it a delectable all-American concoction about the indomitable human spirit. And as Chef Carl, his sous chef Martin and his son lip sync through the brass band version of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’ in their food truck, riding across America selling their food dream, we realize that we have bought into it as well. 

Walking the Vinyl Track

(This was published in National Geographic Traveller India, November 2012)

“This will change the way you listen to music,” the note read. When I unwrapped the cheery red record-player that came with the message, little did I realise that the birthday gift from my husband would became an obsession. I didn’t know that we would spend the rest of our weekends of the year 2009 hunting for rare albums, quirky cover art and our favourite artists on vinyl.

While LPs had made a comeback and were available freely in large format music stores in the city as well as online, it was worth its price in gold and a luxurious indulgence for audio aficionados. While we loved music, our pockets didn’t run so deep and although we did pick up a few new LPs, something wasn’t quite right. Two of our brand new LPs turned out to be defective. There seemed to be a strange dissociation as we picked LPs from shelves stocking Blu-Ray DVDs, new indie CDs and pulsating Drum and Bass Mp3 collections. LPs seemed like gawky misfits in their specially proportioned shelves in these neon-lit digital music havens.

And a few hours of research on the internet sent us down the roads our audiophile forbears had walked and the alternative second-hand universe of vintage records. The little record player became my ticket into the dusty underbelly of the city with its cavernous warehouses and alleyway stores.
We dug out second-hand LPs in flea markets across India, from the back alleys of Mirza Ghalib Street in Calcutta to the dusty multipurpose antique stores in Bangalore’s Avenue Road. From the colourful hippie shops of Thamel in Kathmandu to the twisted alleys of Chor bazaar in Bombay, we dug our way through stacks of old vinyl records or forced/cajoled/bribed friends to trawl the selfsame markets with our serpentine lists in hand.

There was something that drew us to the LPs almost immediately. Both the husband and I loved music in our lives and although we weren’t experienced audiophiles, there was a certain purity of sound in a vinyl record that you couldn’t miss. The analog-era richness and warmth was so well...natural. Some LP lovers insist that listening to LPs was akin to having the band performing live in front of you and while I’m not entirely sure of that, listening to an LP is a visceral and involved experience entirely different from the commonplace plug n play digital sound. The soundscapes are different, the associations are different and above all the way we listen to music is different. A record lover is a more vibrant butterfly compared to its modern ipod toting worker bee.

Many of our records had their sleeves restored with duct tape and scratches and dust lines removed by multiple wet wipes. They became a substitute for postcards from kind friends who had been subject to the endless sessions of Floyd’s Medal and Kraftwerk’s Man-Machine (our earliest findsin a decrepit warehouse in Daryaganj sold to us by the enthusiastic Mr Syed Akbar Shah, an enthusiast and an eagle-eyed connoisseur of rare old LPs, who travelled the country in search of records old, forgotten and lost that had the habit of showing up in the unlikeliest spots). We would get emails at odd hours and would snatch calls over skype during our work day and manage to convince the friend in question as to what genre we liked, which group of artists we preferred and which era we pandered to. A few weeks later the selfsame friend would arrive with a brown paper wrapped LP. Needless to say he or she would be welcomed with much fanfare. 

As our pile of LPs increased from a measly two to a more respectable dozen, both the husband and me would itch to come home after a long day’s work and plonk ourselves on the floor with a drink in hand and go through the ritual of unveiling the well-worn record from its sleeve, giving it a quick wipe, placing the needle on the correct groove and drowning in the mellow sound while we lovingly caressed the sleeve and admired its incredible artwork.

However, a general passage of time dulled our initial enthusiasm. Our trips to Chandni Chowk and Daryaganj reduced and by the summer of 2010 we were back to our iPods and the LP player lay in a corner, dusted off for use on occasional weekends.

But all of that changed after a holiday in Melbourne in the winter of 2011.

Melbourne was the second leg on a grand vacation spanning Malaysia and Australia. We had travelled for a good week and a half around Malaysia through luxurious suites and isolated forest resortsand by the time we reached Australia, we realised that the holiday fund had dwindled substantially. Here we were with eight days to kill, little money to spare, and a city full of pricey art galleries, theatre shows, big-ticket music concerts and cutting-edge restaurants.

I quoted Bruce Chatwin to my husband: “Walking is a virtue and tourism is a sin.” What better way to learn a city than to see its underbelly, to sniff its stinks and discover the music on the streets? Armed with a day pass on the Melbourne Tram network, a much-thumbed copy of Lonely Planet Australia, regulation sunscreen and a couple of packaged meat pies, we were ready to take on the city.

Our first stop was Queen Victoria Market—a heritage site and bargain hunter’s paradise rolled into one. We wound our way through racks of faux crocodile boots, dubious Chinese herbs, tacky cowboy hats, artisanal cheese stands and boomerangs. Fate struck. My husband and I had been walking our separate ways, but suddenly bumped into each other at the entrance to a stall selling second-hand records.
I had been drawn into the shop by the sensuous black and white sleeve of Madonna’s iconic Like a Virgin album. In addition to being one of my favourite albums from the 1980s, it reminded me of many evenings spent with girlfriends dancing ourselves silly to ‘Material Girl’ and ‘Like a Virgin’. My husband, on the other hand, picked up Miles Davis’ A Kind of Blue in nearly mint condition. As we jostled each other, excited by the piles of LPs, the owner looked at us with a bemused expression. An elderly man with twinkly blue eyes, he gave us a great discount and also handed my husband a pamphlet. “Well mate, if you like your vinyl, that’s the best kind of tour you can go on,” he said.

The fold-out pamphlet-map had been created by Diggin’ Melbourne, an initiative started by a bunch of vinyl enthusiast, store owners and resellers. The simple Q and A listed on their home page made their conviction for the medium obvious.

“Q: Do they still make records?

“A: Yes—they still make records, they still make turntables, and yes—new bands are still putting out records. To some people the idea of putting out this kind of map may seem a little pointless. But if you’re reading this you know the score. Vinyl will never die.”

Our trip was suddenly given a whole new purpose.

The next day, we started working our way through the musical byways of Melbourne.  We set out for the artsy and bohemian Brunswick Street in the suburb of Fitzroy. By the mid-twentieth century, Brunswick Street, with its low rents, had become the street of choice for immigrants from Europe. With them came open-air Mediterranean cafes serving good coffee and wood-fired pizzas. Music venues, graffiti, vintage clothes stores, edgy pop art boutiques and record stores followed in the subsequent decades.

But instead of getting to the cool Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, we found ourselves in an altogether different part of town in the distant suburb also called Brunswick. Not only were we lost, we also ambled along with different agendas—I wanted the record store and vintage shops, but my husband wanted some food. A florist came to the rescue, pulling out a sheaf of maps to show us how far we had strayed. She gave us a flower for good luck and we clambered back on to the tram.

When we got to Fitzroy, we were thrilled to find that Brunswick Street was everything that the guide books and Internet had promised. The pavements were filled with chic people dressed in alternative fashion while the sound of jazz bands practising for an evening gig. Between drinking the best cider I have ever tasted, nearly inhaling a delicious crisp pork belly in apple sauce and shaking hands with a crazy man who wanted a few dollars for bestowing us with good wishes, we found what we had come all this way for–Dixons Recycled.

Established in 1976, with outlets all over Melbourne, these guys call themselves the ‘original second-hand specialist’. The store had something for ever whimsical buyer on a budget. Neat rows of records awaited us tagged according to their condition, rareness, album art and assorted other categories. We figured that if we’d been brave enough to buy battered records from Shah Music Centre in Daryagunj in Delhi, we could take a chance with Dixons’ lower-quality discs and gain in quantity what we’d compromised in quality. Who knows when we would find such a mind-boggling variety of LPs again?
Soon, our arms were piled high with the classic albums we had first heard on tape and later possessed on CD: Simon and Garfunkel’s sound track for The Graduate, The Best of Cream, Santana’s Greatest Hits, U2’s Joshua Tree, Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms. Substantially poorer but much happier, we put our Diggin’ Melbourne map away for another day.

That day dawned sunny and warm after the debaucheries of New Year’s Eve. The first day of January was perfect for a walking tour around Federation Square and the colourful gates of Chinatown in the city’s central business district. Shorn of office crowds, the lanes were deserted, like unopened oysters full of hidden promise. While the city slumbered, we walked through a glorious sunny afternoon and a mellow dusk creating our own stories under the awnings and empty promenades along the Yarra River, the alleys of Flinder’s Lane painted with careless, colourful masterpieces by some of top street artists.  Since rents were high in the CBD, some of the stores on our map had vanished. Others had been transformed into strange animals. One second-hand vinyl shop along Elizabeth Street had become a specialist Japanese supermarket selling odd edibles and even odder pink Hello Kitty-themed bric-a-brac.

Then, as we were walking along a crowded intersection along Swanston Street, we realised that we had dropped our Diggin’ Melbourne map somewhere along the way.  Terrified at the prospect of losing our lifeline to the city, we retraced our steps, peering into dustbins where we had emptied plastic takeaway coffee cups, sifting through the public ashtrays where we had stubbed out our cigarettes, carefully circling every bench and every clump of grass we had trod upon. As we descended into the dumps of despair, we saw a familiar piece of paper fluttering round and round a lamppost. We were on the road again.

After discovering that at least three stores in the vicinity of the CBD had shut down, we stumbled upon the sign and ponderous stairway to Collectors Corner. ‘From the dirt cheap to the ridiculously rare’ is what they claimed to stock. The no-frills space was filled with piles of vinyl stacked in cardboard boxes. We spent so much time browsing and querying that the once-friendly owner soon lost his smile and growled at us till we left the place—but not before we had got ourselves a rare twosome: The Best of the Mamas and Papas and From the Mars Hotel by the Grateful Dead. Gratified by the loot, lulled by the evening nip and stuffed by grilled crocodile in a friendly cafe in Chinatown, we were nearly done with our tour and our time in the city.

We had seen the city through squares on our map. We had smelled a city of slightly stale dust and old paper in vintage stores. We tapped our feet and clapped our hands as an ignored street band belted out some great music.  It seemed that elves had come out of the crevices and taken us on a tour of a parallel city of forgotten music. We had relived our rock-n-roll preteen years, our waspish teenage love for grunge, our pretentious jazzy early twenties and our fun, indie, peculiar whims of the years that followed as we indulged in some good ol’ vinyl love in the land down under. 

Where Have all the Flowers Gone?

(This was published in BLink on 19 April 2014)

(The trailer of a documentary about Colony Collapse Disorder that is causing bees to die en masse in different parts of the world)

I moved from Delhi to Bangalore last April. This month has had different associations in all the cities I have lived in. From the delicious coolness of the blustering norwesters or the Kal Boishakhis of Calcutta to the abundance of flowers in the spring-summer warmth of Delhi. And then there was the sudden heatwave of Bangalore. The famed good weather seemed to be a myth in my early days in the city as blazing sunny days were followed by occasionally cool evenings punctuated by a few drops of rain and the constant drone of bees. The bees became my markers for summer and for my new abode in the city.

However, even before I could muster together home remedies that might work in case of a sudden sting or dream about the batches of fresh honey that one could get from the hive when the collectors arrived, tragedy loomed large. Affected by a distressing global phenomenon, these bees weaved their way drunkenly into mine and the 40 odd apartments within a 20 feet radius of their hives. Like malfunctioning robots they would collide with doors, windows and neon tube lights and die in a rather anticlimactic end for this industrious creature. These sad suicidal insects made their way into my house in hordes every evening, only to collapse to the floor in their death throes. Further research revealed that the slow depreciation of trees in the erstwhile garden city had given rise to this malaise. Affected by deforestation and increasing pollution, the energetic honey bees were slowly starving to death. And Bangalore is just another point on the map of the world where this phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD is becoming increasingly common. There just aren’t enough flowers left to feed the bees and our cities do not provide kind homes for these winged pollinators. Instead of natural perfumes, they are subject to the fumes of factories, mosquito fogging machines, the excessive pollution on the city roads. This is just another sign of a barren future straight out of dystopian novels that looms large. This also brings to mind the apocryphal quote by Einstein, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” 

As much damage as the loss of bees would do to the ecological balance, honey disappearing from the world would also be an equally irreplaceable loss to culinary larders, medicinal cabinets and cosmetic remedies as well as mythology, history and language itself. 

H-O-N-E-Y: the very word drips with a dulcet melody. A perfect choice as a term of endearment for loved ones, the word is a metaphor for sweetness in both real and abstract terms. Many aeons before sugar, there was honey. The same rich golden bottled goodness that sits pretty in our larder today in its myriad organic, mass produced and single origin forms has been around for millennia. Represented in ancient cave paintings as well as prehistoric Egyptian, Mesopotemian and Indian texts, early man was quick to learn the culinary as well as medicinal benefits of this natural ingredient and used it liberally in his daily life. Regarded as the mythical elixir of immortality as well as a good omen that would find a place in temples and tombs alike, honey is often referred to as the food of the gods and even finds resonance in our own culture with close kinship to the fabled amrita that emerged from the churning of the Ocean of Milk. 

As I broomed away a pile of corpses on yet another morning, my heart filled with sadness and I decided to appease the gods by bringing out as many potted flowering plants as I could fit in my little balcony in order to offer some recompense for my kind. I also decided to pen this little obituary as well as celebrate the lives of these little worker bees. And what better eulogy than a feast? And it seemed befitting as the byproduct of their industry was a superfood that made our world a sweeter place. And so it seemed apt to adopt a diet where everything I ate and cooked was marinated in, flavoured with, drizzled upon and doused in golden honey. This special ingredient added that extra zing in my Sunday roast where the whole spices and root vegetables soaked up its sweetness and came together in a perfect medley of flavours. Honey, bananas and ice cream brought alive visions of homemade banana splits and childhood evenings long past. I replaced tea with my grandmother’s magic brew, hot water, honey with a dash of ginger, lemon and whole pepper that had held its own against heaving chests and wintry congestions over the years. I would dribble honey down a stack of freshly made pancakes for breakfast and be transported back to simpler days when happiness was all about devouring these honeyed goodies accompanied by cups of fragrant Darjeeling tea and great conversations. I layered food memories with kitchen experiments as I tried to add a little more honey in my life. Some worked, some didn’t and through it all the bees buzzed around me alive for a fleeting moment in the light.

The Supernut

(A version of this article appeared in Food Lover's Magazine Dec-Jan '14 issue)

 “When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.”

― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis

 It is perhaps the abundant heart of this tiny kernel that has transformed the almond into a talisman down the ages. The ancient Romans would shower their newlywed couples with almonds, believing it was a symbol of fertility and there are numerous references to the almond in the Bible as a symbol of plenty. Interestingly enough, these symbolic attributes were ascribed to a nut that was equally a thing of nourishment as well as the raw material for a deadly poison, making it a study in opposites. The bitter wild almond upon processing creates the toxic cyanide. The poison retains a unique smell that has tickled the acute olfactory senses of wily old ladies as well as hardboiled sleuths alike. Their knowledge of this signature scent of bitter almonds have allowed many a Miss Marple to solve a cases and save lives with a series of well-timed sniffs.

At some stage of human history, the sweet non-toxic variety of almond was discovered giving rise to the ubiquitous nut that quickly became a part of our daily food intake. From the flaked almonds in the morning muesli to the chopped nuts in the brownies and cakes, to the luscious paste of almonds in Indian gravies, this versatile genius with its creamy and nutty flavour combination became a perfect addition to drinks, savoury dishes, desserts and even liqueurs. From almond chocolates to rich Mughlai pasandas, from the delicate French macarons in rainbow hues to the sticky ghee-laden badam halwa, the possibilities were as calorific and artery clogging as they were endless and divine. And then there was marzipan. Wedding cakes, Princess cakes, Christmas Cakes and a child's delightful birthday cake would be robbed of elegance, imagination or style without its almond candy icing.

One could dedicate a whole book to marzipan and how it breathed a new life into the art of confectionary. In the days before stodgy fondant, marzipan rolled over desserts made them happier and prettier. This pliable mix of sugar and almond meal could be nudged into a whole variety of shapes and textures that could top off plain looking cakes and toffees and make them the stuff of a child’s sweetest fantasy. Marzipan characters have been the highlight of many a birthday cake and often more exciting than the more flavourful interior of the confection. My memories of a zoo cake for my eighth birthday complete with its menagerie of giraffes and zebras and my exquisite 1st wedding anniversary cake with its blue roses, will be my foremost memories of marzipan love.

The mystique of almonds goes beyond its identity as the star of the pantry. The almond-shaped eye is an aesthetic representation of geometric perfection. It is the evocative beauty of the pink and white almond blossom immortalized by Van Gogh’s exquisite painting that exploded in the tapestry of my mind in all its colour, light, shade and magnificent glory. Amsterdam will forever be denoted in my mental map of the world as a little blue and white shaped patch of almond blossoms.

Almonds will always be the magic stuff that emerged from the Kabuliwalla’s bag of goodies. It will be the nut whose name will be pronounced in a strange rich accent. It will be the nut that forever connects hime with his home. It will be the soul food that lessens the loneliness of this world-weary traveller by giving  him an unlikely companion -- a little girl called Mini who reminds him of all that he has left behind.

A thing of beauty and terror all at once, the almond is life and death -- a dream ingredient in every dessert chef's arsenal, the chief ingredient in the poison capsules worn by spies, terrorists and dangerous cult groups. It is the nourishing must-have in a new mum's larder and a vegan's substitute for nearly everything, an almond deserves every bit of its superhero status.

The Fragrant Tale of Biryani

(A version of this article appeared in Food Lover's Magazine Oct-Nov '13 issue)

Since rice is a staple in vast swathes of the subcontinent and is also abundantly available, it assumes great significance on any table both plain as well as in its fragrant avatars as biryanis and pulaos. Although these dishes are ubiquitous today, they have evolved through history and been influenced by the varied foreign influences, rice is no different. Well-cooked rice is an essential part of any meal, either as the basic carbohydrate component or the centrepiece of the table as a biryani or pulao. In both cases, the type of rice used, its cooking time, texture and aroma determines the flavour of the entire meal.

The journey from an 8^th-century caliph’s court in Persia to a 16^th century Mughal war camp to the modern day biryani chains in every city in India, is a tale of conquests, travels and trade relations.  The biryani and pulao or pilaf piggybacked its way into India on the backs of the foreign cooks that accompanied the various merchants, traders and foreign invaders. They were assimilated into the culture in different parts of the country depending on the availability of ingredients, local tastes and the variety of rice that was popular in the region. The earliest biryani can be traced to the 14^thcentury when Timur or Tamerlane, Babur’s ancestor visited India on conquering raids and probably introduced this particular Persian dish into the native cuisine. It was in the Mughal Emperor Akbar’s kitchens that the Indian biryani was born. As Lizzie Collingham writes in her book on the history and culture of Indian cuisine, Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerers:

Akbar ensured that the central Asian culture and Persian influences melded with Hindustani culture to create a Mughlai culture which was a synthesis of all three. The same process of synthesis went on in the kitchens. Here the delicately flavoured Persian pilau met the pungent and spicy rice dishes of Hindustan to create the classic Mughlai dish, biryani.

 Travelling across India, one will find a local variant of biryani and pulao in nearly every state of the country. From the long-grained saffron laced goat meat biryani made famous by the Nizams’ kitchens in Hyderabad to the short-grained spice and dry fruit laden Thalassery biryani popular all along the Malabar Coast, there is a nuanced difference of texture, spice levels and cooking techniques that make the biryani a unique and much debated over dish wherever you go. The basic difference between the biryani and pulao lie in their cooking styles rather than ingredients. While the biryani uses the technique of layering parboiled rice and meat and then cooking them in the dum style (cooking by sealing the dish to trap the flavours), the pulao is cooked together with spices, vegetables and/or meat. This is also known as the kachchi or raw style and many debates range over whether a rice dish cooked in the kachchi style is biryani or pulao.

It is a well-known fact that the elegant and flavoursome Basmati is the favourite of biryani makers across the country. Not only does it add to the aroma and texture, it also forms the aesthetic bridge between the local pulao and its sophisticated relative from the city, the lovely biryani. It is this basmati that is the main element in biryanis as diverse as the Calcutta-style biryani with its potato and egg component as well as the Bangalore biryani with its coriander and mint accents. The basmati rules the roost whether it is in the Nizami speciality from Hyderabad or the Awadhi Dum Pukht biryani from the famous chefs of Lucknow. Unfortunately, although the Basmati might be the chosen rice, it is fairly expensive and cannot be the stuff of daily home-cooked meals. There are other cheaper and local varieties of rice that have been adopted to make different types of biryani. The most famous among these is the Kaima or Khyma rice used to make the popular biryani of the Malabar region known as the Thalassery biryani. The medium grained Sona Masuri rice available in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka is often used a substitute for Basmati while making biryanis and pulaos and many feel that this version is gentler on the digestive tracts.

Apart from biryanis, there are a number of classic pulaos from various parts of the country which get their unique flavours as much from the local ingredients as from the rice used. Jadoh, a Khasi delicacy from Meghalaya uses short grained rice called Joha which is then mixed with spices, fresh ginger, garlic and meat (usually pork) to create a tasty and wholesome staple which is eaten in households and available at nearly every street corner in specialized Jadoh stalls. Bengalis around the world swear by the delicately flavoured Bengali Mishti Pulao or Sweet Rice made with the incredibly fragrant short-grained Gobindobhog rice which is cooked with peas, cashews, raisins and sugar, ghee and whole spices and coloured yellow with turmeric. This pulao is usually cooked for feasts and festive occasions and is delicious on its own or as an accompaniment to spicy meat and chicken dishes or lentil curries.

Whatever be the rice, one thing is certain that the dish complements its maker and each brings its unique flavour to the pot. Pratibha Karan in her introduction to the bestselling cookbook, Biryani (2009) writes about the striking alchemy between biryani and rice –

The magic of the biryani is the way in which rice is transformed into something ambrosial – absorbing the rich flavours of meat and spice, scented with the dizzying aromas of saffron, rose, jasmine or screwpine; the white grains taking on a gem-like mien.

Malaysia truly Asia

Prologue

Malaysian food was not something I considered particularly alien or particularly exciting for that matter. Coconut, red chillies, peanuts, steamed rice, dried fish in various permutations and combinations with chicken, prawns, and vegetables had become a staple in the ever mushrooming clutch of oriental restaurants in my neighbourhood. So much so that by the time we actually decided to go to Malaysia, I had eaten enough Malay food to last me a life time and even the thought of the real deal—authentic Malay food in Malaysia—hardly inspired a spark of excitement, much less a foodgasm.

Part I  

Air Asia might be a low budget carrier, but the food is a surprise. It outshines the rubberized fare we are accustomed to in many of our full service airlines and comes piping hot in little silver foil containers. Remove the lid and you are assailed with the aromas that do more for me than the ‘Malaysia truly Asia’ jingle. They are alien and nothing like the nasi lemaks and rendangs I have had back home. Suspended thousands of feet above ground, in between countries, I ate my first Nasi Lemak in all its pungent, pickled and preserved glory. The first rumbles of excitement quickened my gut. I was ready to touch down in Malaysia.

KL glitters by night. It is Fritz Lang’s metropolis of towers and spires of chrome and glass. It is futuristic and grand sonnet in steel. As we are driven to our bed in the 22-storey tower, I watch the city in a semi slumber. The lights never go out but the people do go to bed. And our food options diminish rapidly. I will gloss over the part where we go to a McDonalds stuff our faces with a Quarter Pounder with Cheese as it is vulgar. Instead we shall fast forward to the hotel/tower with a glorious pool on the roof with a view of the famous Petronas Towers.

It’s nice to wake up to a gorgeous view of the city’s impressive skyline from the glass wall that runs along your bed and continues to the bathtub. We awoke to a new day of sightseeing and eating. Late to rise, short on time (we had one day in the city before we moved to our next destination), we sped through Petaling Street with its impressive gates opening on to an older world removed from the glamorous malls and corporate skyscrapers. As we stepped into Chinatown, we were greeted by strange snake-like creatures on grills, herbal concoctions being served out of beautiful Chinese tea pots in tea shops, a dozen roast ducks skewered through their hearts and precariously balanced from hooks. There were stalls selling longan (a litchi like fruit), stalls selling Chicken Rice (a specialty around these parts and an essential part of Malay cuisine) and stalls selling Indian food with virulent orange tandoori chicken hanging as organic symbols of the tri colour. Most of these stalls were right on the road. Some had a few plastic chairs and a table, while others had even less. We dodged vendors selling ‘fake originals’ and old toothless ladies waving bits of meat, till we arrived at a chicken rice stall which had a crowd around it. This was my test of any non verified establishment, big or small. If people flocked to it, it couldn’t be a complete disaster. The Chicken Rice came with a giant bowl of stock, little servings of red chilli paste, sliced cucumbers and a large portion of sliced chicken. The chicken was poached with its shiny, slightly glutinous outer skin providing nice texture. The reason this dish is so popular is because it’s a simple balancing of flavours and textures--the smooth tender chicken, the sticky grains of rice, the sharp edge of the red chilli, the cool crunch of cucumber and the hot broth to dunk your rice, chicken or your face in it (depending on the size of the bowl).

After many icy tender coconut drinks and many miles walked on burning asphalt and air conditioned mall floors, we decided to make our next food stop at the giant among malls – Berjaya Times Square. From steamboat restaurants to tropical fruit salads to sushi bars, it was all under one cavernous roof. After one poached meat, we decided to go the raw way despite the very inviting Uncle Duck’s Steamboat Restaurant around the corner which beckoned with its bubbling cauldron and pile of raw meats ready to be dunked, cooked and eaten. We were distracted by the cheerful lime green and yellow exterior of Sakae Sushi and promptly walked into what I regard as my best assembly line food experience till date. Our orders were on an ipad, our food came in little tagged bowls on a conveyor belt and we got a little photo op at the end of the meal which were the best photos of us on the trip.  Our first day ended with a strange experience at a leery beery odd little bar called the Beach Café Bar which even our cabbie disapproved of saying that it was not the ‘right’ kind of place for a young honeymooning couple like ourselves although we were neither all that young or honeymooning. But a few beers later leery men and beery women look pretty much the same. And happy and hungry we swayed into a place advertised as an Argentine steak house. With glorious peppered rib-eye steaks and Argentinean vintage in our bellies, we slept like well-fed cats.

Part II 

Morning saw us ensconced in a bus on our way to Taman Negara, believed to be the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. A 4-hour bus drive brought us to the Kuala Tembeling jetty. Thereafter the road ended and a boat awaited us. It felt like a journey into the green heart of the planet. The ancient, impossibly tall trees standing as gnarled sentinels to the ravages of time.

Our resort was right at the edge of the reserve itself. I walked under the soft spray of the constant rain, I heard bird song and I ate Beef Rendang (a spicy and semi sweet meat curry) Nasi Lemak and Chicken Rice for three days which was very nice. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and that was a good thing because the resort was quite lacking in the dessert department with bright pink, synthetic cream pastries and angry green turgid jellies on offer.

But the place was far too lovely to complain about the food. I walked over the forest on a swaying walkway in the pitter-pattering rain. I saw as the birds did, the majestic sea of green seething with life and age. Everything around me had been here since the beginning of time.

We were hungry most of the time and we ate what was on offer without a whimper. Simple no-fuss Malay food is what we got. And we were content.

Part III

We returned to KL for Christmas Eve celebrations before our flight out to Penang. Arriving in the middle of the Christmas bustle, we were ready to eat. After an overdose of the lemaks, we wanted something a little more global. And thus we discovered Changkat Bukit Bintang. This particular street was buzzing with colour, food and drink. Lined with bars, al fresco restaurants and cafes specializing in food from across the world, this was a street with character and drama. Quiet and sunny during the day, this looked like a street grabbing a quick afternoon siesta in preparation for the big night ahead.

We were lured into Giovinoby the ‘Homemade Wild Boar Sausages’ scrawled on the blackboard outside. The quaint wine shop and restaurant serving Italian and Greek food and a lovely collection of wines did live up to its promise. The home made wild boar sausage was excellent and so was the wild boar stewed in red wine.

As the late afternoon sun faded into a dusky orange, I watched the city begin to heave and awaken. As I watched the first rumblings of activity, I realized the cultural mêlée that chequered the fabric of this country. It was a traditional country keenly aware of its history, its religion, its language and its roots. It was also a supremely liberal country. A small case in point was the fact that I was sitting in an outdoor cafe, gorging on wild boar and cider near the heart of a predominantly Muslim city. Across the road, a Tamilian family in traditional attire were dumping bags of groceries from an international supermarket chain into the boot of their car. A few streets away pretty young things were powdering their noses for a raucous night of partying on the party strip at Jalan Sultan Ismail. A few intersections away, Chinese housewives were gathering their pots and pans with simmering soups and crackling roasts and making their way to the night markets on Petaling Street. While, we were eating lunch Bukit Bintang had bedecked herself with tinsel, silver bells and fairy lights. Even in the sharp humid air, the smell of Christmas cake and mulled wine were hard to miss. As the muezzin gave the call for the evening prayer, I linked arms with the husband and made our way back to our temporary home in the clouds.

Only to emerge a few hours later. Christmas Eve celebrations were in full swing. Expats, Malaysians, tourists from the sub continent, tourists from the western world jostled for space on Bukit Bintang. A group of bikers on giant machines had arrived at a pub across us. We were drinking our nth bottle of cider, digging into the roast turkey and peoplewatching. Santa hats, crackers, whistles and a street wide countdown and crazy impromptu jigs made this a Christmas to remember. We hugged strangers. We danced with new friends. We ushered in a truly merry Christmas on a balmy tropical night.

Part IV

Next morning we took a leisurely afternoon flight to Penang: the much awaited food capital of the country with its heritage buildings, its heritage food and white sand beaches. We were living in the heart of the Georgetown, the UNESCO world heritage site and the possibly the one of the most interesting and charming parts of Malaysia. Georgetown is street food paradise. On our very first night, ensconced in trishaws we made our way around the oldest part of the island just taking in the smells. There is nothing I enjoy more than sight-smelling. The aromas and odours of a city are so intrinsically twinned with its appearance that I can rarely remember one separately.

Gerogetown is not a town. It is a giant pot where culture, food and history melts into a curry that is entirely unique. The Peranakan or Baba Nyonya culture is predominant here. The early Chinese settlers married Malaysians and fused with them in an organic manner adapting their traditional food, clothes, architecture and language to a life in the erstwhile British Straits. Variously known as the Straits Chinese, Peranakan and Baba Nyonya, their food is exciting and redolent of flavours fused seamlessly to create a love child that is creative and full of surprises.

Randomly chosen off the internet, the wonderfully quaint and beautifully appointed Yeng Keng Hotel with its super nice and friendly staff was just perfect. This 19^th century mansion is a heritage site in its own right and also serves authentic Hainanese food.

From carts in the street serving up Chinese fare to Thai and Malay Indian food, this is street food paradise. Carts, makeshift stalls and a few plastic chairs is the basic infrastructure provided. But the food is fresh and delightful. I can’t help but lapse into clichés. But if there was a paradise for street food junkies, Georgetown would be it.

To cut a long list short, we ate from dusk till dawn. We ate Char Kway Teow, a staple consisting of flat noodles, assorted sea food and some veggies tossed and tossed on a wok till it waylays a hungry tourist and makes its way onto a plastic plate and a happy belly. Dim sum, banana fritters, sticky sweet rice and local fruit combos wrapped in banana leaves formed our breakfasts. Washed down with copious quantities of Ipoh white Coffee (coffee beans roasted with palm oil and either served as a flavoured premixed powder or served black with condensed milk) served on ice, we set out to explore the city. Colonial buildings, Nyonya architecture, south Indian green grocers, Chinese tea shops, massage chairs in swanky malls and a gorgeous promenade by the sea jostled for our space and time. And thankfully we were perpetually hungry.

I visited my first night market, the grand Red Garden Food Paradise and Night market which was a colourful permanent street food tent serving up everything from a claypot stew of frogs legs (which was delicious) to fried oysters, karaoke singers and the works ensuring that your night is a good one. We spent the evening wandering from one bar to the next on Upper Penang Road drinking ourselves silly at the line of bars with imaginative names and equally imaginative neon signage. We took a break to eat at the Night Market and then wound up the lovely evening with a nightcap at the gorgeous Eastern and Oriental Hotel, the grand dame among all the buildings in Malaysia with an unrivalled view across the ocean.

We spent our last day in Batu Ferringhi getting our fill of the sun and sand and NOT eating any seafood. A word of warning. Many of the seafood places with live tanks and aquariums on display housing all kinds of large and exotic creatures are traps as ‘price according to weight’ is a dubious thing indeed. We settled for a nice fish done Malaysian Indian style (in other words a fairly fiery curry with recognizable Indian spices and a dash of Malay herbs) at Helena’s Cafe and were not disappointed. Homely and full of natural flavours, the food was good and hearty. Batu Ferringhi is the assembly-line striped store wrapping to the hidden homemade toffee that is Georgetown and despite the sea and the sand, is good only for a day trip.

Epilogue:

Our last meal in Malaysia exorcised my devils and distaste in one fell sweep. Nyonya Baba Cuisinewas where we ate our last meal in the country. It was a serious name for a serious restaurant. Formerly known as the Dragon King, this was a restaurant with its heart and wok in the right place. Every dish on this family-run restaurant was lovingly created by the lady of the house and served fresh and steaming hot on beautiful red plates with delicate Chinese patterns. The restaurant was housed in an old Nyonya style building with Chinese and Malay accents. It was small, cosy and completely authentic. From the Otak Otak (fish steamed until soft as mousse in a banana leaf with an exciting array of Malay and Chinese herbs) to the deep fried and absolutely divine pork rolls served with a sweetish chilli dip, from the Hong Bak, or pork in a thick flavourful gravy to Curry Kapitam, a chicken curry with distinct Straits Chinese flavours, each dish was spicy, meaty, rich and bursting with flavour.

This was a meal to expel all pretenders who claim to know the truth about Malaysian food. The truth that is often missed by the expensive oriental restaurant in most countries and the truth that is apparent in a simple street cart in Georgetown and the truth that stares at you from red plates with Chinese patterns. That food is history and this history was contained in every mouthful of every meal that I ate in Malaysia.

(A much shorter version of this piece was published in the February issue of India Today Travel Plus)

If Life was a Beach Part II

If life were a beach I'd wear cockle shells in my ear
I'd douse my hair in yesterday's leftover beer.

I'd love the smell of spiced pig blood
Every newcomer in my square foot of sandy paradise would be a long lost bud

I'd wake every morning wondering which crustacean to skewer
And go to bed dreaming about a pink and juicy porker.

The Tale of a Lobster called Shushanto (circa 2008)

As I fell hook, line and sinker for the artful poesy of a romance stolen from Woody Allen and Satyajit Ray involving country boats, rainy days, shared umbrellas and stolen moments under bright city lights, there was little that could stop the deal from being sealed. And so a whirlwind followed and the events ended with a missus tag, a bag full of sunscreen and an air ticket to Port Blair and a raging appetite for something other than the rich Mughlai kebabs and curries that had dotted the week-long wedding festivities.

I had acquired the look of a half starved newly wed through a rigorous cud-chewing diet of salad leaves and boiled chicken in order to squeeze into my expensive wedding outfit tailored to perfection to a size I used to be three months before the wedding. Now that I had survived the endless photo ops  without a major wardrobe malfunction...I was a woman on a mission. A mission to make up for all those missed luncheons and dinners.

Knotted, be-ringed and otherwise tied to each other for what was to be presumably a long time, we we set off to the Andamans with love in our hearts and a rumble in our bellies.

Our first port of call was Port Blair - a strait-laced administrative capital...a rocky non-beach...the dreaded home of the Cellular Jail, a pitstop serving toast, chicken sausages and tea.

 I remember going on a long ferry ride. I remember the smell of cauliflowers which despite my fondness for the vegetable is a very rotten smell indeed. I remember the smell following me to the corners of that boat. I also remember the endless shades of blue as the sun glinted off the water. I remember a European girl with a very flat belly that she promptly decided to sun on the deck. I remember two very sullen newly weds (not us!) and an American Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

I remember arriving at the island that unlocked that perfect picture postcard which had been in my head since I was a youngling. I remember glimpses of white sands, a pair of elephants, red-roofed villas, coconut trees and a long menu of seafood specials. And I remember every detail of the first meal.

The sun shone benevolently. The bamboo curtains in front of our lovely gazebo style resort restaurant parted and we walked in, our bare feet slip sliding over the burnished wooden floor warmed by the balmy weather.  The meal ordered, we sipped on chilled coconut water and whetted our appetites which seem to have grown meaner and keener with the smell of the sea and could slash a poor crustacean to shreds with its sharp-edged fury.

And I remember my first meal. All these years later, the taste of that freshly grilled, gargantuan crab doused in garlic butter still makes me burst into a corny song:

You know I'm such a fool for you.
You got me wrapped around your finger, ah, ha, ha.
Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger?

It has lingered in my taste memory somewhere just like the blood memory of vampires. You could tap into some neuron and see the dark fantasies of my teeth closing over a tender, bright red claw or my hands pulverizing a belly full of sweet flesh.

We had all the conventional must-haves for any honeymoon.
There was the dappled sun, azure seas, sun dresses, glorious tans, canopied four poster beds, open-air luxurious showers, yellowfin tuna, wine at sunset, kisses by the moonlit sea. 

We also had games.
We played scrabble on the beach and 'count the tentacle game' with our deep-fried whole baby octopus platter.

We had accidents and adventure.
We fell off our scooter on day two of our honeymoon after deciding to see the island like the other young and freewheeling sporty outdoorsy sorts. Thereafter the  husband being too traumatized by the 'accident' decided to nurse his wounds in our lovely four poster with a book and his ipod, while I decided to continue on our scheduled activity for the day -  'kayaking for two'. With the first fledgling wings of adventure sprouting on my shoulders, I rowed my not-so-sturdy sea vessel into the ponderous roots of the mangrove-studded riverine canals. After the first half hour entangled in acute embarrassment, I managed to steer into the widening rivulet, all the way out into the open seas. Buffeted by the salty air and carried by the gentle waves, I freed myself from my city sloth and  pulled and pushed with my gravel-scraped palms into a wonderful ride over yellow coral beds.

We also had alcohol.
We drank a most exotic tropical cocktail. If there could be a drink that could act like a portal  into a land of summer, spices and the ocean breeze, the starfruit martini would be it. This tiny drink without any frills or cocktail umbrellas packed a deadly punch with the muddled fruit, dollops of salt and lime and some sugar syrup and oodles of vodka/white rum. We rubbed the salt off the rim and watched the last rays of the setting sun getting distorted through the condensed glass.

We also made friends.
The man in question was a jolly Italian cook, who for some strange reason had chosen this spit of land to get marooned on (four years ago, living on Havelock Island was akin to getting marooned here. dark patches of forest, erratic electricity, basic infrastructure, lots of fresh seafood) with his wife and had started a lovely restaurant called Mahua serving rustic Italian fare with seafood as its focus.

We had a murder.
Two minutes after we met Shushanto and posed for a photo together, we ended up murdering him.
He was handsome after the green-blue fashion popular among his kind, dripping salt water and smelling of the sea. He struggled bravely trapped in the Italian man's vice-like grip in what he knew were about to be his last moments. There was an air of gravity and tragedy about him. And in a spurt of sentimentality we decided to name him, Shushanto, a perfectly peaceful name for a creature that grew more thoughtful and more still as its end drew near.
We sealed the deal with the Italian and became the sea lobster's de facto executioners.
In order to honour him, we dressed for the occasion and ate a meal akin to the last supper. We were so deliriously well fed by Shushanto, that we didn't mind if the punishment for our crimes led to an eternity in an underwater hell in the belly of a giant green lobster.

 We had a haunting.
In an odd twist of fate, we got lost after this meal and as the last twinkling light of the restaurant (which was a good 30 minute walk from our resort) disappeared, we found ourselves in utter darkness. We walked through damp undergrowth on that especially moonless night with all kinds of night creatures hooting around us and little crabs crawling across our flip-flopped toes in a spine chilling manner. We were convinced it was Shushanto's revenge from the beyond and we laid our feet carefully on the ground in order to avoid stepping on his crab cousins. The husband sang some old silly ditty about farm animals (most of which we had eaten in the recent past) increasing the dread in my heart at the awarness of our growing ledger of sins.

We had a moment.
But just as I was about to take a dreadful vow of vegetarianism, we stumbled back on the path we knew. The gods had spoken. Shushanto was at peace and we were ready to fly back home with love in our hearts and our bellies full of optimism for the life ahead. 


The chronology of this little travel series is a little flawed. While Part I started with the most recent holiday, part II and III are earlier trips and the pieces themselves are half-remembered pieced together versions which might not reflect journalistic accuracy. I choose to call these my personal vignettes based on smells (good and bad), memorable meals, standout dishes, gorgeous sunsets, midnight walks and crabs by moonlight. This story has more to do with the actual surf and turf of things rather than detours off the beach.