When friends visit town, one of the pilgrimages they gladly undertake is a visit home to taste my mother's cooking. For years, the sea-food that she cooked had built quite a reputation. They were authentically prepared and a treat to the senses. So much so that, after tasting her cooking, most people avoid eating fish from a restaurant.
Recently a few Canadian friends came home and they were the latest ones to be bowled over by her cooking. They took back the soulful taste of fish, when it is cooked just right. For mom, cooking isn't a task, it is a form of expression and celebration. The crisply fried Seer fish gives itself another aroma when it is cooked in a pot with all the masalas blending into perfect harmony, the Kallumakkai or mussels which can be deep fried or cooked in curry, the succulent crab curry, mouth-watering Chemmeen curry (prawns)...
Of course with mother's cooking it's a no-holds barred event and guests are advised to carry their tissues with them. It is as much an all-encompassing experience for the human glands. While her vegetarian cooking is interesting, it is in the sea-food category that she beats all contenders.
Recently I was reading a travel magazine and I chanced upon this piece - "Of all the regional cuisines of India, perhaps the mention of the cuisine of the Malabar coast excites the maximum palates, and for very good reason. Even as Kozhikode's ports contributed the wealth of Kerala spice to the world, Arab, Jewish, Chinese, Portuguese, African and English traders who bought the spice left their own indelible influences on Kerala's kitchens. That's why a state as small as Kerala is home to an astounding variety of cuisine from pure vegetarian Namboodiri to Syrian Christian and Jewish to Mappila..."
So when her cooking had left such a huge imprint on me, I realized I was in fact celebrating a confluence of cultures that had assimilated itself into one tasty meal!
1 comments:
well...hmmmm...slurrpppp...mouthwatering:)
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