Ever tried fasting for a day?
Ok, forget fasting, ever felt hungry when there is just an hour left to head back home?
Am I the only weird one or are there other weirdos who feel some amount of satisfaction reading recipes and looking at pictures of food, especially when one is very hungry?
Why am I writing about all this? I wanted to talk about an amazing invention of the Indians. No, I am not talking about spirituality or the number zero. I am talking about something simpler than that. I am talking about the queen/king (former if you are a feminist and the latter for those who dont care !) of tiffins - Idli !!
Most of us do not appreciate things that are easily available to us. Also there is the other idiom - Familiarity breeds contempt ! (I am full of idioms today !!). Most of us from the south of India (’Madrasis’ for those who are not !), grow up eating idlis from a very young age. Idli is prescribed for infants who are just starting on solid food. As a result of this, we grow up with a sort of dislike and disregard for the idlis. We take them for granted and we do not appreciate the greatness of this amazing food !
In fact, I have heard a lot of south indians stating vehemently that they HATE idlis ! For some reason, most of us seem to prefer the close cousin of idli - the dosas, probably because of the different sizes, shapes and flavours that they come in.
It was when I moved out of India for about 2 years and was deprived of this amazing tiffin, that I grew to appreciate the amazing taste of idli. The respect for the master idli-makers grew manifold when I embarked on the task myself. The fermentation process of the batter, which seemed like an ordinary thing, in India, now commanded a lot of respect in remote Rhode Island !
In India, my mother would place the batter in the fridge soon after preparing it, so that it does not ferment too much. She would casually make the batter in the morning and it would ferment in 5-6 hours and we could have delicious idlis by evening. And here, I had to put it in the oven for atleast 24 hours to get a decent tasting idli. Sometimes, my jackets and fleece blankets, instead of providing warmth to me, would be wrapped around the container with the batter, to help it ferment ! Such was the care the batter demanded.
Chapathis have their equivalents in the Mexican tortillas, Pooris are similar to Chalupas (again mexican); even dosas have their counterparts in the western pancakes. Idli seems to be unique in that respect. I have not found a similar type of dish made in other parts of the world. The closest I saw was some sort of steamed bread in the Burmese cuisine !
Idlis are tasty, less expensive (in Indians restaurants) and healthy. Enter any tiny restaurant in the south and you are sure to find amazing idlis there. Eat them with sambar or coconut chutney, tomato chutney or mint chutney. My favourite, though, is the molagai podi (spiced lentil powder) with oil. Coming to think of it, there is no dish that resembles the idli or the molagai podi anywhere in world !
Apart from the regular idlis, there are many more varieties - the spicy and rich Kanchipuram Idli (that has black pepper, cumin seeds, ginger etc and needs no side dish), Rava idlis (again very rich, with spices, cashews etc) etc. Restaurants also named idlis after actresses like Khushboo idli - fat like the namesake and tasteless (wonder what they meant by naming the idli after her - do they mean she is fat and cant act ??!!). Ambassodor idlis, later called mini-idlis and now popularly known as 14 idlis, have 14 tiny idlis floating in a bowl of sambar.
As always, the other side of the pasture is always greener. So poor south indians try hard to make chapathis, adding lots of oil to it and making a side dish that always has every possible spice to make it taste authentic ! So also, the north indians are still in search of the perfect recipe for Idli and sambar !
Some of my best idlies (is that the plural form ??) were had in Chennai restaurants - Sangeetha, Saravana bhavan, Ratna Cafe, Geetha cafe etc. Ratna Cafe in Triplicane, is known for their great tasting idlies and better tasting sambar. It is a normal practice to walk into one of these numerour restaurants and to order a plate of idli and eat that with a bucketful of sambar. The extra cups of sambar are free and people dont hesitate to make maximum use of this policy ! Of course, there was nothing to beat the idlis made at home !
My worst idli experience was when I went to Kedarnath and Badrinath. Tired of eating phulkas all the time, some of my fellow tourists spotted a tiny joint that had idlis on their menu. I warned them, but they did not heed to my advice and proceeded to order idlis for all of us. The idlis were terrible, but worse was the sambar ! Once again, respect for the idli makers grew in my heart when I realized that making idlis is no child’s play.
I could go on and on about idlis. If I could write poems, I would dedicate an entire book of poems to idlis! Now why am I writing this? Because I still had 1/2 an hour to go before lunch time and thinking of idlis, seems to bring down the hunger just a little bit. Like I said in the first paragraph, I am one of those weirdos who seems to derive the satisfaction of eating the dish, just by reading its recipe or by reading about it.
Its time for lunch. I know what my lunchbox holds and it is definitely not idlis !! Those who are eating idlis, you may have a stomach ache* because I envy you !!
*It is a superstition in Tamilnadu, that when someone eyes you eating something, with envy, you suffer from stomach ache later !!
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