Indian food

My cooking is eclectic -- defying a routine or a preference. I grew up in Madras in a Tamil home, but my mother never cooked idlis or dosais for breakfast or a three-course meal with sambhar, rasam and yogurt for lunch or dinner. Her repertoire of dishes cooked was different from her mother's. My maternal grandmother cooked like our ancestors cooked in Kanchipuram and its nearby villages -- vegetarian peasant foods using brinjals, pumpkins, groundnuts, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes and different varieties of greens. While still living in their village, my grandmother and her siblings cultivated paddy, harvested groundnuts and raised enough cows to luxuriously enjoy frothy milk and thick curds three meals a day. But my mother didn't appreciate my grandmother's subtle cooking when she was growing up and never got around to learning cooking from her until much older.

At 18 she was given in marriage to my father who came from Nagercoil where the cusiine is very similar to Kerala's cuisine. Lots of coconut and good fish! But being vegetarian, she embraced the habit of adding coconut in every form -- shredded, milked or thinly sliced -- to every possible dish while ignoring the fresh fish. And so she learnt how to cook some dishes -- theeyal, avial, eruseri -- from my paternal grandmother in her brief stay (couple of months) in my paternal grandparents' home. After which she learned to cook Punjabi, some Gujarati and what is generically known as "North Indian" food while living in Roorkee for a year.

My point is that I grew up in my mother's eclectic kitchen even before I muddied my cooking even further. I am no great cook but I try to cook whatever catches my fancy. Trouble is, I rarely follow a recipe to the T, which irks my kids, and I take plenty of short cuts. If they enjoy a dish they are pretty sure I won't be able to recreate it another time. If a dish didn't turn out well, they know this is because of my inability to follow a recipe, any recipe. And I am sheepish but never bother to learn from my mistakes. This is our perpetual story -- I am happy taking my chances most times I cook. So imagine my surprise that for the first time in my life I made the perfect idlis -- soft as folower petals and fluffy as clouds -- merely by using the regular stone grinder instead of a mixie. I own one of those electric stone grinders to make batter for idlis and vadais and dosais but I was too reluctant to use it. I assumed a mixie would do the job equally well. Plus, a mixie is easier to store and wash after every use. But now that I finally gave a stone grinder a try, I cannot understand what kept me from using it in the first place! You live and learn.


My kids on what one Indian dish they like and one they don't like. There seems to be a theme running through their preferences:

There is nothing better than sitting down in the evening after a long, tiring day and eating a bowl of plain yogurt, rice, and Indian pickle (usually mango or fish). Yogurt rice is such a simple yet satisfying meal that I call my comfort food. For my other favorite foods, I usually get tired of their taste by the time dinner is over. But this isn’t the case with me for yogurt rice. When eaten with pickle, this Indian staple is very flavorful and spicy, yet is still healthy.

Upma is a food that I do not crave and have mixed feelings about. Its flavor isn’t very striking and it does not contain the rich carbs and butter that parathas or naans have. Yet, upma is very healthy; it’s loaded with protein, fiber, and vitamins if cooked with vegetables. Upma is a breakfast food so when I eat it in the morning, I feel good about myself because it seems to me that I have started off my day well. So the takeaway that I have learned here is simple: food doesn’t have to taste good in order to make you feel good.

-- Lekha Durai, June 2020

I have mixed feelings on Indian food. Some things I like, some things I don’t like. Some Indian foods that I really enjoy are samosas, naan and chicken 65. Some foods that I don’t like are pacora and daal. Samosas are so delectable!! The pastry part of it is unbelievably delicious. And It’s so crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside! The filling is so flavorful and who doesn’t like potatoes? Naans are so heavenly. The texture is so soft and perfect! It tastes amazing with any kind of curry or even on its own! The flavor of chicken 65 is unmatched, I can’t even describe it. That’s all I’m going to say about it. Okay, onto Indian foods that I hate with a passion. Pacora is too much. Why would you ever fry something and add vegetables to it? If it’s going to be unhealthy, just let it be unhealthy. Also, the flavor is just bad. I don’t know what’s put into them to make the flavor taste like that, but it’s just bad. Now, onto daal. Daal is just 🤮. My mom always makes it in HUGE quantities and then force feeds it down my throat. It’s so gross in ways that I can’t even describe. The End.

-- Divya Durai, June 2020

Once upon a time, Americans weren’t aware of eastern cuisines. Many immigrant kids, especially Indian immigrant kids, felt left out because no peers understood their culture. That is not really the case today, at least for my experiences. Now, eating “ethnic” foods is suddenly a trend, probably because elite white people are trying to not feel guilty about their privilege, but whatever. Oftentimes, someone might ask me, “Are you Indian?”. When I respond, “Yes,” they get ecstatic and exclaim, “I LOVE Indian food!” Then they might talk about all of the Indian restaurants they’ve been to. But the truth is, the food that Indian restaurants serve is not really the food I eat in my family. Restaurants serve dishes that appeal to consumers, especially upper classes. But in my house, my parents often make traditional Tamil food.

The most memorable Tamil food that my mom makes is one that I have come to despise: dal. Dal is a brown, soup-like dish of lentils and vegetable, usually served with rice—what other cultures call lentil soup. There really isn’t that much wrong with its taste if it is cooked with lots of ghee (melted butter) and less vegetables. But in my house, my mom makes it healthy and thus boring—putting in squash, carrots, and tomatoes, and making it really thick. She also often makes it in large quantities, so my family usually has to eat it for a few days in a row. I don’t hate dal, it’s just that my taste buds have come to consider it boring. Anyway, I don’t really have a choice; I probably will be eating dal for as long as I eat my mom’s food.

Some people stereotype South Indian food to be boring and not as civilized (they might use the word “exotic” to be polite). If anyone thinks this, all I can say is that they have not eaten dosa (pronounced “dough-say”). Many describe it as a “savory crepe”. To make dosa, you first need to make a thick rice batter that can include some vegetables and spices. Then, you make dosas on an oiled pan like you would pancakes. Dosas can be eaten with literally anything: sambar, chutney, podi, dal, and—my favorite—by itself. Not only are dosas crispy and amazing, but it’s also fun to make them! One of my favorite childhood memories with my mother is helping her put drops of oil on the pan, pouring the batter, and flipping the dosa.

India is a large country, with so many different cuisines. My family eats Indian food that wouldn’t typically be found in an Indian-American restaurant. Some of these foods I love, some not so much. But, they are my heritage, and they will always be a part of me.

-- Rahul Durai, June 2020