My mum-in-law is a great cook and so when we visit each year, I'm in for quite a treat! My husband has a few favourite things on his request list for her, and one of them is kozhukattai payasam. I watched her as she cooked this up this year, and participated in the fun bits too! I have to say, it took a while but was well worth the effort. Here's her kozhukattai payasam recipe.
What strikes me about South Indian cuisine each time I visit that part of India is how creative it is with a humble cup of rice! They steam, ferment, grind, slow-cook, roll, simmer, sauté to produce a plethora of interesting and very tasty dishes. Here's a few I got messy with on my trip back home earlier this month...a LOT of Tamil and Kannadiga food was eaten...
Earlier this month, my parents and I decided to drive up to the Chikmagalur hills in Karnataka, India, for a three-day break in the heart of a coffee plantation, just as harvest season was beginning. The Thotadhahalli Homestay is a stunning 75 acre property with a traditional Kannadiga style house complete with two hundred varieties of bonsai, about a hundred different cacti, and plush with antiques and artifacts. The hosts have let six of their rooms as holiday accommodation, and all meals are included in the tariff. We're talking 4 sumptuous home-cooked meals a day, prepared and served with great gusto and generosity, and representing some of the tastiest dishes in Kannadiga cuisine. So without further ado, let's launch into food! Most of these Karnataka dishes were eaten at the homestay, but a few of them were sampled enroute to Chikmagalur too. I do hope you have an opportunity to try some of these local Kannadiga food delights if you visit Karnataka.
As part of my epic food travelling holiday in India last year, I spent a few very tasty days in Mumbai. I went back to Mumbai last week to spend a little more time with family and to eat a little more of course. Following my trip, I have to add two more food stops to my list of top 10 street foods of Mumbai from last year!
Greenwich Market has been on my list of must-visit markets ever since I moved to London about 5 years ago. We finally visited a couple of weekends ago and had a ball! I won't use this space to talk about the quirky handicrafts and artwork or antique and bric-a-brac stalls - which there were plenty of and all very lovely - but will focus on the FOOD. We deliberately skipped breakfast, so we were ravenous when we got to the market and determined to try as many food stalls as we could. What I really liked about the Greenwich Market food was that it was such an eclectic mix. Vegetarian Ethiopian, raw food, handmade noodles, paella and custard tarts all in the same boat. And innovative too. Ramen burgers anyone?
Here are my top 5 food stalls (in no order) from my visit to Greenwich Market: