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The menu for lunch yesterday included rice, sambar, avial, fried-in-coconut oil seer fish, stir-fried okra, fresh raw mango pickle and papadoms. It had been a special request from the Second Born who was visiting after three years. The girl from Serbia aka the Second Born’s partner, tucked into the meal with relish like a true-blue Malayali from God’s Own Country, Kerala.
For dinner there was potato and vegetable stew (coconut milk being its base) with chapatis, the Indian flat bread. There was also fresh vegetable salad and fried fish again. (Living in Kerala by the way, is all about fish, fish, more fish and some more fish.) ‘Mmm…. I love this!’ she said about the stew, delicately flavoured with spices, curry leaves and (again!) coconut oil
Today morning I had to send the L&M on a quest to get some prawns because the online stores I order from didn’t seem to have any. He didn’t have to go far and found them in a place very close to home. The Second Born had told me that his girl loved prawns. So today’s lunch was Basmati rice and prawns masala along with the leftover avial from yesterday and some vegetables.
It is amazing how someone whose country’s cuisine totally differs from our own in every way could just dive into our kind of food with so much enjoyment. It was indeed a pleasure to watch her eating, and with her hands too unlike the spoon and fork she is used to otherwise.
Through it all, I couldn’t help but recall the number of times I have encountered people from my own country, especially from the northern regions, who have turned up their noses at the very mention of Kerala food. ‘Ugh, they have coconut oil in everything!’ they have said in disgust unwilling to even try something different from the cuisine of their own region.
That’s all for today. Tomorrow is another day, and I have menus to plan for the upcoming week 🙂
© Shail Mohan 2023
Shail's Nest 
Excellent news: food is the pathway to our hearts. My brothers and their families cannot understand my lack of desire to pig out on red meat – they would rather that and no vegetables! Over the years it has become something of a joke between us, so no harm done 🙂
I find it difficult to understand how people can have meals without ANY veggies. Ideally I prefer both though I stay away from red meat for health reasons. 🙂
Now I am hungry!!
You are too far away DeeAnne or I could simply have invited you over! 😊
SOMEDAY!!!!
Yesssss! 😊
Well, Indian cuisine has been my favourite for a long, long, time.
Nice to know that, Mick 😊
Ah no, us westerners LOVE Indian food of all varieties! Especially when we come from countries such as Serbia and the UK which are ‘not known’ for their own culinary delights…
Ahh. Glad to know that. I myself love to try out new cuisines. India itself has too many varieties to her credit. I haven’t tried even half of them! 😄
A tad late in this post.
I love it when non malayalees do something that makes them a true blue malayalee! My brother’s wife is French and she taught herself the “mangalam” song from Bangalore Days before they married and sang it in Malayalam pretty well XD.