Kerala cuisine gets a new lease of life abroad as Malayalee food bloggers take to foreign waters.
Words by Rheanna Mathews Photographs from Various Sources
Who was it that said when Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind on the moon, there was a Malayalee there with a chaya kada? They probably had it right. No matter where you go on God’s green earth, there’s bound to be a Malayalee close by. Probably craving the same foods you are. And like any diaspora, Malayalees love to take their cuisine with them. As anyone who’s stayed away from home would attest, when you’re away, you begin to miss things of which you never even realised you were fond. And when the missing grows too much to bear, you try and recreate all that you love and cherish about home, a large part of which ends up being food.
FWD Life caught up with four talented women whose blogs are making the lives of many aspiring home cooks, both abroad and at home, a heck of a lot easier! They shared with us different aspects of their food blogging, what inspired them to start, keeps them going and their love for what they do. All of them live abroad but have managed to stay true to their roots in their cooking, and are more than happy to tell us how they managed it.
Ria Mathew
Ria’s Collection
As a family, food is our main topic of discussion whenever we get together, so sharing recipes with each other comes naturally. I used to share recipes that I received from other family members via emails. So one evening (eight years ago), as I was busy typing out a recipe to share, my 12-year old brother asked me why I didn’t think about starting a blog. At the time, I had no idea what that meant. Before I got married, I asked Amma if she could write down some of her cherished recipes for me in a small diary. That handwritten recipe diary is my most favourite book to cook from. Other than that, I follow recipes from my late grandmother, my Appa’s sister, my Amma’s twin sister and other family members.
My family lives to eat and we discuss food the most. So naturally, there are many recipes that have been handed down in the family as a tradition. I rarely experiment with such recipes. I like to follow them as is, to retain its authentic taste.
Nagalakshmi Viswanathans
The Edible Garden
I got inspired by a food blog I came across many years ago and thought the idea was really cool. This is before food blogging became mainstream. I started off on my own when I was single and on my first job, sharing an apartment with a colleague in Hyderabad. The idea was to share quick and easy recipes for beginners out there like me.
I faced different challenges in different places. In Hyderabad, it was fairly easy although I realised that to even make a simple Kerala dish like thoran or chutney, you need a mixer grinder. In Singapore, I set up my first proper kitchen post-marriage and here the challenge was getting good quality coconut. The Malaysian and Thai coconuts don’t taste the same as our beautiful coconuts from Kerala. It took me a while to adjust. The one year I lived in Sydney was when my Kerala cooking suffered the most. From getting shallots to the right type of green chillies and fresh coconut, I struggled. It made me realise how complex it is to get a simple dish right.
Maya Akhil
Yummy O Yummy
During my initial days of cooking, I blindly followed cookery shows and my mom’s and friends’ recipes. Nowadays, I still watch cookery shows and go through a lot of cookbooks for ideas, but I adapt the recipes to my own taste. I don’t try to change any traditional or authentic recipes much, but I do try to give my own twist to what I make. Whenever I taste something new at a friend’s place, I get the recipe and try to recreate it at home.
Most of our family recipes are passed down to the next generation by word of mouth. My blog is a humble attempt to document these before they are lost forever. My brother helps me with the technical aspects of blogging. During my trips to India, my mom cooks her specials for me and I photograph them. Sometimes I ask her to cook the dishes for which the ingredients are not available in the US. Many of my non-Malayali friends really enjoy Kerala cuisine. They especially enjoy our yogurt based curries like pulisseri, pachadi, etc, our breakfast dishes and coconut milk-based preparations.
Sangeetha Menon
Kothiyavunu
I grew up in a family that loved food but cooking become a more significant part of my life only when I moved to US and found myself alone in the kitchen. I started to try different things in that space and realised I was excited about not just eating, but the cooking as well.
It is really hard to find fresh ingredients for our traditional dishes. Sometimes I had to use frozen ones and that affects the taste somewhat. It is also difficult to get some traditional utensils here in the US, and we have to learn to adjust with western utensils. Most of my wonderful recipes were passed down to me from my grandparents, my mom and my mother-in-law and other family members. Very rarely do I stray or make changes in these recipes that were handed down to me. My family plays a role in my blogging by giving honest feedback on the food I cook, great support and inspirations. And my friends, they always say that Kerala cuisine has it’s own distinct, great flavour and uniqueness.
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