A man's search for Idlis

I have tasted a wide variety of cuisines - Kerala, Punjabi, Chinese, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Zambian, Italian, Mexican... I believe I have tasted quite a bit of dishes in my life, I mean in today's world who has not. Every other mall has enough dining options to start off a food world war with so many nationalities involved!

I landed in Lusaka, Zambia and was on tourist mode for quite a few days. Once I had tasted local cuisine that included crocodile tail meat I started craving for - hold your breath - the ubiquitous over Tamil-Nadu, small, round, soft, fluffy, steaming idlis.

The history first. I never liked Idlis at a point in time. The reason being it was the sole item made in my community as breakfast and so, was available most days on the breakfast menu. As the saying goes familiarity breeds contempt - I held Idlis in contempt. They invaded the space on my breakfast table and deprived me of the various other options like appam with chicken curry, puttu with egg curry, kal dosa with mutton curry and so on - my stomach growls and my tongue salivates as I write his!

This breakfast table invasion made me hate Idlis and also when I was in hostel we were served Idlis that could be used as murder weapons, they were so hard. That further distanced me from the villainous opportunity depriving and deadly weapon - Idli!

Cut the scene to Chennai when I joined for work in a company there. Murugan Idli was a restaurant I frequented and the Idli was back in my life wooing me with its softness and its tangy and tasty chutneys. I fell for it all over again and I was in love with Idlis again.

Back to Lusaka, once the initial tourist mode was switched off and the daily routine mode set in, I no more had the stomach for crocodile tail meat or bacon or baked beans. All I wanted was nice Idlis for breakfast with some nice spicy tomato chutney. I tried at Indian restaurants and found chapathis,rotis, biryani and even the Idlis distant cousin, the dosa, but Idlis, sadly, were not to be found.

I then decided if I'm not able to go to Idlis, let the Idli's come to me and searched for the Idli making vessel in all the shops possible only to be looked upon by the store girls with surprise and faint signs of amusement at the new word and the wild Indian circling his hands to show small round discs on hi palm.

So then I resigned to fate and decided my Idli days were far off, but I had to persevere and be patient and one day I would be back in the land of Idlis, with its chutneys and Sambar. Patience was the key. 

And as the days went by with me pining away and dreaming of idlis an idea struck me. If I couldn't go to Idlis, and Idlis coudn't come to me, let me go to someone who has access to Idlis and a light bulb went off bright and dazzling. 

And sure enough I found Tamil friends in this new land and sure enough one of them had the apparatus required to make Idlis. I had struck Gold, sorry, Idlis!! Hurray! 

And one day I bought the booze, headed over to their place and influenced them to make idlis and voila - I had it!!! A plate of hot steaming Idlis (smaller than home ones, but beggars cannot be choosers) and spicy tomato chutney. I ate them with relish, savoring every bite and felt satiated and happy. And my search for Idlis had come to an end and the world was all colorful and happy again.

These days I have the craving for pathiri and kerala chicken curry and am scouting for Mallu friends.

P.S - For the Idli and pathiri ignorant people - Idli is rice cake, one of the native foods of Tamil Nadu in India and Pathiri is a different kind of rice cake native to Kerala in India too. Chutney is grounded vegetables mixed with spices served as accompaniment with a lot of South Indian dishes.