Deepavali For the Foodie

 

One more foodie festival Deepavali is over

 

Well most will not be happy with me for reducing a pan global Hindu festival into just a foodie one but for a radical foodie all festivals are an excuse to indulge .

Most pics are from online 

Kindly excuse

Dont pull me to court 

Having been born and brought up in a hardcore vegetarian Mylapore in Antha kalathu Madras I knew Deepavali meant sweets and savouries .

My mother learnt all the tricks to make kai muruku to Juicy Jangiri from pakkathu veetu maamis and in style too .

Her Badushas were to die for, and she would leave nothing to be bought from shops  even those yellow crispy mixtures .

Preparation would start a few days before Deepavali  and she would prohibit me from entering the kitchen as she knew my hands were adept at snatching a ladoo or dipping into a jamun or a handful of murukku .

These preparations were made mostly to return for the goodies expected from the one hundred thousand and one laxmipathys and vaidyanathaswamys ..

 Therinjukko not for you gobbling elllamme .

Of course my father working in Tamilnadu Secretariat would bring his office ordered packet of sweets they got at special price and made in shudh ghee from Agarwals in Broadway .

Shuddha neyyaakkum .

We did have a Mudaliar family next door who wickedly gave us succulent mutton Biriyani during any weddings in thier family .

whispers of thier idlis with mutton curry on Deepavalli mornings were in the air..

Avaathulle Deepavalikku kari pannuvaalam !!

But we too sadly went veggie on that day .

By mid day tired after bursting all the crackers our stomachs would be bursting with south indian sweets discovered till date from all our neighbours .

Those days life was like that.

We never had much borders on anything though castes ,religion, languages were all mentioned ,

but when it came to sharing we the malayala maama pasanga were just like the mudaliar payyans and those iyers and iyengaars aathukaar or Basheer Bais .

And food was the most common denominator indeed .

Life was simpler

So were humans .

They were more humane .

#foodfunfriends