Day 6:Papadum and Appalam

Sara- Your appalam gave it away.
me- huh?
she- ya, we make papadum not appalam
me- all the same no?
she- no papadum will puff up, appalam won't.

****Insert spinning wheels the kind they show in movies to depict flashbacks- I stayed in a small Kerala place called Makut for my field work, and the lady used to serve us dal with these puffed up appalam (I should start calling it papadum from now on). I have searched all over for this type of appalam sorry pappadum and wondered why mine would never puff like that. The lady also used to fry them in coconut oil it was so yum****

she- you get it in 5Star, ask him for kerala pap..

---CRASH---
I was so immersed in this scintillating conversation that I had failed to keep an eye on my boy. He had broken her ceramic cup. I wanted to dig a 20 feet hole and bury myself. Then I learnt that the bowl and the pebbles that it contained were something related to Feng Shui, and that finding a blue colour ceramic bowl was very difficult. Now I wanted to dig that 20 feet hole, pour 40lts HCl and jump into my HCl swimming pool. I apologized and hurriedly left her place trying ever so hard to think of a place that sold ceramic pots. I went to Singapore shoppe and saw a poster on the door "Happy Onam. Kerala Papadum available".  The dumb store didn't have any ceramic bowls let alone blue so naturally the next thing I did was what every sane woman would do- bought the Kerala papadum :D

I brought it home, opened it and ooohh how different it was compared to the normal yucky appalams.

The 1st thing one notices is that the kerala papadum is not stiff like the normal ones.

Kerala papadum-

Yucky appalam-

You can actually roll it up whereas the other one...well just broke into 2 pieces (ok not sure how and why I thought I could roll a stiff appalam. Sometimes my brilliance is puzzling).

And when fried in oil it puffed up like so,

Flat boring appalam and puffed up aww..so cute papadum-

I most definitely liked the taste of kerala papadum (must be pretty obvious by now :D)- it's somewhat light and has a different type of crunch when compared to the appalam (again just like podis I have cough cough tested over 5 varieties of appalam- from Bindu to Ambika to Stag everything is just so meh). Henceforth, I would like you all to ditch the appalam and use Kerala papadum for all your daily and special meals. I would also like to blog-lically apologize to Sara on my boy's behalf for breaking her bowl and thank her for introducing me to Kerala Papadum.

PS- this post was most definitely not sponsored by the Kerala tourism board or the Kerala papadum association. 

Day 5: Surprise!!

Everyone who knows me must think I have a million friends because I'm an extrovert/pretty sociable. It is not true. I don't make friends very easily, I allow very few to come close to me, I don't believe in fishing for friends. It has to just click- as with the 5 or 6 I have lol! I have few friends whom I know only through FB- very good friends. This one friend in particular has been commenting on my site every  since I started writing...no make that nonsensing.

                              
                                                            Paal Payasam

She comments on almost all posts of mine- God knows where she finds the time to do it and why she spends that precious 2 mins to read/comment here is still a mystery :D

                           
                                            Vendakka Thayir Pachadi

I have bugged her (and continue to bug) immensely. I also send other people to bug her :D

                           
                                                 Beans Mezhukkupuratti

She is probably the most helpful person I know- with so many things at hand (a job, a husband, a house, a couple of blogs to handle, her travels) she always find time to respond to her emails (at least mine :D) and all kind of doubts people have about a recipe!


                                                              Kerala Olan

We have argued about ice cream splatters (:D), discussed cake books and reviewed Raghavan Iyer!

                           
                                               Kerala Parippu Curry

She is probably the only reason I wanted Jay to find a job in Singapore (ok she and awesome metro that Singapore has are probably the biggest reason... umm..the bird park and the zoo also).

                          
                                                          Sambar

Every year, Onam time I see her posts ---"I wish I was home." " I've never made a sadhya." "These are some Onam dishes you can try for Onam." Well, I decided to do just that. Any food blogger is tickled pink,red, yellow, blue, green when a reader tries out her recipe. Nags I hope you are happy-surprised :D (you better be I went and got coconut oil and banana leaf just for this!) and thanks for being my friend!



OK I know it is not like Onam sadhya but hey at least I didn't find a screw in any of the dishes! I was dying to add some cardamom/saffron/nuts in the payasam but because she has said "keep it simple" I didn't. The payasam, sambhar and the beans were my favourite. And excuse-moi for bad photos, boy most uncooperative!