Kerala Special Nendaran (banana) Chips

We went to Guruvayur temple in Kerala, on our last visit to India. Besides being God's own country, Kerala is known for its nendranka chips, which is a favorite of mine, since childhood. It has a very distinct flavor as it is made using coconut oil.

On the way back from Guruvayur temple we passed through Vadakkencherry, where we came across shops that make fresh chips, the traditional way. Um, the smell itself made us to pull aside and taste the delicacy. While our batch was getting ready, my shutter was busy capturing the action...

The Nendran banana (நேந்த்ரன்கா) used for making the chips is neither raw nor ripe.

The vendor told us that instead of regular wok and electric or gas stoves, they use brass wok on top of traditional brick stove & firewood for making the chips, to get the signature nendran chips flavor. They seemed to be proud of even their wok, you could see it from their gleam!

Slicing the nendraka in a fast mode right on top of hot oil...

Getting fried on a low flame...

 

Deftly taking the chips out after few minutes of frying...

No salt or any other flavor was added, it was divine and the taste still lingers.

Chittukurivi - House Sparrow

It was raining rather heavily in the afternoon and I was busy in the kitchen. A familiar, yet long forgotten sound tempted me to open the wet area and confirm what I heard is true...

Poor little darlings, they were shivering in the wet and rather cold breeze. How long it has been since I've seen them!

When I was young, sparrows (chittukurivi or oorkuruvi) used to grace our terrace in the evenings and feed on the left over food that was kept for crows in the morning. Now, after seeing the beautiful household bird I tried to recall if I've seen any of them in my hometown during my visits in 2010, but I can't remember spotting them. Are sparrows getting endangered too?

Demeantor Clouds

This morning weather was bleak and had to drive to school with headlights on. As we were nearing Pantai Klebang, the dark clouds were rushing forward...

This chasing clouds reminded me of demeantors surrounding Quidditch ground in Prisoner of Azkaban. 

Palmyra Palm - Padhini

Before my Indian holiday becomes a vague memory, I plan to post them. On the way to Aliyar dam, we saw many padhini sellers by the road side. It brought back my childhood memories and told my kid how we used to force our grandpa to buy the sweet padhini at night. In those days, they used to sell it in push carts, but now the peddlers are modernized...

Padhini or pathanir is the palm sap extracted from the barks of Indian Palmyra palm tree. Mostly, villagers extract the palm sap directly in a mud pot so that it gets fermented and becomes kallu or toddy, which is alcoholic. For padhini, the collecting mud pot is coated with chunnambu (edible soda lime calcium) so that the extracted sap is sweet and non-alcoholic. Traditionally, padhini is served in palm leaf bowls.

Optionally you can add nungu as well.

Somewhere I've heard nungu is ice apple in English, but am not sure. The drink is delicious and refreshing. Finally, when I asked if the vendor sold kallu, he just pointed at a plastic bottle hanging in his motorcycle...

Well, none of us dared to try it...

Picturesque India - Aliyar Dam & Monkey Falls

In 2010, due to various reasons I had to travel a lot. Moreover, we had several opportunities to travel with family in India! I had missed out on blogging side because of these travels and other commitments. I realized this only when I started to archive and take a back up of the photos. To do away with the guilty feeling, am trying to come up with this eleventh hour post...

Path leading to Monkey falls around 65 km from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Superb weather and no crowd...we were very much tempted to take a dip, but unfortunately we had no change of clothes...so just satisfied ourselves with waddling in the stream...

Aliyar dam is just about a couple of km from Monkey falls and is surrounded by western ghats...

Though it was a hot day, it was windy and pleasant.

The park adjoining the dam was very inviting and we settled there for a picnic lunch...

Bettle nut tree...

Another view of the western ghats...

Typical bazar meant to attract the tourists...

On the way back, we saw someone casually throwing trash out of a moving car. This made to sigh and think, when would be change?