Ripe mango, ghee delight Anjali Menon

Filmmaker Anjali Menon has maintained a love affair with food, both on and off screen. The intensity of this relationship was witnessed at its best in 'Ustad Hotel' scripted by her.

In fact, Anjali was carrying and staying with her mother in Kozhikode when she wrote the story. Relatives and friends showered their love on her. It was the time when she could lay hands on any dish she wished to taste. This situation reflects in the movie too. “Each cup of Sulaimani (black tea with spices and lemon juice) should have pinch of mohabbat (love)” says the Ustad in the film.

But one wonders which is Anjali’s favourite food item. “The taste of ripe local variety of mango lingers forever. Similar is my liking for the ghee made out of cow’s milk. During childhood, my grandmother used to keep them ready when we visited her during vacations. When we returned, she gave us a bottle of the ghee. Now my mother too does the same for my son,” she explains.

Anjali reveals another secret: “I can eat anything with ghee and sugar.”

When she landed at Kochi airport from Mumbai to promote her new film 'Koode', it was raining there. “The smell of the soil during rain is indescribable. We had vacations during the months of June-July and reaching Kerala, it was always rainy season here,” says Anjali.

Anjali has a knack of finding minute details regarding the subjects she writes about. She enjoys tending to plants like sacred basil and rose growing on the balcony. Her another love is preparing and eating homemade jam. On Instagram, Anjali shares images of pani poori sellers in Mumbai, green mangoes, ripe mulberry fruit, aloo paratha, parippu vada, coffee beans and chocolates.

Click here to read this story in Malayalam