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The book 'Tiffin: Memories and Recipies of Vegetarian Food' written by Rukmini SrinivasNew Delhi: Novelist R K Narayan was fond of scented areca nut and the strictly vegetarian author fussed over food labels and ate the 'cleansing' curd rice during his stint in the US as a Rockfeller Fellow.
Charming tidbits about the author of iconic stories like "The Guide" and "Malgudi Days" can be found in "Tiffin: Memories and Recipies of Vegetarian Food," written by Rukmini Srinivas, who used to teach at Queen Mary's College in Chennai and now divides her time between Boston and Bengaluru.
Narayan, a family friend of Rukmini and her renowned social anthropologist husband M N Srinivas, recounted to the author his experience of having mistaken pepperoni for tomatoes at a pizza place in Berkeley in the US.
Kunjappa, as Narayan was fondly called "requested me for a bowl of rice mixed with yoghurt as 'cleansing' food as he put it," recounts the author, who is now in her 80s and hosts a TV programme on Indian vegetarian food on a Boston-based channel.
Written in a memoir style, the author who grew up in British India shares the memories and recipes of delectable food that she has cooked and eaten over many decades.
Rukmini's father worked for British defence administration till 1947 and her childhood was spent in different places across the country.
Food eaten in cities of Poona, Baroda, Delhi, Tanjore, Mysore and Madras besides Stanford, Berkeley and Boston in the US, various places that Rukmini or "Rukka" lived find place in the book published by Rupa.
"There is a growing interest in the UK and the US in tiffin, the food and its traditional Indian container, the tiffin carrier. Its global popularity is evident from the fact that several Indian restaurants by the name 'Tiffin' have sported in recent years from London to Philadelphia" says the author.
'Tiffin', derived from 'tiffing', a historical British term for small meals or snacks to accompany a drink, is a staple meal in most Indian households.
Like the traditional metal tiffin box, which has found its way into modern food, Rukmini's pure-vegetarian recipes are an interesting amalgamation of old-school cooking techniques, with innovative twists.
Peppered with anecdotes of her life, friends and family the author has presented over a hundred easy-to-follow delicious recipes accompanied by evocative photographs, She records her emotional and deeply personal bond with food from Chitappa's masala vadai and Appa's vegetable cutlet to bondas on Marina Beach, Narayana's bajji and Amma's Mysore pak.
Alongside, she shares stories from her childhood in British Poona, of making vegetable cutlets with a Victorian meat grinder and of college days in the Madras of a newly independent India besides other stories.
Rukmini says she recalled many anecdotes and narratives about people and the places associated with the recipes and introduced these characters through letters to her two daughters who had left for studies abroad. One of the first chapters introduces a Victorian Meat Grinder into the author's kitchen.
Rukmini says her father had his first posting in Quetta near the Afghanistan border and had friends and colleagues hailing from different parts of India and England. "Sharing food with them exposed him to the wealth and variety of Indian and British cuisine. Though Appa remained vegetarian, the food in our home was always an eclectic mix," says Rukmini.
While staying in Pune, Rukmini says her father after a visit to Mumbai brought with him a "heavy silver-coated metal Victorian meat grinder. It had a big flywheel on one side, with a wooden handle capped with burgundy-coloured leather embossed with the name of the manufacturing company in the Midlands in the UK." The grinder was used to make tiffin cutlets.
Recipes for masala paranthas that the author and her sisters used to take to school, of potato bhajji from the noted restaurant Sathe's in Poona, of cashew gulkand barfi made during Deepavali celebrations in Tanjore, bondas served at the mobile canteen on Marina beach, healthy mixed greens-potato bake at Stanford University, the Bombay bonda and the Shahi Tukda are included in the book.
(With agency inputs)
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