Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Herbal medicine from an Indian bazaar: for Gourmet magazine.
SHOBA NARAYAN SEARCH FOR THE CURE 10.08.07 The practice of herbal medicine is alive and well in rural India. The herbalist at a greenmarket, in the village of Maralawadi (a couple of hours outside of Bangalore), sits amidst the potatoes and okra, the green peppers and mangoes, the beans, peas and young brinjal (Indian eggplant) displaying his wares. He sells yellow turmeric roots, pink salt, green and black peppercorns, ginger roots, red saffron, and stalks of garlic. People stop by, describe their ailments, and then buy the right combinations of herbs to cure what ails them. The women then grind them [...]
Mango Magic for Gourmet magazine
Mangoes PDF here MANGOES A GO-GO SHOBA NARAYAN 05.09.08 It’s that time of year again, when the sweet scent of mangoes fills the air. Every Indian bazaar is stacked with crates and crates them, and hungry Indians everywhere slice and slurp their way to mango ecstasy. This “king of fruits” comes in batches with musical names: Punjabi Chausas; Bangalore’s Badami and Bangloora varieties; Hyderabad’s Banganapalli and Roomani; Tamilnadu’s Neelam and Malgova; and, of course, Alphonsos from Pune in Maharashtra. People’s mango preferences depend on mood, moment, and, not the least of all, oral health: Many older people hate the fibrous [...]
Changing the restaurant paradigm for Gourmet magazine
SHOBA NARAYAN TAMPERING WITH TRADITION 06.05.08 Recently, I dined at Masala Klub, a new upscale Indian restaurant at the Taj West End hotel in Bangalore. I went with my mother, mostly because my husband refused to go. (“I wouldn’t eat at a restaurant that spells its name ‘klub’ if you paid me,” he said haughtily.) She likes to eat out, and has traveled abroad, but like most mothers, mine has embarrassed me to no end: In New York, for example, she sent back a fine black truffle risotto at San Domenico saying that the rice was undercooked. She is [...]
Sacred Food: Kashi Part 2: for Mint on Sunday
MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Big story Last Modified: Sat, Feb 27 2016. 11 35 PM IST How blind faith is choking the Ganga The mission to clean the Ganga will be a pipe dream as long as Indians have no problem in perceiving and accepting the river as both pure and dirty Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan The Ganga would be a good place to jump in. The question that looms before me is whether to jump into the Ganga in Kashi: the holiest of rivers in the holiest of cities, according to Hindus. I ask friends and family. My [...]
Sacred Food: Kashi: Mint on Sunday
MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Big story Last Modified: Sun, Feb 21 2016. 06 59 PM IST Of dead cows and the Ganga: The paradox of religion In her quest to embrace faith, the ultimate feel-good pill on the rocky road called life, this writer looks for divine intervention in Kashi Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan A dead cow is floating down the river Ganga. She is a black-and-white Holstein Friesian cow, like the one I own in Bangalore. She floats sideways, legs spreadeagled. Half of her face is visible, even though it is dark—7pm on a Friday. I wish I [...]
Sacred Food: Puri Jagannath: Mint on Sunday
Home » Mint on Sunday » Sacred Food Last Modified: Fri, Jan 01 2016. 04 19 PM IST What use is temple cuisine? Dining locally and seasonally is a fad now. Most traditional societies used to do just that. The second of a three-part series from Puri Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan In 1810, Robert Southey, a somewhat effeminate-looking British poet laureate who belonged to the Romantic school, wrote a poem called The Curse of Kehama. In it, he talked about an Indian practice that appalled him. “A thousand pilgrims strain,” he began. “To drag that sacred wain... And, calling on the god. Their self-devoted bodies [...]
The beautiful Lord: Mint on Sunday
MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Sacred Food Last Modified: Sat, Sep 12 2015. 11 30 PM IST Azhagar Kovil’s excellent dosai The humble dosai, a staple at breakfast tables in south India, takes a divine turn in the kitchen of Madurai’s Azhagar Kovil Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan It is sunset when I walk into the Azhagar Kovil, 20km outside Madurai. Azhagar Kovil means “handsome lord’s temple” in Tamil: a tad immodest, I think, even for Vishnu, the flamboyant Hindu god who is known to enjoy the good life. As it turns out, I may be wrong about the provenance of [...]
Sacred Food Palani: Mint on Sunday
MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Big story Last Modified: Mon, Aug 10 2015. 07 12 PM IST Palani’s heavenly panchamritham The prasadam of the popular hill temple not only tastes out of this world, but is also a healing potion Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan Carnegie Hall has nothing on Hindu temples. I think of this as I stand inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Palani temple, waiting for the doors to open. I have visited countless temples in my life and everywhere, the routine is the same: long lines of people—call them fans or devotees—waiting for hours to get a [...]
Sacred Food in the Golden Temple: Mint on Sunday
Rolling rotis in Amritsar’s Golden Temple Shoba Narayan Amritsar: The family standing at the long, snaking line to enter Harmandir Sahib, or the Golden Temple of Amritsar, is fighting. All around are people prayerfully singing kirtans (devotional songs), but this father and son, united by their pink turbans, but divided by their accents, are arguing. “I am a Sikh in my heart,” says the boy who looks to be about 16. “Why do I need to wear a turban to prove it?” “Because wearing a turban is one of the five tenets of our faith. You should be proud [...]
Silence and Sound Part 4
Home » Mint on Sunday » Silence and Sound Last Modified: Sat, Aug 27 2016. 11 37 PM IST Silence is an underrated tool in the arsenal of parenting When I don’t snap to judgement or bark out orders, it gives my kids the space to choose, decide and make mistakes Photo: iStock Shoba Narayan I am trying something that is extraordinarily difficult for every parent. I plan to cease and desist from all parental instructions; or at least reduce their volume and frequency quite significantly. I am what I would call an involved parent. My kids have another pithy word to describe my modus [...]