Vir Sanghvi’s Rude Food and Thattukada Chicken

I have been blogging for an year and a half now, and for the most part I’ve kept up a steady pace. I have blogged when I was on vacation, when I had visitors and even when I was sick. Only thing that has ever kept me away from the blogging world is work, which is the main reason for my infrequent updates and blog hopping. Now, no one can fault me for being a good employee right? Someone’s gotta pay half of that mortgage…

Anyway, while the busy schedule at work kept me away from cooking anything blog-worthy, I got time to catch up on my reading. It really helped that there is nothing great on TV these days too, all my regular shows are on summer break. Some of the books I’ve been reading are food related, so I thought I will share with you one book that was particularly entertaining.

A few months ago when I went to India, my sister gave me a book called Rude Food: The Collected Food Writings of Vir Sanghvi. It was published in 2004, but I had never even heard of it before. Vir Sanghvi is a well-known journalist and a leading television personality in India. Rude food is a compilation of articles from his weekly foodie column in Hindustan Times’ Sunday magazine. What makes this book a great read is the fact that Vir Sanghvi is not a chef, he is a foodie. He is a person who loves food almost obsessively, a fact so apparent from the way he describes the dishes and flavors. There is no way someone can fake this kind of enthusiasm! Reading this book is almost as delightful as eating a fancy meal.

A big eye opener for me was the fact that India’s restaurant scene has significantly evolved. My only tryst with the fine food scene in India was during my two year stay in Bangalore a decade ago. I was happy to learn that one can get pretty much everything from fresh oysters to foie gras in India these days. Now, that is a big relief, if I ever move back to India, I always thought I would miss some of the fine food I’ve grown to love. But it turns out that I had excessively underestimated the food scene in India.

Vir Sanghvi has some weird habits like transporting potatoes to India from his trips abroad since he doesn’t like the domestic variety, and an almost obscene love for truffles, he says.

“’If you like the smell of truffles, you also like sex. If, on the other hand, you think it reminds you of socks, then you’re probably lousy in bed.”

But all in all, he is a normal person who loves everything about food. There is so much information spread among the many 2-3 page articles like the history of sandwiches and the evolution of Indo-Chinese food. He tries very hard to convey that he is not a food snob, but there is plenty of namedropping going on in here about the celebrity chefs he knows and many mentions about his trip abroad on the Prime Minister’s private jet. Almost every restaurant he talks about are the five-star variety, there is nothing wrong in that, I don’t mind a little snobbery when it comes to fine food, but it is funny when he says

The original brief for Rude Food had been to demystify the whole business of fancy food and fine wine and to take all the snobbery out of going to expensive restaurants..

But he admits that

“by the time I was writing about foie gras and caviar (both included here) I realised that the column had moved away from its original intent. I hoped that the pieces would deal with foie gras, caviar and truffles without seeming pretentious, but it was clear that I had wandered far from the original brief”

Vir is very knowledgeable about the food industry, and has some great tips about what to order in restaurants, and how to deal with snooty waiters. He talks about why airline food is so bad and how Tandoori chicken came to India.   I don’t know about the authenticity of any of his claims, but it sure makes a good read. He doesn’t come across as one of those modern day experts who has learned everything they know from the Internet, but as a person who has gained knowledge from his personal experience and extensive travels and industry connections. The book is a delightful read with witty anecdotes and the right amount of sarcasm thrown in for good measure. It is a must read for all food lovers. Oh, it even has some real simple recipes that anyone can try out.

Before I leave, wanted to share this delicious Thattukada style Kozhi Porichathu from Sumitha’s Kitchen Wonders. Thattukada is Kerala’s version of a street side fast food joint. We all know that everything tastes better hot off from a stall on the street, but this homemade version comes very close to the original. Thank you Sumitha for a delicious recipe!

I followed her recipe exactly, except for the addition of curry leaves and green chilies as garnish, unfortunately I was out. Instead I marinated some sliced onions in the same spice paste for the chicken and fried them in the oil to use as the garnish- delicious! But I’d really add the curry leaves and sliced chilies next time.

Update: May 2009 – Since Kitchen Wonders is closed to the public, here is the recipe the way I did it.

Ingredients

• 1 lb Chicken pieces, bone-in, preferably drumsticks
• 1 tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste
• 3/4 tsp Coriander powder
• 3/4 tsp Red chilli powder
• 1 pinch Turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp rice flour
• Salt  to taste
• 1/2 cup oil (use coconut oil for the real thattukada taste)
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Garnish

• 2-3 sprigs curry leaves
• 5 green chillies
• 1 cup thinly sliced onions

Method

Clean the chicken and pat dry. If using drumsticks, make a few slits, if using a whole chicken, cut into medium sized pieces.

Mix the ginger-garlic paste, coriander, chilli, turmeric, garam masala and rice flour along with the  lime juice to make a paste.
Marinate the chicken in this paste for an hour or overnight in the refrigerator.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the chicken in medium-low heat till brown on all sides.

Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Mix the sliced onions for garnish in the remaining marinade.

In the same oil, deep fry the marinated onions till crispy and keep aside. Now deep fry curry leaves and slit green chillies if using (remove the seeds from the chillies to reduce heat).

Garnish the fried chicken with lemon wedges, fried onions, curry leaves & chillies

This is my entry for dear Sia’s MBP- June Edition – Street Food. MBP aka Monthly Blog Patrol is the brainchild of coffee of The Spice Cafe – the idea is to cook a dish from a fellow blogger that matches the chosen theme of the month.

This is also my entry for an event I don’t want to miss. There is actually an event with Chicken as the theme hosted by Vandana Rajesh of Cooking up Something Nice. Now you all know my love for Chicken, I really wanted to send in an original Chicken recipe, but I might not get to it this month, so this borrowed one will have to do. Check out my 18 other chicken recipes here.

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Category: Book Review, Chicken, India - Kerala