I am not sure how many of you agree with me, but some of the best meals I have enjoyed so far (in my life) has been in a traditional southie style (south-indian), sitting on the floor and eating from a banana leaf (yes! Ele-Oota literal translation in Kannada means leaf-meal) and yes with my hand.
I never paid too much attention to food when I was a kid (I disliked eating, very strangely I was a milk drinker and I still am ;) a large glass of milk without sugar and I would be content, I was thus a poor eater). But once I visited Udupi when I was a little older and visited the Udupi Shree Krishna Temple and we all had a meal at the temple, and it was on a banana leaf. I remember rice and some curry and usual pickles were served and then came this piping hot saar/saaru (Rasam in Kannada and Konkani and chaaru in Telugu). When I mixed it with hot rice and ghee (clarified butter), SLURRRP!!!!! it was heaven on earth. The most tastiest meal I ever had. Finally it dawned on me that food is much more than for merely surviving, its an experience that can teach you to live for the moment (I seem to be dwelling too much in my past and/or present these days tsk!). Then my chickamma (aunt) explained to me that what adds taste to the meal is actually the banana leaf itself not just the tasty piping hot saaru. She showed me this mini experiment at home - in hot rice she added hot saaru and the color of the leaf actually turned lighter because of the heat from the food. Wow! I was enlightened, (Hmm so I guess the chlorophyll adds taste then eh?) and from that day I have been a great fan of food served on banana/plantain leaf. And you know what you have to develop the knack how to eat on the leaf else your saaru will be flowing outside your leaf and can get messy.
I am not sure how many people are aware of this but there is actually rules for serving the items on a banana leaf. The below diagram would describe in detail what a traditional Udupi-Kannadiga meal reconstitutes of and the arrangement on the leaf.
Source: http://www.udupipages.com/home/recipe/banana.html
My grandparents are very passionate about food in general. Whenever there were any functions in our family we had a patented cook who would come and cook for us. We always made sure we had our meals in banana leaves and ate it sitting on the floor. Grandparents insisted thats how a traditional meal is enjoyed. Even to this day they do not use a dining table (They believe thats what actually keeps them flexible too which is true cos my dad struggles to sit on the floor now and prefers a table). BTW an advantage of using banana leaves is also that there is less dish washing to do :) (later days when the servant maid would bunk we would eat on the leaves to save ourselves from dish- washing ;)).
Finally, it also dawned on me (post enlightenment phase) one of the advantages of attending weddings besides enjoying all the dressing up (and keeping in touch with our contacts) was also to eat a good Kannada meal from a banana leaf. Unfortunately the trend slowly declined and now I am sure even in smaller towns in Karnataka people do not sit on the floor like before or don't quite use a banana leaf too. Gosh! Its almost dinner time and I am talking about food and especially about that tasty saaru on a banana leaf, my mouth is watering.
Long live the baale ele-oota / banana leaf meal tradition!
I never paid too much attention to food when I was a kid (I disliked eating, very strangely I was a milk drinker and I still am ;) a large glass of milk without sugar and I would be content, I was thus a poor eater). But once I visited Udupi when I was a little older and visited the Udupi Shree Krishna Temple and we all had a meal at the temple, and it was on a banana leaf. I remember rice and some curry and usual pickles were served and then came this piping hot saar/saaru (Rasam in Kannada and Konkani and chaaru in Telugu). When I mixed it with hot rice and ghee (clarified butter), SLURRRP!!!!! it was heaven on earth. The most tastiest meal I ever had. Finally it dawned on me that food is much more than for merely surviving, its an experience that can teach you to live for the moment (I seem to be dwelling too much in my past and/or present these days tsk!). Then my chickamma (aunt) explained to me that what adds taste to the meal is actually the banana leaf itself not just the tasty piping hot saaru. She showed me this mini experiment at home - in hot rice she added hot saaru and the color of the leaf actually turned lighter because of the heat from the food. Wow! I was enlightened, (Hmm so I guess the chlorophyll adds taste then eh?) and from that day I have been a great fan of food served on banana/plantain leaf. And you know what you have to develop the knack how to eat on the leaf else your saaru will be flowing outside your leaf and can get messy.
I am not sure how many people are aware of this but there is actually rules for serving the items on a banana leaf. The below diagram would describe in detail what a traditional Udupi-Kannadiga meal reconstitutes of and the arrangement on the leaf.
Source: http://www.udupipages.com/home/recipe/banana.html
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Learn the traditional way of serving food on plantain leaves in the traditional Udupi style
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My grandparents are very passionate about food in general. Whenever there were any functions in our family we had a patented cook who would come and cook for us. We always made sure we had our meals in banana leaves and ate it sitting on the floor. Grandparents insisted thats how a traditional meal is enjoyed. Even to this day they do not use a dining table (They believe thats what actually keeps them flexible too which is true cos my dad struggles to sit on the floor now and prefers a table). BTW an advantage of using banana leaves is also that there is less dish washing to do :) (later days when the servant maid would bunk we would eat on the leaves to save ourselves from dish- washing ;)).
Finally, it also dawned on me (post enlightenment phase) one of the advantages of attending weddings besides enjoying all the dressing up (and keeping in touch with our contacts) was also to eat a good Kannada meal from a banana leaf. Unfortunately the trend slowly declined and now I am sure even in smaller towns in Karnataka people do not sit on the floor like before or don't quite use a banana leaf too. Gosh! Its almost dinner time and I am talking about food and especially about that tasty saaru on a banana leaf, my mouth is watering.
Long live the baale ele-oota / banana leaf meal tradition!
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