Mission Venn Pongal (with Sambar Vadai)

Today, gooseberry raita (nelli pachidi) was on the lunch menu at home. I savor (good) food and it does wonderful things to my psyche. It brings a deluge of good memories – sometimes in waves through the day. When I eat good food, you will see the most loving, charitable person in me. Especially, South Indian food! You probably know by this time that there is no generalized version of “Indian” food. They are all different – each one unique in its own way and uniquely delicious as well. My weakness is South Indian food, especially the ones made at home and in the temples.  On a normal weekend in the US, you will find me trying to convince my wife that a Saturday trip to the Balaji temple at Aurora, IL (about 250 miles from here, one way) was good for the family. It so happens that I am in awe of the presiding deity there, but a slave of the Venn Pongal served in the cafeteria downstairs (folks, it is not prasadam!). At the mention of Venn Pongal, my mind immediately went back to my days in Trichy.

 

Like any other food, Venn Pongal deserves an exalted place in history/hall of fame. A few decades from now, dishes like Venn Pongal will be consigned to history, even in a place like Tamilnadu. The younger generation (never thought I would grow this old to be calling a generation “younger” – I realized this when a neighbor’s son came in search of the rubber ball he played cricket with and had hit it inside our house. I was so involved in helping him till he called me “uncle”. I abruptly stopped helping him. This was 10 years back!  -- I digress!) are talking donuts, croissants, breakfast sandwiches, even pizzas for breakfast. This was not the case when another older generation called my generation “younger”!

 

When I was “younger” and when the exams were over (the last exam was always a great feeling – unparalleled, it took a couple of months for results to come out, so until then, fantastic feelings about my “fabulous” performance in exams were allowed ), some days would typically be this way. Getting up at 5AM in the morning was always the habit – in summers, you would be sweating even at 5AM if you were like me (not profusely, come on!, Trichy is cooler than that – albeit, enough sweat to wake you up). Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) being a friendly place, ensured warm summer mornings. Plus, the best coffee at home was served with the first decoction (more on this in a later blog), so, if I overslept, I would miss on the best coffee for the day! . Up at 5 AM – coffee and nature’s calls answered, I would settle down to what I called “exercise” – would struggle through it for an hour. Did I mention about summers in Trichy? I did! There was no way you could not shower (bathe) at 6.30 after an exercise, no matter how mild, no cooling off, warming down etc. I scrupulously followed this pattern and at around 7, after morning prayers (sandhi), set off on foot for the most important mission of the day – Mission Venn Pongal.

 

That’s the amazing fact about restaurants in Trichy (I guess it is the case everywhere in my state) – they are open from almost 6.00 AM. People trickling in that early usually only stopped by for coffee. Some amazing people (me included  ), have an appetite that early! I have seen some people eating two, three or even four dishes at that time (healthy, sumptuous breakfast starting with idlis, Pongal, dosas or poori ) – we are extraordinary people – please don’t call us gluttons or similar names! Anyway, the walk to Ambal café from home was filled with so much excitement and sometimes, even anxiety. What if there is no Pongal in today’s menu? That has happened a couple of times – with a stoic expression in her face, mami (the owner) has said “ No Pongal today”… How merciless people can be! . 

 

The loudspeakers in the tea stalls would have started blaring religious songs or popular numbers from movies (depending on how early in the morning), attracting people for their morning tea/coffee. A word needs to be added about the fellows manning the tea stalls - many words, may be. Many of them, I have never seen them wear a shirt in their lives while at the job! It was with what we called banians - a nice cotton wear – the popular version being the “half-hand” one- please google for definition and images. People would then be able to see your muscular biceps, forearms, triceps etc. Attired with a colored (for a reason) half-hand banian, they stood in front of boiler (for steaming water) making tea and coffee from dawn to dusk (sometimes even longer). Sometimes I thought they started out with white banians and with time and with all the sweat pouring down, the color evolved into what was on display that day! Perils associated with the job! 

 

Ambal café was about 1km from home, so, along the walk, you would pass through many such tea stalls, auto stands and at least 2 bus stops. Many schools started early, so you will find bus stops populated with people that traveled long distance for work and with children going to school – I thought of the bard who had imagined children with a “shining morning face creeping like a snail, unwillingly to school”. These children did not have “satchels”, but school bags – very heavy school bags, I must say! Along the way, the vendor selling tender coconuts would have woken up – it would be another couple of hours before she could start selling tender coconuts – those that she claimed were from Pollachi – more on this later.

 

A lot of digression and here we come to Ambal café - at that point in time, no one served Venn Pongal better than them. My association with Ambal Café began when I was 10 or 11 and they had their restaurant in a thatched hut. My father had taken me there once and I loved the dosa and sambar I had there. Then, they moved to a regular place (with proper lights, concrete roof, fans etc) and functioned there for a long time. The restaurant was a one-room dining hall with about 5-6 tables and chairs – tables arranged in two columns. The kitchen was in the back room. Each a table could seat four people. There were more people than there were tables and chairs, so, you could invariably find yourself sitting and eating with a stranger or 3 other strangers. Imagine the prospect – 4 complete strangers sitting down at a table and eating their meals!

 

I enter the restaurant, mami looks at me and gives me a semi-professional smirk through her glasses that settled on her nose more often, acknowledging my arrival – I go in and sit at an available chair (not table – no way one could get a table for oneself!). Mami calls out without even asking me: “Mariappa, Venn Pongal and sambar vadai”. This guy “Mariappa” doubled up as a waiter and a dosa master. He shows up, grins and brings a tumbler of water and a plantain leaf. There is beauty involved in the way you sprinkle water and clean the plantain leaf. Venn Pongal is made using a particular type of lentil (Moong Dal) along with rice, ginger, peppercorn, cumin seeds and GHEE (clarified butter). You pre-cook some of these, mix ingredients in a certain proportion (I have developed my own way of making this) and steam them all together. The end results is nice mashed rice/dal with all the other garnishing. The very professional ones pay particular attention to the way curry leaves are fried in ghee before adding them to Venn Pongal. The color turns from green to darker green – that’s it, you will have to remove them from the flame. When done well, you can see unfold a fried curry leaf in the Pongal and can find fried mustard seeds in them. The same goes for adding fried curry leaves to “chutneys”. There, you can find fried mustard seeds and fried “tadka” lentils as well inside the fried curry leaf. Some absolutely don’t get it! Nothing worse than eating unfried or half-fried mustard seeds in a dish. Of special note are the fried cashew nuts that are added to the Venn Pongal. They are also fried in ghee and cannot be overdone. . The ghee floats on the Pongal and Mariappa brings in a measured quantity (a cup full) and drops it on the cleaned plantain leaf. When done well, the final product looks enticing and tastes awesome! I eat Venn Pongal with chutney and sambar. Different kinds of chutneys are available – the ones I like for Venn Pongal are coconut chutney and tomato chutney! 

 

Sambar is a nice, hot, spicy thick sauce made of toor dal, spices and other vegetables. With Venn Pongal, I don’t settle for just sambar, I go for sambar vadai. Now, vadai is like a spicy mini-donut made of rice and another lentil (Urad Dal) – don’t underestimate the vadai (or vada as it is called in northern India) because of its small size. I have seen people grab 5-6 vadais in buffets served at Indian restaurants in the US! I am not a big fan of the vadai by itself, but soaked in sambar, it becomes sambar-vadai and goes very well with my Venn Pongal. It must be noted that you have to allow a minimum time for the freshly-fried vadai to soak well in the sambar, which was why I never visited a restaurant right when they opened! You see, vadai needs the time to soak well. Mariappa brings a three-chambered utensil – one contains coconut chutney, one tomato chutney and the third one has the sambar. I show him the place on my plantain leaf where each one has to go and then when he comes to sambar, I remind him that I ordered sambar vadai! There was no concept of spoon, fork etc – all the eating was done with bare hands. The first bite of Pongal with all the accompaniments – sambar vadai and the chutneys melts into my mouth and the bliss --- wow!  A sambar-vadai done well, you only have to touch it and you will know! I finish up everything on my leaf in about 5 minutes with sweat pouring down on my face – both from the heat as well as from the spices in the food. 

 

Often, you can see people checking their wallets in restaurants to make sure they had enough money for more eatables. I was no different. Usually, I got up with one Pongal and that was it. The lean wallet back then ensured that! Rarely, I have stayed for more. More on that in a later blog! 

 

Thanks for reading thus far!