Nalla Sappadu
(This piece is a comparison of the famous movie- Julies and Julias and food reports by Faizan Ahmed, Subiksha Ramakrishnan, and Shruti Sundar Ray)
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
The Julies and Julias from far-flung states of India, attempt to bring a slice of their own culture to the plates of Chennai foodies.
“South Indians are venturing into new foods,” says Maongnungsang Jamir, owner of Naga Reju, one of the few restaurants in Chennai that specialised in Naga cuisine. He explains that although when he started his restaurant in 2007, most of his clientele were fellow expartriate Nagas, his base has now come to include a wider Tamil-speaking crowd. Tucked away behind a row of stores facing the busy Choolaimedu Main Road and accessible only through a dimly-lit, narrow corridor leading off the a pavement, Naga Reju, which means ‘The house of Nagas’ but is also a pun on a popular Tamil name, would stand unobtrusive if not for its bright red name board, is. Inside, the brightness magnifies and one is immediately greeted with a swath of photographs depicting the traditional dressing styles, script forms and dances of Nagaland, adorning the door-facing walls and pillars. The same you-have-got-to-try-this sentiment that Julia Child felt upon encountering Sole Meuinère upon her move to Paris, in Nora Ephron’s comedy-drama classic ‘Julie and Julia’, is reflected on the faces of the three visibly-first-timer visitors as they peruse the menu carefully.
Doe-eyed excitement all the same, a quick peak behind-the-scenes into the kitchen shows how challenging the actual cooking process can be. “I had to bring help from my hometown in Nagaland,” explains Jamir, adding that not everyone can cook authentic dishes even if they have the recipe. This sentiment is echoed by Rouf, proprietor of Chinar, a Kashmiri goods store at the Spencer Plaza complex on Anna Salai, who left Kashmir in his teenage years and misses Kashmiri style cooking in Chennai, especially ‘wazwan’, prepared during special occasions such as weddings in Kashmir, but a near-impossibility to achieve in Chennai. “If the guy has a lot of money, then yes there will be wazwan in the wedding,” says Rouf, the ‘not otherwise’ being left unsaid. He explains that it would cost around one lakh rupees to make 50 kilos of wazwan, a labour-intensive process in Chennai, more than ten times the cost in Kashmir. A stepping stone into an entire culture, cuisines are not easy learn from scratch. Seemingly simple tasks such as chopping onions, in the case of Julia, making paneer, in the case of Rouf’s wife Fatima, steaming on a bamboo stalk, in the case of Jamir or poaching an egg, in the case of Julie — each have their own individual complex techniques that need to be mastered.
These are not easy to pass on to a non-native due to differences of language and culture. Mirroring Julia’s struggles with French, Rouf unsuccessfully tries to use Google Translate to find the Tamil word for ‘Nookal’, a kohlrabi-type vegetable whose leaves are used amply in Kashmiri food but whose leaves are discarded in favour of only the stem in Tamil Nadu. “Those who work in restaurants and hotels need our classes,” says S Jayanthi, founder of T Nagar-based Jaya Language Academy, where spoken Hindi, Tamil, English, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and French are taught. The hospitality industry comprises the 3rd largest demographic among her students.
Availability of ingredients such as yellow cooking apples, white turnips, seasonal ‘Halloween’ pumpkins for Kashmiris or thick bamboo, Naga soyabean, yam leaves for Nagas is also a challenge in Chennai, considering the climatic variance. “We order our ingredients directly from Nagaland every three months,” explains Jamir. The hot weather of Chennai can also make it difficult to run traditional Kashmiri style kitchens with ‘kanz’ fire-ovens and copper ware, and even to digest some Kashmiri winter foods such as ‘harissa’ Haleem, rich with meats and dried fruits.
Home to 18.85 lakh migrants from other states, constituting roughly 2.6% of the population, according to Census 2011 data, of which 77.2% are from neighbouring states, Tamil Nadu has many pocket communities with roots in different parts of the country. Those migrating from the seven north-eastern states were only roughly 11,000 people while those from Kashmir, were even fewer. In the absence of sizeable numbers, cultural representation assumes greater significance.
Speaking emphatically about the role that migrants have to play in introducing a seemingly-alien culture to a new place, Rouf maintains that therein lies the beauty of India and its culture. “It is easy to speak of food but some food can be like books,” says Rouf. Through Julia’s and Julie’s passion for food, a broad spectrum of everyday “servant-less American cooks” found their way to France. On a similar vein, Rouf hopes to start a Kashmiri restaurant in Chennai someday, a gateway to the lives and aspirations of an entire culture.
