It’s been a while since I’ve been here. I’ve spent the
intervening months exploring and redefining my approach to and philosophy of
food, cooking and eating. The thrill of writing about extravagant food
experiences, airing my gripes about restaurants and sharing recipes for mango
cheesecake had begun to wane and I have, instead, been engaged with the idea of
making mindful, conscious food choices, choices that are good for us and for
the environment as well.
Which brings me to a small, but remarkable food venture in
my home town, Madurai. That’s the Uzhavan Unavagam which translates into
Farmer’s Eatery. Eating here is so much more than just a meal. I always come
away with the feeling of having eaten an excellent meal and the fulfillment of having
contributed in the smallest way to an initiative intended to make millets – now
declared a wonder food – popular and to recognize the role of the farmer in
what’s on our plate.
The Uzhavan Unavagam is run by a group of young people and
women, and dishes based mainly on millets from the region are the mainstay of
the blackboard menus. There’s dosai, puri and paniyaram made of barnyard millet
(kuthiravaali in Tamil), kodo millet (varagu) and little millet (saamai). The
dosais are often enhanced with curry leaf powder or other medicinal herbs and I
recently ate a delightful, fibre-rich vazhaipoo dosai which had specks of
banana blossom mixed into the batter. The puris made of foxtail millet flour
(thinai) were another revelation, light and crisp and non-greasy. The chutneys
use indigenous lentils and greens, too, and I particularly enjoy the kollu
(horsegram) thuvayal and pudina-kothamalli chutney with a dosai here.
I was once quite a fan of Madurai’s famed street food of
flaky, if greasy parota, kothu parota, so tasty it discouraged one from probing
its ingredients too deeply and the many spicy, oily curries of mutton and
chicken going by the catch-all name of ‘Chettinad’. Of late, though, I find myself unable to face
these meals of uncertain provenance. A meal cooked by those who espouse the
goodness of millets land indigenous greens and vegetables seems so much more
pleasing not only to the palate, but also to the soul.
The Uzhavan Unavagam food is cooked fresh, in small
quantities. None of it is refrigerated, microwaved or recycled. How many fancy restaurants can
lay claim to that? Of course, there are no frills here and it’s not the
prettiest setting either.
It was set up by then
Madurai Collector U. Sagayam, the bureaucrat who has won over people with his
integrity and courage. After his stint, this farm-to-table concept has lost
some of its earlier zeal. But it’s an
idea that needs all the support it can get and I’d love to see more of these little
restaurants come up in my town that has always had a great food tradition. This
time, it’s not just good food, but food that’s good for you.
