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Come, take a cooking holiday

Besides the beaches and the backwaters, cooking tops the agenda for tourists to Kerala

NOVEL HOLIDAY Tourists having a feel of the Kerala kitchen and cuisine

Peter Davis from London stirs the urli of the kalan, takes in the aroma and then drops some of the yellow gravy on to his palm, licking it and savouring the spicy flavour it offers. He quickly sprinkles some salt, tastes it again, gives it one last b oil and garnishes it with a twig of curry leaves. Peter knows all of the ingredients that go into it, has learnt of their origin and the unique taste each of them offers.

He has been in Kerala for just over two weeks now and has learnt to pronounce and predict the quantity of an ingredient for that right taste of a Kerala curry without peering into his notes too often. It is not just kalan he is familiar with, but avial, thoran and even meen vattichathu or erachiularthiyathu. He also knows how to cook perfectly, ‘red boiled rice.’

Well, if you are wondering how, Peter is on a cooking holiday! Which means he is in Kerala just to learn the art of Kerala cooking: the exotic cuisine it offers and to take back the culinary skills of his hosts. Of course he enjoys the serenity and beauty that lush Kerala has to offer, basking in the village life or a trip to a nearby church or temple. But the main reason for him having travelled all the way from London to Kochi is to experience the taste of the land: its spices and the numerous ways of putting it to good use. He says he would be carrying a sapling of the curry plant with him, the rest of the ingredients are by and large available in his country. He’ll be back soon to enhance his culinary skills and knowledge, he says.

So is a cooking holiday the newest addition to Kerala’s wagon of exciting tourism packages? And there are numerous groups organised by both travel agents and homesteads, bringing people for the sole purpose of learning how to conjure up the most authentic Kerala dishes.

To many agents, ‘it may be the next most important reason for experiencing Kerala next to the backwaters and Kathakali.’ And at holiday homes like The Pimenta-Haritha Farms, a family house set amidst a working organic spice garden, guests have an opportunity to spend time with people who have a passion for cooking, where they are taught to do it the traditional way. This includes different methods of making rice, vegetables and even the varied ways of using coconut and mostly, how to make Kerala food with the available ingredients in foreign countries. In fact, they call it a cooking adventure, “for we literally take our guests on a tour of the cooking experience,” says Jacob Mathew, proprietor, The Pimenta.

Says Jacob, “We give them a complete orientation of Kerala cooking: its origin and foreign influence.” In fact, Jacob points out that Kerala cooking never really used pepper in dishes, instead it was largely used by Tamilians and it was their movement to the State that slowly brought the ingredient to become an important addition to recipes.The packages he offers may vary from three days to seven, “where classes are usually conducted in the afternoons. As for the rest of the day, there are many options open before the guest; a visit to a nearby church, a local dance or a day with the elephant.” Well, a holiday with a special flavour, indeed.

TANYA ABRAHAM

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