Saturday night, I ate out of a banana leaf. Not like at a Parsi Lagan or Navjote in some Baug. Where the Bhonu is had off a banana leaf. The leaf opened like a storybook. Two halves of the leaf face each other. Its spine in the middle pressed on the white tablecloth with a cracking sound. Then the meal, the Bhonu,
served on the banana leaf. Course after scrumptious course by waiters on nimble feet. I was eating South Indian food. And in a restaurant charmingly named Banana Leaf. It’s in suburban Mumbai and worth the trip. My banana leaf was cut, designer-like, to fit a round silver plate. I didn’t mind. It was the food I was there for. It’s off the charts. While waiting for my order, I discovered all the benefits of eating out of a banana leaf on the large and engaging menu. It is a clean and hygienic habit. You
have to use your hand. Which requires practice. A certain amount of skill, too. Besides this, the banana leaf has medicinal value. And it boosts the taste and flavor of hot food served on it. You can take my word for it. The Parsis serve their Lagan and Navjote meals (for hundreds of the hungry) on the banana leaf, I suspect, to save on the cost of the crockery which the caterer would sting them additionally with otherwise.
I wasn’t there for the Idli-Vada-Dosa-Sambhar-Chutney meal. That I can have at any Udupi. If I was making the trek on a rainy Saturday night to the burbs, to a restaurant specializing in the fragrant and flavorsome foods of the four Southern states, then I wanted more than that. At Banana Leaf, I found even the humble Idli was presented with deference. The waiter told me to try the Sri Lankan Idli. Over the Malabar Idli, the Chettinad Idli, the Hyderabad Idli, the Coorg Idli, and the Kanchipuram Idli. I declined.
There is a place to have the Sri Lankan Idli and that is across the Palk Straits. Instead, I ordered the mixed vegetable and lentil stews and curries cooked in coconut milk and Southern spices, flavored by green mango and tamarind, sweetened by jaggery, with red pumpkin, banana, and potato lending body, and drumsticks the soul. Accompanied by Aapams and Neer Dosas, rice bread from the South, fermented generally with toddy flavored by coconut milk. Soft, white, and fluffy. And orange and white chutneys made of tomato, garlic, onion, and coconut. A bowl of tangy Mulugutawani Soup, the Anglo Indian Pepper Water, by the side. Authentic Madras Filter Kaapi, steaming and aromatic, in a brass glass waiting to be served at the end.
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content have been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. I am interviewing almost every role model in this country and getting stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have been featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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