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Tiffin: Memories and Recipes of Indian Vegetarian Food
As I dug into my memory for those snacks or tiffin, I recalled the many anecdotes and narratives about the people and places associated with these recipes, My replies grew into lengthy stories and my girls loved them. ‘Amma, send us more recipes for tiffin,' they wrote, Those stories were rambling and multifaceted and they are all here in my book.‘Tiffin', derived from ‘tiffing', a historical British term for small meals or snacks to accompany a drink, is a staple meal in most Indian households. A popular television chef on the local Arlington cable network, Rukmini Srinivas or ‘Rukka', regularly whips up mouth-watering delicious tiffin for her viewers with an ease and prowess befitting a seasoned epicure.In this delightful memoir-cum-cookbook, Rukka shares the memories and recipes of delectable food that she has cooked and eaten over many decades. Having travelled extensively- from Poona, Madras and Delhi to Berkeley, Stanford and Boston- she realized, at a very young age, the indispensability of authentic home-cooked food. She records here her emotional and deeply personal bond with food- from Chitappa's masala vadai and Appa's vegetable cutlet to bondas on Marina Beach, Narayana's bajji and Amma's Mysore pak. Alongside, she shares stories from her childhood in British Poona, of making vegetable cutlets with a Victorian meat grinder, college days in the Madras of a newly independent India, cooking for author R.K. Narayan and her travels around the world with her husband, the renowned social anthropologist, M.N. Srinivas.Like the traditional metal tiffin box, which has found its way into modern food, Rukka's pure-vegetarian recipes are an interesting amalgamation of old-school cooking techniques, with innovative twists. Including charming anecdotes and over a hundred easy-to-follow delicious recipes accompanied by evocative photographs, Tiffin is a richly satisfying feast for all those who believe in food, family and friendship.
460 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2015
220 people are currently reading
478 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
March 6, 2017
Am no great cook, but I love reading about food and stories involving food. So when I came across this title in a friend's bookshelf here in Goodreads, I was piqued.
Rukmini Srinivasan (Rukka) is not a familiar persona. But she soon became familiar via her anecdotes and reminiscences involving food and the various circumstances involving specific recipes. Via her I came to know of many people, many customs and habits, and travelled all over India, Britain and USA. I feel like cooking , though I don't know how long the feeling will last...but for the time being she has rekindled my interest in traditional vegetarian Indian fare.
I would treasure this book and it's recipes, because each recipe feels personal to me.
And one thing I forgot to mention is that she gave me quite a good glimpse of parts of the personal life of RK Narayan, her good acquaintance, and one of my favorite authors.
Rukmini Srinivasan (Rukka) is not a familiar persona. But she soon became familiar via her anecdotes and reminiscences involving food and the various circumstances involving specific recipes. Via her I came to know of many people, many customs and habits, and travelled all over India, Britain and USA. I feel like cooking , though I don't know how long the feeling will last...but for the time being she has rekindled my interest in traditional vegetarian Indian fare.
I would treasure this book and it's recipes, because each recipe feels personal to me.
And one thing I forgot to mention is that she gave me quite a good glimpse of parts of the personal life of RK Narayan, her good acquaintance, and one of my favorite authors.
June 11, 2019
Rukmini Srinivas brings together nostalgia, good food, and enchanting anecdotes in this wonderful memoir. Well, it's technically not a memoir but bits and pieces from Rukmini's own life and from the lives of the people around her. Her chosen recipes are also mostly lovely and depict the best of South Indian (mostly, Tamil) cooking.
A lot of the stories read like the ones my own patti (maternal grandmother) would tell me. My patti is only a couple of years younger than Rukmini and they belong to the same place, background, class, and caste. Just like Rukmini, my grandmother too had lived in Chennai, Pune, Delhi, and so on. So a lot of the stories brought loads of nostalgia to me, of the times when my patti would chat with me about her younger years. In fact, I think my patti would enjoy this book and I am definitely going to recommend this to her. Rukmini's family appears to be far more progressive than my own in many respects. She was sent off to college and lived alone in hostels, something even my mother was not allowed to do. So yes, there is a lot of difference as well.
There were sketches and pictures accompanying some major events and descriptions, which were really interesting. I really love looking through old pictures and wondering about the past, and this was a perfect story already served up with these lovely pics.
I enjoyed Rukmini's description of her life in India more than her USA descriptions. I was impressed that she actually knew R.K. Narayan, one of my favourite authors. I actually think she has channelled his method of writing in this book, just letting the story flow where it will. It was interesting to know that Narayan finished writing The Guide in her home in the US. Despite all this, her Indian memories were still more interesting to me.
I was mildly annoyed by the fact that this book appeared to be written solely for an American audience. I simply died when she described the delicious arisi upma as rice couscous. Ugh! I mean, couscous is delicious too, but just no! She describes paranthas as tortillas and dosai as lentil crepe. It's irritating because Indian food is a major cuisine and doesn't need to be described in such random terms taken from other cuisines. A second annoyance was that there were no photographs of the food items, which could have given readers an idea how the food looks, rather than mangling its name.
But despite these minor niggles, I really enjoyed this book and wish there could be a sequel.
A lot of the stories read like the ones my own patti (maternal grandmother) would tell me. My patti is only a couple of years younger than Rukmini and they belong to the same place, background, class, and caste. Just like Rukmini, my grandmother too had lived in Chennai, Pune, Delhi, and so on. So a lot of the stories brought loads of nostalgia to me, of the times when my patti would chat with me about her younger years. In fact, I think my patti would enjoy this book and I am definitely going to recommend this to her. Rukmini's family appears to be far more progressive than my own in many respects. She was sent off to college and lived alone in hostels, something even my mother was not allowed to do. So yes, there is a lot of difference as well.
There were sketches and pictures accompanying some major events and descriptions, which were really interesting. I really love looking through old pictures and wondering about the past, and this was a perfect story already served up with these lovely pics.
I enjoyed Rukmini's description of her life in India more than her USA descriptions. I was impressed that she actually knew R.K. Narayan, one of my favourite authors. I actually think she has channelled his method of writing in this book, just letting the story flow where it will. It was interesting to know that Narayan finished writing The Guide in her home in the US. Despite all this, her Indian memories were still more interesting to me.
I was mildly annoyed by the fact that this book appeared to be written solely for an American audience. I simply died when she described the delicious arisi upma as rice couscous. Ugh! I mean, couscous is delicious too, but just no! She describes paranthas as tortillas and dosai as lentil crepe. It's irritating because Indian food is a major cuisine and doesn't need to be described in such random terms taken from other cuisines. A second annoyance was that there were no photographs of the food items, which could have given readers an idea how the food looks, rather than mangling its name.
But despite these minor niggles, I really enjoyed this book and wish there could be a sequel.
March 12, 2016
This book is a literary and culinary delight, the anecdotes and experiences shared in between make the recipes given in the book more personal and interesting. It is rare to find such writings especially in a time where everything that can be cooked and eaten is up on the internet, on the blog or television shows. Master Chefs and what not! This book is beyond all that, it compelled me to go and hug my mother and grandmother for their dosas, idlis, chutney, sambhar, paysam and all the love that they feed me with ! :-)
June 18, 2018
I love food. I go on travel expeditions in search of food - my last trip to Madurai being a case in point. One of the sources of my deepest sadness in life is when health issues intervene and I can't quite eat the way I want to. But I can read about food all I want, can't I? Rukmini Srinivas has written a delightful food memoir - an ode to the joys of South Indian food.
Selling at a ridiculously low price on Amazon, I chanced upon 'Tiffin' and I was immediately hooked. Rukmini has led a rich and varied life, filled with experiences that span the globe, and it shows. I loved learning about her childhood, her stints in Madras (now Chennai), and then stays in Boston and Bangalore. Throughout all these journeys, there is one thing common - food. Her love for food and her passion for cooking. The anecdotes she writes about only form a loose chronological order. Each chapter or anecdote ends with several delectable recipes that are marketed as 'simple' but which seem remarkably complex and time-consuming. I am not sure when I would have the courage to attempt those in my kitchen!
The lack of chronological structure means that certain things end up being repeated more often than they ought to. For instance, I learnt quite repeatedly that Rukka's father was transferred to Tanjore, about her college education in Queen Mary's College in Madras again and again. It's almost like I have an old grandmother who forgot that she already told about this, and continues to relate the story again. But I love old grandmothers. I love stories. And did I say I love food? So, I loved reading this book - and if you are a foodie, you might too.
Selling at a ridiculously low price on Amazon, I chanced upon 'Tiffin' and I was immediately hooked. Rukmini has led a rich and varied life, filled with experiences that span the globe, and it shows. I loved learning about her childhood, her stints in Madras (now Chennai), and then stays in Boston and Bangalore. Throughout all these journeys, there is one thing common - food. Her love for food and her passion for cooking. The anecdotes she writes about only form a loose chronological order. Each chapter or anecdote ends with several delectable recipes that are marketed as 'simple' but which seem remarkably complex and time-consuming. I am not sure when I would have the courage to attempt those in my kitchen!
The lack of chronological structure means that certain things end up being repeated more often than they ought to. For instance, I learnt quite repeatedly that Rukka's father was transferred to Tanjore, about her college education in Queen Mary's College in Madras again and again. It's almost like I have an old grandmother who forgot that she already told about this, and continues to relate the story again. But I love old grandmothers. I love stories. And did I say I love food? So, I loved reading this book - and if you are a foodie, you might too.
July 26, 2018
This is how it's done. This is how precious memories are preserved and passed on because memories are like recipes. They need to be told and retold. Rukmini Srinivas'book takes us through her childhood and adulthood, her family and friends, and the food that surrounded them at all times. We often express pride when we try out our grandmother's recipe but mostly we never know how she got the recipe herself or her memories surrounding it.
Rukka, as she is known to everyone, transports us to her world that was a mix of tradition and modernity, something that was unheard of in 1940s India. Her parents, especially her father, were unusually liberal for their times and Rukka was frequently the odd person out amongst her friends with her preference for skirts, English authors, and progressive attitude. I got lost in her recollections about Palani's Welcome Bakery, Ramakrishna Lunch Home, and other hidden places that I would otherwise have not heard of. I am not sure how many of these joints exist today but I do want to look them up and see if I can find them.
After a point, I was so drawn by her stories that I skipped past many of the recipes. Most of the recipes are laborious but I am sure they are delicious because of that. But for me "Tiffin" was made more enchanting by the friends and family, and all the travels that surrounded Rukka's life. I just wish it had been edited better to avoid countless repetitions.
Rukka, as she is known to everyone, transports us to her world that was a mix of tradition and modernity, something that was unheard of in 1940s India. Her parents, especially her father, were unusually liberal for their times and Rukka was frequently the odd person out amongst her friends with her preference for skirts, English authors, and progressive attitude. I got lost in her recollections about Palani's Welcome Bakery, Ramakrishna Lunch Home, and other hidden places that I would otherwise have not heard of. I am not sure how many of these joints exist today but I do want to look them up and see if I can find them.
After a point, I was so drawn by her stories that I skipped past many of the recipes. Most of the recipes are laborious but I am sure they are delicious because of that. But for me "Tiffin" was made more enchanting by the friends and family, and all the travels that surrounded Rukka's life. I just wish it had been edited better to avoid countless repetitions.
May 25, 2016
A very warm and honest memoir on life and how food touches small, seemingly unimportant things in our lives but imprints you with last memories and mindsets. I have not tried the recipes and if I would be completely honest, I often skipped over the recipe to continue reading the next chapter ( of her life, of her book! ). ☺ The tone of the book is warm and happy, but doesn't for once sound pompous or extremely didactic. What I loved the most was the fact that though it was a cookbook, she wasn't talking in her capacity as an instructor. It felt more like talking to an extremely adorable grandmother who grew up in a land far away from what you call home and the stories from "her" land.
January 14, 2024
Updated on 2024 - on this read I noticed all the details I missed - this isn’t a cookbook , this is an autobiography of sorts - the author goes through her life’s journey, her parents’ influences on her, the various family members who showed up, the places her parents lived in , the various people she knew and had been friends with, her life experiences as an academic in the late 1940s in the freshly-independent India and later in the US.
This book must be treated as a snapshot of the time the author grew up in, and that, this book is really good at.
I am so pleasantly surprised by the liberal thinking from so many unexpected corners like the otherwise-orthodox-South-Indian-Brahmin community and her other friends’ backgrounds - this is a revelation to me.
In a day and age where cookbooks have photos enough to give you an idea on how each recipe will look like, the book is heavy on prose and less on photos.
I liked the fact that the recipes are all traditional ones, but the format of the book fails the content.
This book must be treated as a snapshot of the time the author grew up in, and that, this book is really good at.
I am so pleasantly surprised by the liberal thinking from so many unexpected corners like the otherwise-orthodox-South-Indian-Brahmin community and her other friends’ backgrounds - this is a revelation to me.
In a day and age where cookbooks have photos enough to give you an idea on how each recipe will look like, the book is heavy on prose and less on photos.
I liked the fact that the recipes are all traditional ones, but the format of the book fails the content.
March 18, 2017
What a book. Nostalgia well captured! It was such a pleasure to read about the food scene in the 40s and 50s in a South Indian household, and the book captures her life experiences in various part of the world in spreading Indian vegetarian cooking. Simply brilliant read.
June 5, 2018
What a delightful read! So many stories and following them are some authentic south Indian and a bit of other regional recipes. I virtually experienced the post Independence era bazaars in Chennai, Jabalpur, New Delhi, how it was to travel by train during those days, how was Tanjore, the kind of ingredients available during those days, how the US was during those times, and above all how people were more harmonious, helpful and ready share things with each other. Each recipe is so unique and authentic that your mouth would start watering just by looking at the pics, and the stories are equally interesting with travel and other kitchen anecdotes. If you love food, cooking and above all if you love the storyteller's stories, then this book is for you. Along with it you'll get some lovely recipes too. What more can you ask for? So, enjoy the delightful take on Rukmini's kitchen and variety of dishes she tasted/made.
June 14, 2015
Rukmini Srinivas with her soulful writing and recipes brings alive the warmth of an Indian kitchen in her book. A septuagenarian who has had rich life experiences with a father in military services and later, having married a sociologist, she writes lovingly of travels and life through India and the world, while never compromising on cooking and sharing vegetarian Indian food. The author, herself, seems a woman way ahead of her times, having been a geography teacher in eminent colleges in India, while never losing sight of her chef/ cooking instructor avatar! At 70 odd, as a resident of Boston, Rukmini continues to teach Indian cooking and has a food show in a local channel. The book felt like I was reading letters from one of my grandparents- personal, warm and charming.
November 9, 2017
Every lover of South Indian food should have this gem of a book !😍.Mouthwatering pictures,excellent and clearly explained recipes and heart warming anecdotes.Food is all about memories and this book is testimony to that.Reading this was like listening to a favorite piece of music again and again.I keep reading it once in a while either to try new recipes or just to enjoy bits of it again and satisfy my food cravings.Thank you ,rukmini srinivas for sharing your memories and food ..😍They are both priceless.
July 21, 2015
A must read for food enthusiasts! Tiffin is a memoir / recipe book that brings to life the humble Indian kitchen. The author has captured the very essence of the Indian way of life -how every event / activity is associated with food. Coming back home from school to ma's soulful yet hearty meals, the intensely hot summers made bearable by the amazing buttermilk, the train journeys that were incomplete without snacking.. It was a joy to read the book. Also, the recipes are a bonus.
January 4, 2018
This is a book I keep going back to and read. Its warm and fuzzy with people we can relate to easily. Annam athai reminds me of own aunt and the ritual purity of her own kitchen and it reminded my mom of hers.
This is a book over which me and my mom bonded over, reading out parts of it to her and having a good laugh.
The characters make me smile and sometimes frustrated with the similarities in South Indian families.
Its definitely more than a cookbook.
This is a book over which me and my mom bonded over, reading out parts of it to her and having a good laugh.
The characters make me smile and sometimes frustrated with the similarities in South Indian families.
Its definitely more than a cookbook.
December 15, 2016
Nostalgia Galore
Filled with recepies for homemade and familiarly mouthwatering comfort food garnished with stories and details which take you back to your grandparents home. Truly delicious!
Filled with recepies for homemade and familiarly mouthwatering comfort food garnished with stories and details which take you back to your grandparents home. Truly delicious!
December 26, 2016
Enjoyed the way this book is written - a combination of recipes and memories... brought back the memories of my grandmother's, my aunts and my mum's cooking... and my summer vacations with my cousins.
October 3, 2017
Wonderfully written. I so loved reading about India those times also the memories :)
July 18, 2018
Tiffin is a cute book by Rukmini Srinivas which feels much like listening to stories from my Paati (grandmother) or Thatha (grandfather). The fact that the author and I share the same village was a point of bonding too.
Each chapter is a small anecdote describing in simple words how life felt like in the 1940s or 1980s perhaps. At the epicentre of each story is food, a special dish, which most probably is the protagonist in truest sense. And the recipe for that dish follows the chapter. If you are a South Indian and more precisely South Indian who has been or still lives in any part of Maharashtra, you might be familiar with many of the given dishes.
Yet it is no less of a fun to go through similar stories about food.
Each chapter is a small anecdote describing in simple words how life felt like in the 1940s or 1980s perhaps. At the epicentre of each story is food, a special dish, which most probably is the protagonist in truest sense. And the recipe for that dish follows the chapter. If you are a South Indian and more precisely South Indian who has been or still lives in any part of Maharashtra, you might be familiar with many of the given dishes.
Yet it is no less of a fun to go through similar stories about food.
December 7, 2020
Book 32 of 2020 - Tiffin by Rukmini Srinivas ji - a story feast sprinkled with gastronomic delights! Such a warm read this was. The book elaborates on the author's road to discovering food and the recipes that she dished out to the pleasure of all her friends and acquaintances in India and abroad Oh! And by the way, there is also a mention of a famous Indian writer whose works we all grew up reading. Read to find more and get an insight into the life of that wonderful author too! A wonderful book that you must pick up if you love food :)
#book32of2020 #tiffin #rukminisrinivas #booksof2020 #bookstagram #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #foodlove
PS: Best enjoyed with your favourite Indian tiffin (snack)!
#book32of2020 #tiffin #rukminisrinivas #booksof2020 #bookstagram #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #foodlove
PS: Best enjoyed with your favourite Indian tiffin (snack)!
January 1, 2020
The book made me want to reach out to the author and thank her for preserving this legacy. I read it cover to cover within a day because.. We'll.. Food and anecdotes tied to familiar recipes and a peek into yesteryear India. Highly recommend it for anyone who loves traditional cooking or cooking of any kind.
August 1, 2021
Pacing through the 1940s, 50s, the author talks about her memories in Poona, Madras, Mysore and abroad, while constantly peppering it with abundant traditional Indian recipes.
Read the book for Rukmini 'Rukka' Srinivas's refreshing perspective at a patriarchal society, anecdotes from an era long gone even if you're not a big fan of the culinary bit.
Read the book for Rukmini 'Rukka' Srinivas's refreshing perspective at a patriarchal society, anecdotes from an era long gone even if you're not a big fan of the culinary bit.
June 22, 2018
Be prepared to salivate as you read through this delicious book. Precious family recipes are shared too! What a treat!
January 16, 2022
One gets the book due to a reassuring title - promising vegetarian, mostly South Indian food, that too light snacks - and the cover photograph. One has no clue what treat the book is, until beginning to read it.
The author could very well be a renowned, popular, celebrated writer, judging from what one reads. Writing about her parents, her early life, lives from Quetta to Tanjore, and so on, she brings a sense of a world of parallel lives to someone whose life hasn't exactly been mundane, at that!
By the time one reads her first recipe, one is so into reading, the snack is merely a stop, recipe read quickly to check on what one knows so far, and an eager pushing on to the next tale. And this continues, surprisingly. The very well known snacks, with slightly quirky individualized recipes notwithstanding, and mouth watering photographs, are a delight, but the autobiographical sketches accompanying them just as much and a tad more so, sort of like another exotic relish to accompany the treat - and that the author is teaching this to Boston, yet another added delight.
As one reads on one is startled to realise that the author is only a little younger than one's mother who grew up in Pune where the author went to school for a few years, and they could have met if their paths had any chances of crossing. At that, the author even had a close friend at school whose name seems to coincide with an adopted aunt who lived in Pune! Could it have been the same person? Doubt it, but only because it's very unlikely that someone from proper Pune society would be attending a convent school in military cantonement, meant for children of British.
And the parallels in this keep recurring. The author's early years of marriage, in late fifties to early sixties, being in Delhi - where we lived, except the author and her family were in the university area, where the couple taught, while we were across the town in South Delhi after initial years in West Delhi. Her children's age seems to match with younger children of my parents. Author travelled with family to California, where I taught much later, but I was in Southern California. Author now lives in Boston where I spent apex of formative years, in eighties, in academic life - her daughter's, she says, are in academia in Boston! Her other home was and is in Bangalore, and her in-laws were settled in Mysore where her husband grew up - one could go on!
Her recipes are an exhaustive list of the familiar mouth watering stuff that, as one reads them, one has a feeling of satiety. How about Indian homemade cool drinks, next?
Lovely photographs of delicious snacks.
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"Though the observance of Pound Day was meant to teach us the joys of giving and sharing, it turned out to be more of a competition among the students vying with one another to be noticed by their peers for their special donation. A bar of chocolate or a box of halwa was worthy of attention; a pound of rice was sneered at. As soon as we received the notice from the school requesting contributions for the Pound Day, Sarasa and I would start working on our parents to give us something other than rice. And so it was that I always contributed a ribboned box of a pound of Darjeeling tea, and Sarasa a pound of sugar. On the walk to school, there would be much discussion amongst the students about the food each one had brought. ‘What did you bring?’ was the question on everyone’s lips. Some seniors would try and exchange their modest contributions with younger students who had brought brightly packaged boxes of caramel toffee or imported canned food."
Sounds like the atmosphere usually created and encouraged by convent and other British schools system.
Author gives two recipes that are definitely not traditional or usual, anywhere.
One is gorgeous paratha which she tells you to gold into triangles and roll out maintaining the shape. This is done nowhere.
Pune and other Marathi homes regularly fold polie into triangle but roll it out to a disk as circular in circumference as it can get, usually the size of the pan. When done, it's folded back into the quarter that's triangle as per the author, for storage and serving convenience. It's never cooked with oil or ghee on pan.
North India regularly sautées paratha on pan, after a preliminary dry roast, but it's never folded into quarter that looks triangular, much less left as a triangle.
It's unclear if this triangle paratha from author was a southern young housewife's adaptation of her Quetta learning, or a British deformation of Indian cuisine.
Also, she gives a recipe that she calls Usal, a Marathi word, and she translates it as salad. It's incorrect in both ways. What does gives is, indeed, salad. Usal isn't a salad, it's well cooked sprouted beans or lentils of suitable variety, consumed as a gravy for rice or chapati.
Her reinterpretation of words and recipes reminds of Tamil customers at a Gujarati eatery who ask for Bombay idli. They mean dhokla. They refuse to learn words of other languages, forgetting that idli came from the other end of the peninsular India and Tamil homes had rebelled against it.
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A recipe she gives of a traditional drink made from raw mango, called Panhe in Marathi and Panhaa in Hindi where it's made, is named mango fool here by the author. It's not clear if she invented the name, but that seems less likely. Author seems again to use nomenclature of British Raj circles inherited in military.
The cream is definitely English or European addition, since mixing it in this is against not only every Indian instinct but expliamongst forbidden mixes in Aayurveda.
Cream, heavier the more, is producer of heat, hence for winter heavy dishes such as chholey and for desserts and so on.
Raw mango comes in early spring and summer, and this drink is for cooling; the mix with cream, or even milk, is simply unhealthy, just as contradictory as, say, a dinner of rice and yogurt would be in Boston winter in February with a heavy snowstorm raging.
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Author gives recipe gor Mysore Pak - the last word from Sanskrit connotes cooking - and while it's a rich, popular dessert, a softer version is far more ubiquitous, popular and available everywhere from Maharashtra to North India, called Besan Barfi in North India and Besan wadie in Maharashtra; alternately, rolled into balls instead of flat diamond shaped pieces, it's called Besan Laddou in North India and Besan Laadou in Maharashtra. The proportion is changed from more ghee in Mysore Pak to more Besan in the other, ubiquitous varieties.
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In describing significance of the festival of Deepavali or Diwali, she misses out on the most important part, which is worship at home (and in business offices) of Laxmi or Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth, through most of North India and in Maharashtra.
Bengal however worships Kaalie at this occasion, while Lakshmi Poujaa in Bengal is on full moon day following Navaraatri, which is nine days of Goddess worship in most of North India and Maharashtra and celebrated as Durgaapoujaa in Bengal.
Gujarat and Bengal have public celebration during Navaraatri while rest have it at home, although a major part is women visiting neighbours, friends and relatives and being worshipped by each other as Daughters and manifestations of the Goddess.
All the three - Durgaapoujaa, Lakshmi Poujaa and Kaaliepoujaa - are public celebration in Bengal, along with Saraswatipoujaa at beginning of spring through India shortly after middle of January on fifth day of waning moon when later full moon would be in Regelus in Leo.
"What she considers limited to South, isn't. Narakaasuravadha celebration on Narakachaturdashie, day before no moon, is throughout India, an occasion for a thorough cleaning of home.
But again, repeatedly, she interprets Deepavali Celebrations as about victory; in fact Victory of Divine is celebrated at Vijayaadashamie, literally, Victory tenth, the finale of Navaraatri.
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Amazing, the food in Madras college mess included a Marathi home food item!
"PITLA, smooth and spicy chickpea flour snack, rich in protein and amazingly easy to whip up. Originally a savoury street food from Maharashtra, it has found its way to far-off destinations. I visited a women’s hostel in Trivandrum in the southern state of Kerala and one of the popular sell-out snacks in their canteen was ‘pitlo’!
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" ... Avarekai is a bean with a particularly rich and oily fragrance. Bangaloreans, Mysoreans and the people of Tamil Nadu love the flavour of this rich bean, but for many northerners it is an acquired smell. ... "
Here's the obvious - author knows North India, having lived not distanced from locals, but she knows nothing of Pune or Poona, it's people, or Maharashtra in general and Marathi people. This is so, despite her mentioning a close friend in school being from the community!
What she knows as Avarekai or Avarekalu is the greatest favorite of Marathi people, called either Waal generically, or Dalimbya for the delicate variety and Paavate for the robust one, in Konkan and rest of Maharashtra, respectively.
Marathi grocery stores sell it like any other beans, to be sprouted before shelling and then gentle cooking like any other Usal, while south India depends on the fresh harvest annually and consumes it for a short spell every year, bought at greengrocers.
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CONTENTS
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Introduction
My Parents and Siblings
Masala Vadai and Midwifery
A Victorian Meat Grinder in an Indian Vegetarian Kitchen In Somwar Peth, Poona, for Potato Bhaaji and Bhakri
The Impromptu Tea Party Aboard the Deccan Queen
Thayir Vadai and Idada with Lord Rama and Cinderella in Bombay
Pound Day at St Helena's School
Fun and Fasting with Annam Athai
Narayana's Saturday Night
Bajji Holi Feast at the Gol Bazaar
Orphanage in Jubbulpore
Appa's Retirement and the Move to Tanjore
Deepavali Celebrations in Tanjore
Krishnan Nair's Appams in Queen Mary’s College
The Mobile Canteen on the Madras Marina
Pudina Pidi Kozhukattai in Poonamallee
Delectable Delights from Palani’s Bakery
An Eligible Boy, Astrologers and Tiffin
The Farmers' Market in Tanjore
The Phone Call and Tiffin
Meeting at the Ramakrishna Lunch Home in Madras
The Wedding in Tanjore
Apachi Amma, Akki Roti and Mango Seekarane
Kamalu's Avarekai Adai
Gujarati Farsan at the Amins in Baroda
A Metate Comes in Handy in Berkeley
The AAA Meeting in La Jolla
Happy Hour at Stanford University
Of Birthdays and Snacks
Max Gluckman, Bombay Bonda and Shahi Tukda
Padma's Khara Obbattu with Pineapple Gojju
Paul Hockings and Potato Polee
The Return of the Native and Ragi Dosai
Pilgrimage and Tiffin
Vaara Shaapaadu with Vermicelli Upma
Dosai and Its Many Avatars
From Menlo Park to Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Introduction
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"Captain Thomas Williamson, in his The East India Vade-Mecum, describes ‘tiffin’ as a little avant dinner taken at 1.00 or 2.00 p.m., a time which remained unchanged right up until India’s independence from British rule. The word ‘tiffin’ itself is thought to be derived from ‘tiffing’, an eighteenth-century English slang term for ‘sipping’."
" ... Central Tiffin Room in Malleswaram, a suburb in north Bangalore, is low profile and a favourite haunt of the local denizens. ... "
"All the recipes contained in this book include the food I continue to cook in my kitchen in Boston. ... several Indian restaurants by the name ‘Tiffin’ have sprouted, in recent years, from London to Philadelphia."
"Rukmini Srinivas
"Boston and Bangalore"
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January 13, 2022 - January 14, 2022.
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My Parents and Siblings
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"Appa joined the Military Accounts Services in 1913 when he was 21 years old, and his first posting was to Quetta (in Pakistan today). He was married a couple of years later in 1915 to Sahayavalli, my Amma. From Quetta Appa was transferred to Karachi, where my eldest sister Kamala was born in 1921. In 1923, he was posted to Bangalore, where my brother Kannan, I and two of my younger sisters, Sarasa and Leelu, were born. After nine years in Bangalore (a city both Appa and Amma called home), in 1932, when I was five years old, Appa left the city for Poona, where we four sisters joined reputed convent schools."
" ... The reason for the change in schools was the fact that the tuition fees for Indian children in St Mary’s, a school started primarily for the children of British families stationed in India, was double of what the British paid, and Appa realized that he could ill afford it. ... "
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January 13, 2022 - January 14, 2022.
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(For the rest, see comments - goodreads isn't allowing space enough for reviews more than a few words.
Why not restrict to mere stars? )
The author could very well be a renowned, popular, celebrated writer, judging from what one reads. Writing about her parents, her early life, lives from Quetta to Tanjore, and so on, she brings a sense of a world of parallel lives to someone whose life hasn't exactly been mundane, at that!
By the time one reads her first recipe, one is so into reading, the snack is merely a stop, recipe read quickly to check on what one knows so far, and an eager pushing on to the next tale. And this continues, surprisingly. The very well known snacks, with slightly quirky individualized recipes notwithstanding, and mouth watering photographs, are a delight, but the autobiographical sketches accompanying them just as much and a tad more so, sort of like another exotic relish to accompany the treat - and that the author is teaching this to Boston, yet another added delight.
As one reads on one is startled to realise that the author is only a little younger than one's mother who grew up in Pune where the author went to school for a few years, and they could have met if their paths had any chances of crossing. At that, the author even had a close friend at school whose name seems to coincide with an adopted aunt who lived in Pune! Could it have been the same person? Doubt it, but only because it's very unlikely that someone from proper Pune society would be attending a convent school in military cantonement, meant for children of British.
And the parallels in this keep recurring. The author's early years of marriage, in late fifties to early sixties, being in Delhi - where we lived, except the author and her family were in the university area, where the couple taught, while we were across the town in South Delhi after initial years in West Delhi. Her children's age seems to match with younger children of my parents. Author travelled with family to California, where I taught much later, but I was in Southern California. Author now lives in Boston where I spent apex of formative years, in eighties, in academic life - her daughter's, she says, are in academia in Boston! Her other home was and is in Bangalore, and her in-laws were settled in Mysore where her husband grew up - one could go on!
Her recipes are an exhaustive list of the familiar mouth watering stuff that, as one reads them, one has a feeling of satiety. How about Indian homemade cool drinks, next?
Lovely photographs of delicious snacks.
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"Though the observance of Pound Day was meant to teach us the joys of giving and sharing, it turned out to be more of a competition among the students vying with one another to be noticed by their peers for their special donation. A bar of chocolate or a box of halwa was worthy of attention; a pound of rice was sneered at. As soon as we received the notice from the school requesting contributions for the Pound Day, Sarasa and I would start working on our parents to give us something other than rice. And so it was that I always contributed a ribboned box of a pound of Darjeeling tea, and Sarasa a pound of sugar. On the walk to school, there would be much discussion amongst the students about the food each one had brought. ‘What did you bring?’ was the question on everyone’s lips. Some seniors would try and exchange their modest contributions with younger students who had brought brightly packaged boxes of caramel toffee or imported canned food."
Sounds like the atmosphere usually created and encouraged by convent and other British schools system.
Author gives two recipes that are definitely not traditional or usual, anywhere.
One is gorgeous paratha which she tells you to gold into triangles and roll out maintaining the shape. This is done nowhere.
Pune and other Marathi homes regularly fold polie into triangle but roll it out to a disk as circular in circumference as it can get, usually the size of the pan. When done, it's folded back into the quarter that's triangle as per the author, for storage and serving convenience. It's never cooked with oil or ghee on pan.
North India regularly sautées paratha on pan, after a preliminary dry roast, but it's never folded into quarter that looks triangular, much less left as a triangle.
It's unclear if this triangle paratha from author was a southern young housewife's adaptation of her Quetta learning, or a British deformation of Indian cuisine.
Also, she gives a recipe that she calls Usal, a Marathi word, and she translates it as salad. It's incorrect in both ways. What does gives is, indeed, salad. Usal isn't a salad, it's well cooked sprouted beans or lentils of suitable variety, consumed as a gravy for rice or chapati.
Her reinterpretation of words and recipes reminds of Tamil customers at a Gujarati eatery who ask for Bombay idli. They mean dhokla. They refuse to learn words of other languages, forgetting that idli came from the other end of the peninsular India and Tamil homes had rebelled against it.
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A recipe she gives of a traditional drink made from raw mango, called Panhe in Marathi and Panhaa in Hindi where it's made, is named mango fool here by the author. It's not clear if she invented the name, but that seems less likely. Author seems again to use nomenclature of British Raj circles inherited in military.
The cream is definitely English or European addition, since mixing it in this is against not only every Indian instinct but expliamongst forbidden mixes in Aayurveda.
Cream, heavier the more, is producer of heat, hence for winter heavy dishes such as chholey and for desserts and so on.
Raw mango comes in early spring and summer, and this drink is for cooling; the mix with cream, or even milk, is simply unhealthy, just as contradictory as, say, a dinner of rice and yogurt would be in Boston winter in February with a heavy snowstorm raging.
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Author gives recipe gor Mysore Pak - the last word from Sanskrit connotes cooking - and while it's a rich, popular dessert, a softer version is far more ubiquitous, popular and available everywhere from Maharashtra to North India, called Besan Barfi in North India and Besan wadie in Maharashtra; alternately, rolled into balls instead of flat diamond shaped pieces, it's called Besan Laddou in North India and Besan Laadou in Maharashtra. The proportion is changed from more ghee in Mysore Pak to more Besan in the other, ubiquitous varieties.
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In describing significance of the festival of Deepavali or Diwali, she misses out on the most important part, which is worship at home (and in business offices) of Laxmi or Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth, through most of North India and in Maharashtra.
Bengal however worships Kaalie at this occasion, while Lakshmi Poujaa in Bengal is on full moon day following Navaraatri, which is nine days of Goddess worship in most of North India and Maharashtra and celebrated as Durgaapoujaa in Bengal.
Gujarat and Bengal have public celebration during Navaraatri while rest have it at home, although a major part is women visiting neighbours, friends and relatives and being worshipped by each other as Daughters and manifestations of the Goddess.
All the three - Durgaapoujaa, Lakshmi Poujaa and Kaaliepoujaa - are public celebration in Bengal, along with Saraswatipoujaa at beginning of spring through India shortly after middle of January on fifth day of waning moon when later full moon would be in Regelus in Leo.
"What she considers limited to South, isn't. Narakaasuravadha celebration on Narakachaturdashie, day before no moon, is throughout India, an occasion for a thorough cleaning of home.
But again, repeatedly, she interprets Deepavali Celebrations as about victory; in fact Victory of Divine is celebrated at Vijayaadashamie, literally, Victory tenth, the finale of Navaraatri.
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Amazing, the food in Madras college mess included a Marathi home food item!
"PITLA, smooth and spicy chickpea flour snack, rich in protein and amazingly easy to whip up. Originally a savoury street food from Maharashtra, it has found its way to far-off destinations. I visited a women’s hostel in Trivandrum in the southern state of Kerala and one of the popular sell-out snacks in their canteen was ‘pitlo’!
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" ... Avarekai is a bean with a particularly rich and oily fragrance. Bangaloreans, Mysoreans and the people of Tamil Nadu love the flavour of this rich bean, but for many northerners it is an acquired smell. ... "
Here's the obvious - author knows North India, having lived not distanced from locals, but she knows nothing of Pune or Poona, it's people, or Maharashtra in general and Marathi people. This is so, despite her mentioning a close friend in school being from the community!
What she knows as Avarekai or Avarekalu is the greatest favorite of Marathi people, called either Waal generically, or Dalimbya for the delicate variety and Paavate for the robust one, in Konkan and rest of Maharashtra, respectively.
Marathi grocery stores sell it like any other beans, to be sprouted before shelling and then gentle cooking like any other Usal, while south India depends on the fresh harvest annually and consumes it for a short spell every year, bought at greengrocers.
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CONTENTS
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Introduction
My Parents and Siblings
Masala Vadai and Midwifery
A Victorian Meat Grinder in an Indian Vegetarian Kitchen In Somwar Peth, Poona, for Potato Bhaaji and Bhakri
The Impromptu Tea Party Aboard the Deccan Queen
Thayir Vadai and Idada with Lord Rama and Cinderella in Bombay
Pound Day at St Helena's School
Fun and Fasting with Annam Athai
Narayana's Saturday Night
Bajji Holi Feast at the Gol Bazaar
Orphanage in Jubbulpore
Appa's Retirement and the Move to Tanjore
Deepavali Celebrations in Tanjore
Krishnan Nair's Appams in Queen Mary’s College
The Mobile Canteen on the Madras Marina
Pudina Pidi Kozhukattai in Poonamallee
Delectable Delights from Palani’s Bakery
An Eligible Boy, Astrologers and Tiffin
The Farmers' Market in Tanjore
The Phone Call and Tiffin
Meeting at the Ramakrishna Lunch Home in Madras
The Wedding in Tanjore
Apachi Amma, Akki Roti and Mango Seekarane
Kamalu's Avarekai Adai
Gujarati Farsan at the Amins in Baroda
A Metate Comes in Handy in Berkeley
The AAA Meeting in La Jolla
Happy Hour at Stanford University
Of Birthdays and Snacks
Max Gluckman, Bombay Bonda and Shahi Tukda
Padma's Khara Obbattu with Pineapple Gojju
Paul Hockings and Potato Polee
The Return of the Native and Ragi Dosai
Pilgrimage and Tiffin
Vaara Shaapaadu with Vermicelli Upma
Dosai and Its Many Avatars
From Menlo Park to Cambridge, Massachusetts
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
Introduction
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
"Captain Thomas Williamson, in his The East India Vade-Mecum, describes ‘tiffin’ as a little avant dinner taken at 1.00 or 2.00 p.m., a time which remained unchanged right up until India’s independence from British rule. The word ‘tiffin’ itself is thought to be derived from ‘tiffing’, an eighteenth-century English slang term for ‘sipping’."
" ... Central Tiffin Room in Malleswaram, a suburb in north Bangalore, is low profile and a favourite haunt of the local denizens. ... "
"All the recipes contained in this book include the food I continue to cook in my kitchen in Boston. ... several Indian restaurants by the name ‘Tiffin’ have sprouted, in recent years, from London to Philadelphia."
"Rukmini Srinivas
"Boston and Bangalore"
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January 13, 2022 - January 14, 2022.
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................................................
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................................................................................................
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................................................................................................
My Parents and Siblings
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
"Appa joined the Military Accounts Services in 1913 when he was 21 years old, and his first posting was to Quetta (in Pakistan today). He was married a couple of years later in 1915 to Sahayavalli, my Amma. From Quetta Appa was transferred to Karachi, where my eldest sister Kamala was born in 1921. In 1923, he was posted to Bangalore, where my brother Kannan, I and two of my younger sisters, Sarasa and Leelu, were born. After nine years in Bangalore (a city both Appa and Amma called home), in 1932, when I was five years old, Appa left the city for Poona, where we four sisters joined reputed convent schools."
" ... The reason for the change in schools was the fact that the tuition fees for Indian children in St Mary’s, a school started primarily for the children of British families stationed in India, was double of what the British paid, and Appa realized that he could ill afford it. ... "
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January 13, 2022 - January 14, 2022.
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(For the rest, see comments - goodreads isn't allowing space enough for reviews more than a few words.
Why not restrict to mere stars? )
May 4, 2020
While I certainly have a penchant for food blogs and recipes, it’s been a while since I picked up a book about food. Here in this review, I talk about my experience of reading Rukmini Srinivas’s Tiffin: Memories and Recipes of Indian Vegetarian Food, a book that I picked up on a whim while browsing on my Kindle.
What to expect?
Expect a book that is part memoir (anecdotal) and part recipes; where the memories section far exceeds the recipes one, and rightly so.
What is the book essentially about?
The book is essentially a treasure trove of memories and has the ability to perfectly capture the essence of the place and the time that it talks about. Rukmini, who is now an octogenarian, takes us back in time to India and America of the yesteryears.
How good is the writing style?
The writing style is quite informal and though I had reservations in the initial chapters, as the pages moved along, I realized this is indeed the best way to tell Rukka’s (Rukmini’s) story. The book is sometimes repetitive but that’s the beauty of it. I love how spontaneous most of it is.
What did I like?
The best part of the book was undoubtedly the memories, the stories, the treasure trove of anecdotes that accompany the recipes of the book.
What could have been better?
The book comes with its own share of illustrations and pictures but I would have liked it better if they were more in number. Not every recipe had pictures and that was a major disappointment for me.
Pick the book if
You enjoy books that are about food.
You love reading memoirs and anecdotes.
You are looking for a decent read on South Indian vegetarian cooking.
Read the detailed review of the book on India's No 1 book blog - https://www.bookgeeks.in/tiffin-memor...
What to expect?
Expect a book that is part memoir (anecdotal) and part recipes; where the memories section far exceeds the recipes one, and rightly so.
What is the book essentially about?
The book is essentially a treasure trove of memories and has the ability to perfectly capture the essence of the place and the time that it talks about. Rukmini, who is now an octogenarian, takes us back in time to India and America of the yesteryears.
How good is the writing style?
The writing style is quite informal and though I had reservations in the initial chapters, as the pages moved along, I realized this is indeed the best way to tell Rukka’s (Rukmini’s) story. The book is sometimes repetitive but that’s the beauty of it. I love how spontaneous most of it is.
What did I like?
The best part of the book was undoubtedly the memories, the stories, the treasure trove of anecdotes that accompany the recipes of the book.
What could have been better?
The book comes with its own share of illustrations and pictures but I would have liked it better if they were more in number. Not every recipe had pictures and that was a major disappointment for me.
Pick the book if
You enjoy books that are about food.
You love reading memoirs and anecdotes.
You are looking for a decent read on South Indian vegetarian cooking.
Read the detailed review of the book on India's No 1 book blog - https://www.bookgeeks.in/tiffin-memor...
August 30, 2016
Loved the book. Please check out my review here. https://premraostoryteller.com/2016/0...
December 29, 2018
This is one of rare lovely heart warming books, which remind you of your childhood and makes you cherish everyone who was a part of making it. Ironically enough, it made me wonder if my life and those of modern kids will ever be as rich as those of our parents and grandparents. Despite much fewer means spread out among a much larger brood, people seemed to have been putting a lot of more effort into things they did to keep themselves entertained and busy. The rich stories that evolved out this effort are probably very hard to find today
Oh and the food. Well described. Receptors are nicely detailed. But it is the stories which bring them alive though and really makes me want to try some these dishes.
Oh and the food. Well described. Receptors are nicely detailed. But it is the stories which bring them alive though and really makes me want to try some these dishes.
January 10, 2023
You are what you eat!
A delightful treat into the journey of author’s life and sweet anecdotes. In this era of millions of food recipe videos available on the internet, this recipe book stands out with simple dishes and a memory associated with it.
Staying true to traditional Indian vegetarian food no matter what part of world you live in is truly inspirational. Author has added her own twists to the recipes to make the process simple and motivate any person who is not a ardent cook like me.
A must read.
A delightful treat into the journey of author’s life and sweet anecdotes. In this era of millions of food recipe videos available on the internet, this recipe book stands out with simple dishes and a memory associated with it.
Staying true to traditional Indian vegetarian food no matter what part of world you live in is truly inspirational. Author has added her own twists to the recipes to make the process simple and motivate any person who is not a ardent cook like me.
A must read.
November 6, 2020
What a journey!
I started reading the book expecting a lot of recipes, but what I got was lots and lots of stories, memories from a bygone era, that are so touching, funny and heartwarming. The accompanying photos and the impeccable English in which the book is written... Overall, it was a great experience reading this book, although, fair warning, it is quite long 😊
I started reading the book expecting a lot of recipes, but what I got was lots and lots of stories, memories from a bygone era, that are so touching, funny and heartwarming. The accompanying photos and the impeccable English in which the book is written... Overall, it was a great experience reading this book, although, fair warning, it is quite long 😊
May 26, 2022
Wonderful book. Droolworthy photos. Rukmini Srinivas or Rukka as she is known, takes us back to the days of our grandmothers. Her stories are so wonderful, richly told and full of detail of her unusual family. The stories of academicians and of R.K. Narayan were also great. The recipes are very good each one with a unique twist.
DOlly
DOlly
September 6, 2019
Best cookery book
The book is inspiring. I really liked the book as the book contains mixture of autobiography,cookery,indian culture and tradition. The book was presented nicely. Super !!!!
The book is inspiring. I really liked the book as the book contains mixture of autobiography,cookery,indian culture and tradition. The book was presented nicely. Super !!!!
April 29, 2020
Wow!!! Just Wow!!
Food stories with a lot of anecdotes in between.. The author relives her childhood and early youth while writing this book, hence proving that each and every memory has its own special taste..
Food stories with a lot of anecdotes in between.. The author relives her childhood and early youth while writing this book, hence proving that each and every memory has its own special taste..
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews