Monday 4 August 2014

mundane monday - # 41


India should probably be called the fried snack capital of the world. There are so many varieties of fried sweets and savoury snacks, that even if you have been living in india your whole life, you probably wouldnt have tasted them all. each state and region has so many varieties of its own. 

the photo below is an old one i took in 2012. it is a brass mould which is used to make different varieties of savoury snacks. it is in two cylindrical parts, with 4-5 changeable discs that go in the bottom cylinder. much like a piping/icing bag with different shaped nozzles for frosting cakes, the discs are of different shapes, with a star, small rounds, rectangle, etc. the dough in the bottom cylinder is pressed by the top cylinder into hot oil, to be fried. there are so many different varieties of snacks, like 'omapodi, thenkuzhal, mullu murukku/mullu thenkuzhal, ribbon pakoda' in tamil and 'chakli' in north india...

the moulds/press come in many variants these days, and more commonly in stainless steel, but i just have a major crush on brass :) 

the beginning of august generally marks the advent of the indian festival calendar, with summer fading away and the rainy months ahead. a steady stream of festivals begin from mid-or-end august usually, and everyone is in the mood for the aroma of a lot of fried oil and bubbling jaggery syrup :) thats one thing about traditional indian sweets - since most of them use jaggery instead of refined sugar, they are a much better option if you have a sweet-tooth. there should seriously be a movement for the revival of these sweets like kozhukkatai (modak), appam, adhirasam, seeyam (or suzhiyan), vella seedai, sojji appam, pori urundai, poli, etc etc. the only downside being many of these have to be fried. 

still, the months from august to december are the best time to be part of an indian household - it'll soon be time for the murukku mould to come out of hiding :)




murukku achu - murukku chakli mould - savoury mould - india