kerala feast

well i did end up going to my hotel managers house, col. rasheed. and i'm glad i did, cause he was having the spread just for me and it would have been horrible to let them hang. so here's the spread:
-first we are shown the house, however, it was more like a mansion. the colonel had been all over the world, egypt, dubai, china, etc. and had artifacts from everywhere. absolutely stunning place. the army is good to their people here. he's been retired 10 years, and our gathering was only us 3 (scott, who is in india only 2 days at this point, and arnold)and him and his wife.
-we were introduced to the film crew, who film in their house 5 days a month a very popular malayalum series on asianet at 7:30 pm. of course this made the event quite unexpected. we had to eat on the floor of the guest quarters because of this, but that was not half bad.
-he sat us down inside for beers, cause the indians don't drink outside in public in front of others out of respect. than we lined up to wash our hands and we returned to the quarters. the furniture had been taken away and 4 giant palm leaves (the wife does not eat with us traditionally cause she's serving) placed with 7 kinds of sauces and tit bits (like mango chutney, hot red ginger lime sauce, chopped long beans and mixed vegetable, which had green chili in it and looked like guacamole)
-mrs. rasheed did the honors and piled on that fat kerala rice in the center of the leaf. than first course-dal. we used our right hand to mix it together, add some spice (looked like a painters easel) and squashed a papad into the rice to bind it. papad is a deep fried tortilla like rice crispy bread. second course, sambar, a thin stew of hot dal with eggplant and okra, a hot as hell red prawn dish, (vegetarian?), and the curd came last. than fresh pineapple for enzymatic digestion. in india, they eat their food in a certain order for optimum digestibility. we did good, folded our palm leaves in half, and it was out to the garden for local black coffee and some photos.
that's pretty much it. took about 4 hours, than his "driver" took us back to kovalam, a good 40 minutes away. they live on the outskirts of trivandrum where i've never been before.

i felt quite honored being his guest. he invited me because he caught me red handed listening to air (all india radio) and singing along. he thought it was cute a little white girl who knows film songs, told his wife, and invited me with 2 guests. very sweet new years day, much better than new years eve.

the death toll of tsunami continues to climb and is still the main focus here on tv, newspapers, and in the hearts of the people. we weren't the only ones celebrating low key out of respect for the dead and dying. death toll over 170,000 and now people are starting to die from disease, which will to take the lives of many more people.

thanks to all who made donations. it's a wonderful thing when you can open your heart and your purse for something like this.

bindifry