Delicious breakfast dishes like 'Palappam', 'Puttu' and 'Porotta', served both with 'chicken stew' and 'vegetable stew', quite common in most Kerala households attracted crowds at a recent festival of street food.
Two teams of street vendors prepared exotic food from the southern state during the four-day National Street Food Festival that concluded here last evening.
The event, organised by National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) saw participation by over 800 street vendors from 25 different states.
"I started making Appams and Palappams sometimes on a daily basis after coming to Delhi with my wife who is employed as a nurse at a private hospital here. Very soon I began to receive many orders from Malayalees and others," says Rony Mathew who owns an outlet in central Delhi.
'Palappam' prepared from mixing rice flour, coconut milk, yeast and milk. The batter is poured a special pan and immediately turned and tilted in a circle.
"Initially I used to struggle to make it but over a period of three years have perfected the technique and now it turns out quite well," says Rony.
The vegetable stew usually served with the dish is not common in north India. Preparations involve boiling a mix of chopped vegetables like carrot, potato, green peas, onion, cauliflower and adding a dash of coconut oil. A masala of crushed whole black pepper, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom is added to the boiling mixture and later milk and coconut milk.
Chicken stew, however, is made using chicken onion, green chilly ginger, garlic, potato, carrot, cinnamon cardamom, cloves, whole pepper, fennel seeds, coconut milk cashew paste, coconut oil and curry leaves.
"I recall during my childhood, we used to have these every Sunday. But nowadays customers order it for for birthday parties and other occasions," says the vendor.
Puttu, one of the most popular traditional breakfast dish of Kerala prepared with rice flour and coconut was available with 'kadala curry' or black chickpea curry'.
