For special occasions, neyi kuul, or ghee rice, is a favoured dish at the Kodava table.

What’s not to love about soft white rice, cooked in generous quantities of ghee with onions and spices, and garnished with cashew nuts and raisins? And yet grandmother seems to have had her own take on “ghee rice” for her table.

There was no garlic, or ginger or green chilli in her version. Her ghee rice was scented with whole spices, subtly sweetened with caramelized onions, and studded with raisins and cashew nuts. It also wasn’t white, but tinged with a heavenly pale gold, and made just a little earthy by the addition of a hint of turmeric.

I always wonder about her culinary influences. Just as neyi kuul echoes the Mapilla rice dish of neyichoru, this touch of sugar in the rice was perhaps influenced by a Parsi neighbour in Mercara – a cue taken from the rice cooked with sugar caramelized onions, and traditionally made to accompany a dhansak. We’ll never know for certain, but I do know it made a dish beloved by generations of her family. We knew this as pann kuul or “fruit rice”.

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Quoting the much quoted Bernard Shaw quote : “There is no love sincerer than the love of food“.

Indeed! And can there be any love sincerer than the love of a good samosa?

Vancouver truly is in love with samosas, and they’re everywhere! In the many Indian restaurants and sweet shops, of course, but also ready-to-eat at supermarket delis, or ready-to-cook, in the frozen food sections. You’ll find them in more unexpected places too. Like on the menu of the restaurant on the ski slopes of Grouse Mountain, (Après-ski samosa, anyone?) or fuelling a craving at the gas station.

For a time, they were even available at the concession of one of the neighbourhood Cineplexes. Who wants popcorn when you can eat hot samosas instead? The most popular stall at any Food event is almost certainly the one selling samosas, whether the large Punjabi style flaky pastry cones, or the crisp, papery Ismaili style samosas with mincemeat filling. Take samosas to a  potluck and you can be sure it’ll be the first platter to be picked clean!

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Now for something to go with that cup of tea, or coffee!

Of all the times I spent around my grandmother in her kitchen, I loved the afternoons best of all. While the adults retired to snooze after a heavy lunch, and older cousins ganged up and loitered over music, magazines and books, I would be gathering spoons, bowls, eggs, sugar, bananas, and whatever grandmother instructed me to fetch and carry as she set about making “something for tea”.

No task was too small to this eager helper. Peel and mash those bananas? (I’m on it!). Fetch a sheet of newspaper to drain the fried foods on? (Race to the pile outside the store room and back in a flash!). Butter from the fridge? (Faster than greased lightning!).

This was the most wonderful time spent in her company – the afternoon sun lighting and warming the kitchen, grandmother quietly mixing batter, rolling pastry or pouring pancakes, with the occasional instruction aimed in my direction.

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