The Endangered Dishes of Vypin Island

Neither am I an awesome cook nor have I a passion for cooking. Cooking will be my last choice given the options. You would be wondering then what am I going to talk about the dishes of Vypin! Jokes apart, there are few reasons why I chose this topic. I can explain. 

First reason is one of my Bengali friends. She was the one who suggested that I write about special dishes of Kerala. Once we were having conversation about vinegar. She didn't know about Toddy vinegar and I didn't know about Fenny vinegar. Then she proposed the idea of writing a blog about the unheard recipes. She even shared her friend's blog about Bengali special dishes which was explained in a totally different way. I was mesmerized by the way she connected each dish to one folklore. So I thought, let me give it a try.

Second reason, I love experimental cooking. Being my lab rats my husband and children enjoy trying new dishes! Most of the time my North Indian or Bengali recipes win their hearts. My children pull my leg saying that, "we doubt that mom is originally a Bengali. She would have been adopted by her Malayali parents!" 

Time and again I would like to reiterate the fact that I am not an awesome cook if you feel so after reading the above paragraphs. I am going to tell you about some endangered dishes that existed a few decades ago in the middle coastal area of Kerala. Marriage brought me to the coastal areas of Cochin. My husband's house is at Vypin. Vypin is a small island well connected to Kochi city. But years ago this island was completely isolated and the only way to reach the outside world was by backwaters. Here I was told about the folklores of many historic dishes prepared by the grandmothers of Vypin. 

One of these dishes I have heard from my husband's childhood stories. If you take people from coastal areas they will be hardcore foodies, of course non vegeterians. Literally they can eat anything they could find in the water! I was astonished to see and hear about varieties of fishes and other "creatures" they eat. As I was born and brought up in a different district which is not by the seaside it was all new to me. In the coastal areas whatever you get abundantly will become the staple food. So the most common and abundant supply was sardines during olden days. Alas! sardines outnumbered the humans who ate them. Hence the uses of sardines were unimaginable. The main usage was of sardine oil. The excess sardines were boiled to extract the oil. Once the oil separates the fishermen use it as a repellent on the sides of their boats so that the chances of water getting inside are less. And the remaining cooked sardines were used as fertilizer for plants and trees. How about that ahh! All these tricks are old stories. Presently we are not lucky enough to see much sardines like those days.

Now comes the authentic dish made out of sardine oil. My husband says his grandmother mixed sardine oil with rice flour and made this delicious appam (pancake) which was their daily tea snack. I have no clue what it tastes like. But I must say the entire family is a robust lot.

My mother-in-law remembers how the women who went to the prawn factories (they went to clean the prawns in the exporting factories) came back with a tiffin box full of sardine eggs daily. She gave them five rupees per box. Later it increased upto fifty rupees. One tiffin box was equal to half a kg and now that same half kg is charged three hundred rupees in online platforms in Bangalore. These sardine eggs are full of Omega 3 and she roasts them to have for dinner where in my house when I was a child we used to fight for that one or two pieces of sardine eggs which my mother found from the half kilo sardine's stomach like a treasure hunt, only if we were lucky enough to get one that day. 

There are many folklores related to sardines and sea. During the annual festival in the main temple in Elamkunnapuzha a village in Vypin, the elephant carries the deity to the seaside for a divine bath. One such occasion, the elephant reached the sea side and the seashore was full of sardines. The elephant somehow made it to the sea and the deity took the royal bath. They came back to temple as usual. Later unpleasant things began to happen in the village. The astrologers took a look at the stars and fathomed that this was all because of sardines. The deity is a pure vegetarian and he was furious for making him walk on the sardines. Hence the mishaps. From then on the royal bath happens in the nearby pond. This temple has another interesting story related to the sea. Most of the temples have the Dwarapalakas (the guardians) as fearsome giants on the four sides on top of the gopura. In this temple the giant who is facing towards the sea i.e west direction, looks very calm instead of angry. Hence, the villagers believe that this is one of the reason they have less sea attacks compared to the other villages. Though at times due to tidal action the sea rampages but never breaches the rocky sea wall. 

Let's go to the Vypin boat jetty. It is a beautiful place that you must visit. Try to stick with locals, they will show you many unseen places. If you take a trip in the jangar/ferry from Vypin to Cochin you will encounter these cute creatures dancing in the backwaters. Yes, dolphins! They are almost on the verge of extinction and it is a rare sight nowadays. More than three decades ago these beautiful creatures were in the waters in huge numbers. Dolphins were a secret staple food of coastal area people during those days. They call it "kadal panni" (sea pig) in Malayalam. Now it is punishable by law to kill these endangered animals.

Other than these, small octopuses, clams etc were commonly found. The water which they used to cook clams was either reused as soup or rice balls(made of rice flour) and raw jackfruit pieces also cooked in the same water. I was amazed to know about all these rare savouries. Wish they had a cooking channel those days!

Now, let's talk about the vegetarian part. There are quite a lot of snacks you haven't even heard of. They broke the mango seeds and collected the inside white creamy part, dried it and powdered it. This powder was in black colour mostly. So they put it in water for 2-3 days and washed it to make it white in colour. This powder was consumed in the form of a variety of dishes. This was loaded with nutrients and antioxidants.

Another key raw material was tamarind seed. After cooking the seed they removed the shell and the inside part was used with jaggery and grated coconut. I remember eating this when I was a child. 

Have you seen the coconut flower? It is a symbol of prosperity and has medicinal properties. They made halwa or porridge by grinding it and mixing with jaggery. 

We don't waste any part of the banana plant. The root part of the banana plant will be cooked with red cow beans and eaten. Another interesting dish was Thendu / Thadi which is still prepared in some temples during special occasions. And it is prepared at night. So we as a family went to the temple in the evening. This had a very unique way of preparation. Rice flour was the main ingredient mixed with jaggery and coconut. The arecanut dried leaf was kept in water for a day to make it soft. Then made it like a purse where one end was closed. The rice flour mix was filled into this pocket and to cook they buried it underground and dried leaves were put on fire on top of it. After a while, you dig it out and the sweet thendu is ready to eat.

.                           Thendu/Thadi

I am sure there are many more to add on to the list. If I find a great grandmother somewhere in the village next time I will try to dig a few more out. For now, that's all about the endangered dishes of Vypin Island, a must visit place along with Kochi with its unique food varieties, tranquil beaches with no crowd, secret scenic places and of course the lovely people.