The Culinary Trail :Part 1 - The Genesis

Write up by Bhargavi from team buDa

It was business as usual at buDa folklore with study tours, quilting workshops and brain storming on new ideas. It was during one of our quilting workshops that our resource person, Nirmala-akka dished out an interesting dish – literally hand crafted a dish from steamed rice flour and filled the open dumplings with scrambled eggs and mixed vegetables. She does this in flat 30 minutes and serves it with a beaming smile and says, ‘Divishi’ – tasted divine indeed!

That’s when we realised that besides art and craft that is slowing vanishing with the village to city migration and people taking to mainstream jobs, traditional culinary practices too are fading out. Our objective for initiating a culinary workshop was to bring to the city audience aromas from the kitchens of Uttara Kannada, re-discover tasty and nutritious recipes before they die a natural death in the competition with instant ready-mixes and fast foods, rekindle memories of the yore with community cooking, tickle the grey cells of the elders and village folk for heirloom recipes and showcase traditional kitchen gadgets and their superb engineering in comparison to the electric gadgets that have flooded the market.

When we started floating around the idea of a culinary workshop, we expected responses from people interested in culinary art, nutrition enthusiasts, food connoisseurs, experimental chefs, fans and addicts of HOMP (Highway on My Plate) and the likes. But well, we received the maximum response from schools! The first school we had on board for the culinary workshop was ‘Genie Kids’. The children at Genie kids were involved on a project – they were to plan and design their new school campus. The project also involved planning for the kitchen at school and the kind of food that they’d like to eat on a regular day at school.

Interesting project indeed! When we at buDa folklore heard about this project, we were certain that students would be from class 11 & 12. Needless to say we were excited about the workshop too as this was the first of its kind for our team. Hectic preparations started a fortnight prior to the workshop - calling resource folk (facilitators) from towns in and around Honnavar, choosing traditional recipes that we’d like to showcase from the scores of books our founders have researched and documented on folk drinks, steamed sweets and edible roots & leaves. As we tried hard to narrow our list to the top 20 that we’d like to showcase, our enthusiastic facilitators added on. This did have us wondering on, Why didn’t we organise a workshop of this kind earlier? 

                   

Cheerful - Gowri Akka

Our facilitators from far and near:

Patient 'Amma'

Ever green Nugli

Ever smiling Kalpana

Confident Mngala

                                             

         

                            

                        Silent Mangala - Akka 

 

Perfectionist Vijayakka - Behind the scenes 

             

           

             Nirmala Akka - Divshi specialist
               Deviyani & Co - Shavige specialist

                            Watch out for the updates of the tour in Part 2. 

Culinary Tour of Uttara Kannada

Food is always given utmost importance in any culture and every community has its unique cuisine. A closer observation reveals that the local environment has a strong relation to these food practices. While there is science involved in knowing the right measure of ingredients and when to add to what - like in a chemistry lab; there is creativity and craft involved in using things the nature/environment has to offer and making food look appealing on that banana leaf. 

Buda folklore looks to revive the dying culinary art of this region which is slowly fading out with the advent of kitchen gadgets,instant ready mixes and the fast-food culture. Through this workshop we look to give participants an overview of the diversity of local preparations, rediscover age old recipes and the lost art of local traditional cooking from the kitchens of Uttara Kannada. We believe that understanding the food culture would serve as a good means to understand the local history and folk culture. 

This culinary journey is across 3 days. The day would be spent with visits to local markets, a leisurely afternoon tour around the village that will give participants an insight into cooking practices (tools, skills and techniques) in these homes and a hands-on experience in cooking some of these unusual local recipes.

At the end of the workshop, we would like to put together a photo journal & CD. The workshop will therefore also involve documenting these recipes, skills & techniques with respect to the cooking methodology, the associated local wisdom, history & folk culture and the nutritive value of these foods.

If you'd like to experience this culinary journey, join us between the 21^st and the 23rd @ the Buda Folklore Research Centre, Honnavar.