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The Emerald Isle
April 10, 2007 |
features in today’s postcard.
Our Postcards Series is about extending a handshake across cyberspace. Read about it here.
Please accord a warm welcome to our guest contributors. They will try to respond to comments and questions.
This postcard comes from Mathy Kandasamy, who describes her blog Virundhu as “a cosmopolitan islander’s food fiesta”. ‘Virundhu‘ means ‘feast‘ in Tamil, and she brings to us the various facets of Sri Lankan Tamil cuisine and culture. Mathy is a prolific writer in the Tamil language, and also has a blog in Tamil. She is a very expressive writer, and her blogs are a great read.
In terms of customs and social structure, Sri Lankan Tamils share a similar ancestry to Indian Tamils. However, they also differ in significant ways. That being said, Sri Lankan cuisine, both Sinhala and Tamil, is closely aligned to that of Kerala and southern Tamil Nadu. Palm jaggery (panai vellam), which Mathy talks about here, will be familiar to readers from Kerala as “pana chakkara“. It is a form of raw sugar integral to Sri Lankan cuisine.
PALM JAGGERY (Panai vellam)
Palmyrah or Panai is very close to every Sri Lankan Tamil’s heart. We tend to use all parts of the tree.
Northern Srilanka does not get much rainfall and Palmyrahs seem to flourish here. The scene above is how a typical village looks like from afar. I remember getting excited on seeing these trees when on long walks with my grandmother. Clusters of palmyrahs means human habitats and one can always request drinking water.
It’s been years since I left Sri Lanka. But, whenever I see a Palmyrah in India, I would be transported to Pungudutheevu, my home town. My family used to tease me a lot because I seem to remember more from the two years spent in Pungudutheevu compared to everything else - be it school lessons or even recent events.
As I said earlier, we tend to use all parts of the Palmyrah tree. The trunks are used as building materials. The Palmyrah has so many uses it’s practically impossible to list them all. To be truthful, I have even forgotten the different ways the Palmyrah was used back home. From what I remember the leaves were used mainly to make the sleeping mats. Narrow but lengthy coils of mats were also made. The mats were used when there are a lot of people in the house. These mats would be uncoiled and people would sit on them to be fed breakfast, lunch or dinner. Mats were also made to dry things on.
Beach hats made with palm fronds. If the fronds are very tender, the hats last just for a day. Picture from infolanka.com.
Containers of varying sizes would be made to store and transport goods both edible and not. One such container is called the “kadaham” and it is so versatile. It could be used to transport paddy, rice, lentils or even cooked rice when there is a huge gathering to be fed. It could also be used to remove waste from the yard. We had 5-6 kadaham for different purposes. Puttu would be steamed in containers made just for this purpose. Well, being versatile, the same “puttu steamer” would be used to drain water from washed rice and lentils. How long the “neethuppetti” or “puttu steamer” lasts depends on the usage. One household would have more than one and if more’s needed all one has to do is spend around 15 minutes to make a new one. Additional point in favour is that all these are bio-degradable and everything else is used as fuel.
Palmyrah tree has edible parts too. The mature fruit - “panam pazham” could be roasted in fire and could be eaten just like that. Paniyaaram could be made from it and todate that remains my favourite snack. More on Panampazham and other countless uses of Panai or Palmyrah later. Another day, perhaps!
The reason for this post is “Panagatti”, “Karuppatti”, “Panai Vellam” or Palm Sugar. The fruit when young and just forming would produce a sap that could use to produce “arrack” - an alcohol. The same sap could be boiled to make Palm Sugar. The sap would be boiled and would be packaged in a container made from palmyrah leaves just for this.
Palm Sugar - “Panangatti” is used to make sweets. Unfortunately I dont know much about the recipes. [Time to call family, eh?;)] When young, we used to be given milk with a bit of palm sugar mixed in. It is our nightly ritual at home.
Hot Milk With Palm Sugar
Milk: 1 cup
Palm Sugar: 1/2 tsp (or according to taste)
Boil milk. Add desired amount of Palm Sugar. Tastes very good on cold wintry nights.
Now to the non-regular recipe.
Apple: 1/2 apple
Palm Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1/8 tsp
Peel, core and slice the apple.
Add butter to the heated pan. Layer the pan with sliced apple.
Cover and let it cook. Stir, once in a while. After about 2 minutes or once the apple is half cooked sprinkle the palm sugar. Cover and cook for a few more minutes.
On the serving dish, scoop out the icecreams and layer the caramelized apples.
More information on Palmyrah trees.
There’s another variety of Jaggery available in Sri Lanka. It’s the staple of Sinhala people. It’s called Kitul Pani.
Here’s some more info.
(Article and pictures reproduced from here with Mathy’s consent.)
Boat out to sea Picture: infolanka.com
Village Buddhist temple. Picture from infolanka.com
Sri Lanka info and maps
Sri Lanka in pictures here and here.
Sri Lankan cuisine and Sinhala cuisine. A Sri Lankan cookbook.
lifestyle, MUSINGS, palm-jaggery, palm-sugar, palmyrah, panai-vellam, panangatti, Postcards, sri-lanka, TRAVEL, vegetarian recipes
Thanks, Mathy, Bee n’ Jai…..
The Palmyra theme…..really breathtaking and mouth-watering
Quite a coincidence….. I made caremalized apples as well and photographed for the post
lovely photographs
Great pics.Love it.
I thought you were talking about Emerald Isle,NC on beautiful Bogue sound!:)
Love the warm caramelized Apples with cold Ice Cream.YUM!
Lovely Article! So much tradition and culture.. Very interesting information. I have a good friend who is originally from tuticorin (tutukody) and she uses palm sugar and palm jaggery.. she gave me a box of panakatkandu (palm sugar in the form of granules) and this with warm milk she said helps with cold and nasal congestion.. Nice to know about the origins of this wonderful ingredient. Lovely pictures too. Thanks Mathy, Jai and Bee!
Wow, great article and beautiful pictures!!! Learned some new facts about my favorite cuisine! Looks like Palmyrah tree is to Sri Lanka what Coconut tree is to Kerala.
Thanks for introducing a Sri Lankan blog, going to check out Virundhu now.
Wow!!! So many similarities. Someone once told me that Srilankan Tamil is a mixture of Malayalam and Tamil. I am not sure.
there was this tamil film “amudha” (the telugu version was ‘amrutha’, i think), with a sri lankan tamil storyline. their language has many malayalam words. - bee
nice article as usual..
a tamil film “amudha” ??..r u sure ..there was a mani ratnam movie based on a girl who was adopted from srilanka . the girls’ name in the movie was amudha . but the movie’s name was “kannathil muthamital” (madhavan,simran)..ok i’ll stop here..
sorry, that’s the one. i can’t handle tamil tongue twisters, so i named it ‘amudha’. - bee
u renamed A “mani ratnam” movie bcos u couldn’t pronounce!!
..what next you are going to rename a rajnikant movie!!!
aruvala iduthu vetungada;)
rajnikant who? - b.
The post is lovely the apples divine looking Mathy and B you are hilarious!
I’ve seen the movie too…I love the good south indian movie makers…bolywood sh….
I have a friend in Colombo and now I’m seriously considering her invitation.
In school I had done a project on Sri Lanka and their consulate in Mumbai helped me even though I was a little girl. I still have it with me.
I love their saree drape.
rajnikant who???? !!!! mammoty who , mohanlal who ? hmpf..
you’re right mammoty who? it’s MAMMOOTY. - b.
Everybody! thanks a lot for visiting and reading this postcard of mine.
Bee: Thanks for taking this initiative. Even though the wordcup seems to have fizzled out(as far as the sub-continent’s considered), lets hope the postcard series takes off. I have a small confession to make here. Even though I used to be an ardent fan of cricket while growing up, I’m totally turned off now. And it’s all because of the commercialism in the game, esp. in India. It all started with the scandel rel. to Azharuddhin.
If I’m totally turned off, one of my family members has become an ardent fan of the game. It took us years to convert her. There lies the irony. Me and my siblings used to be infront of the TV whenever India’s playing. [Note: We lived in India.] Be it a one-day game or a test-match. And kids in our apartment block would be popping in and out of each others houses sharing comments and snacks. Have you ever noticed that we would have a major game just when there’s an exam coming up?
Our mother would shout herself hoarse, trying to move us away from the TV.
As we grewup, we slowly setup converting her. We started her on the highlights of the match. The newspapers we subscribed to, The Hindu & Dinamani carried extra-ordinary articles on cricket (then). We caught onto the fact that she liked some players in the West-Indian team. So, we went around talking about west-indies.
One day, when India was playing against the WI, my mom and a neighbourhood kid got into an arguement. It was so hilarous seeing our mom defend patrick patterson. Her favourites included Curtly Ambrose and Malcom Marshall. She never saw Vivian Richards play. But then, we did not see Garfield Sobers play either. All we heard about Sobers was from my Dad, who had the good fortune to see him play. Ah. I forgot Courtney Walsh. He is my mom’s most favourite player. One day, I called her from USA, and talked to my sister for a few minutes. It’s before all these phone-cards and VOIP. I asked to talk to my mom, and my sister predicted that it would be difficult to prise her away from TV, as WI was playing. And she was correct. My mom snapped at my sister for disturbing her. And finally when she came on the phone, we talked only for a few minutes.
And she hasnt changed. She’s eagerly following this world cup too!
-Mathy
musical: thanks!
Coffee:
looking forward to your post.
roopa: thanks!
Asha: I’m a big fan of your blog. I was so very envious when I saw that tree infront of your house full of spring flowers. It’s raining now. Would be snowing later today and would continue onto to Tomorrow. JFI, I live in Montreal, Canada.
Latha: Oh! You are lucky! Yes, palm sugar is very good for cold and nasal congestion.
Sig: Thankyou for your kind words. I’m glad that you like Sri Lankan cuisine.
Sri Lankan cusine (both Sinhala and Tamil) use coconut extensively too. It’s part and parcel of our lives, exactly like for the Malayalees. Right from cooking with coconut oil to using upto 2 coconuts per day. Let me stop here. I’ll do a post on coconut soon..
Reena: There are a lot similarities between Keralalites and Sri Lankan Tamils. That’s one reason so many Sri Lankan flock to Kerala when they come to Tamilnadu to visit the temples.
There are so many words in common too. I’m unable to think of any words off the top of my head. So, here’s a link.
http://www.tamilnation.org/conferences/cnfUS91/pfaffenberger.htm
Will write more later.
Anjali: thanks!
Ranjani: Thanks!
Kannaththil muththamittaal is a good manirathnam movie. Esp. so compared to his latest Guru. I found it so difficult to even complete that one. I have so many complaints about KM too. There are so many factual errors. Had an arguement about them with Writer Sujatha who wrote the script and dialogues.
But, Manirathnam should return to what he does best. Baradwaj Rangan says is best. Link:
http://baradwajrangan.blogspot.com/2007/02/mani-ratnam-madras-male.html
And guys! I agree with Bee. Rajnikant who?
ok. ok. Peace!
-Mathy
grrrrrr…. why is my site asking me for my e-mail?
mathy, thanks for taking the time to respond to the comments. you did succeed in converting your cousin and your mom to cricket fans. congrats.
with my mom, i gave up. after 10 years of explaining the rules of cricket to her, when india was batting against the west indies, she would ask, “so gavaskar is batting? good. is that kapil dev bowling to him?”
thanx mathy for the mani ratnam blog. will pass it on to hubby ..he is a huge fan. i agree that his recent movies are not as good as mouna ragam, nayakan, agni nakshatram..
anyways time for me to shut up before bee kicks me out for totalling deviating from the topic.
any one who mentions rajnikant here will be kicked out. i promise. - b.
Mathy,
Thanks for this window into your world. I now have some more things to discuss with my Sri Lankan friend, Kumi. I am sending her a link to this post, I know she will love it and perhaps get home sick
Hey, is the palm jaggery the same as Thai palm sugar?
______________________________
Your mom sounds just like my mom where cricket is concerned. Sometimes I get a little embarassed (in a good way) at her behaviour, especially when the West Indies is not doing so well. After we lost to South Africa the other day, I decided not to call her - the pain must be unbearable.
It is so nice to read a post and hear names of people mentioned that I am familiar with: Curtly Ambrose, Garry Sobers, Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall (rest his soul)…
I hope that Sri Lanka wins this game. I would really like to see them in the finals. I must say that I do love the Bangladesh team - I love their fighting spirit. I’m off now to watch the end of the match.
Thanks Bee, Jai & Mathy.
Cynthia,
I too felt sad when WI lost to SA. CBC radio interviewed some travel agents from WI, and they had the tickets ready, to be used if WI won. Too bad.
WI is one of my favourite teams too. My most favourite team ever would be the West Indian Team during the late 80s. I used to devour any news about them. Malcom Marshall, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haines, Ian Bishop, Carl Hooper.
I’ve written this in my Tamil blog. I learnt English by reading cricket related articles.
And ‘The Windies’ helped me a lot. 
Thanks Cyncthia.
-Mathy
Oh wow! that is great Mathy - I mean you learning English by reading cricket related articles. I bow down to you my dear
[...] addition to cane jaggery, there is palm jaggery , and the most delectable of them all - (date jaggery). Jaggery is also produced from the sap of the [...]
[...] use tapioca starch or cornstarch and a thickening agent. Traditionally, the sweetener used is palm sugar. We used jaggery. This dish is only mildly [...]
thanks very much.
as i got some information regarding palm.
i need some more information.please do help.
i need plain palm leaves to rewrite old manuscripts.please help me in this matter.
regards,
gautam