25 Apr 2023
Lakshmi, the South Indian cooking instructor, invited me into her nearby home where she proceeded to introduce me to her family and offer me a cup of freshly-brewed ginger Massala tea. She then explained the dishes we would make including sambar, idli, dosa, coconut chutney, and sweet rice noodles. She patiently demonstrated techniques like how to open a coconut, something she says she does everyday and something I have never done in my life. After all the dishes had been prepared, she arranged everything beautifully on a banana leaf for me to eat.
My adult daughter had originally intended to take the class with me, but then was feeling under the weather and didn’t come. Lakshmi kindly packed a dinner for my daughter in tiny metal pots. She then offered to run me back to my hotel. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but I soon found out when she popped open the seat of her motorcycle and loaded the dishes in. She jumped on herself beckoning me to sit behind her and off we went with the wind in our hair back to my hotel.
All told, a wonderful experience! Highly recommend if you want to take a tiny peek into local South Indian culture with someone who loves her job and is really good at it.