When chartered accountant Shri Bala travelled across the country to audit companies, she took back some lesser known recipes of south India with her. “In Visakhapatnam, I discovered a sambar made with pumpkin skin and in the Malabar region of Kerala, drumsticks and raw mango make a flavoursome fish curry. In deep south of Tamil Nadu, the highlight of a runny mutton kozhumbu is raddish and drum stick,” she shares. The fascination to discover food has taken her to interior places and every time, she returned with tales and flavours of the past.
Now, the food historian is coming to Hyderabad to curate a dynasty meal with ingredients used during Chola, Vijayanagara, Kakatiya and the British Raj. She promises a one of a experience for the diners. “We are going to take them to that era by recreating recipes based on the ingredients and vegetables available during that period. This is based on the inscriptions. I have created them assuming this is how it would have been cooked,” she shares.
Black pepper, one of the main ingredients available during that time will be the main spice factor in the dishes (sans any green or red chillies). Pitili (a special tamarind) gives the pungent taste and is a little bitter and sour. “There is an overlap of ingredients used in the dynasties,” she points out. “Cholas and Kakatiyas used millets in their kingdoms. However, Cholas used seafood more as they had a huge port and their food influences are from the south eastern countries like Indonesia. There is also a theory that idli was brought to India by Cholas from Indonesia as we didn’t have the concept of fermentation and steaming.”
While Cholas or Kakatiyas didn’t have any wheat in their food, wheat and rawa (semolina) was used during Vijayanagara period. “There is also a mention of processed milk which could be similar to cottage cheese (paneer) that was used in other form back then.” While she followed the inscriptions used on temple walls to understand the food influences of Cholas, she read Supa Shastra , a vegetarian book by MangarasaIII who used ginger and garlic in the dishes. “There are no weights and measures mentioned for the British Raj recipes. The recipes are written in a colloquial way assuming that we know how many kilograms or grams to be used.”
Shri Bala says she’s often referred as someone ‘who cooks the books and books the food’. She’s a law graduate and company secretary too. She’s also working towards getting a Phd in ancient food. She worked as a chief financial officer of a law firm till 2016. Now, she is a consultant to the firm and is more devoted to research in food and ancient recipes.
Although she never attended a culinary college, she is a passionate home cook who got into the food accidentally. She is more interested in research and curates thematic food festivals in five star hotels and teaches ancient and contemporary recipes in colleges. “We lift the curtain on food and go deep into its history. People want to explore and savour this research-based home style food. They don’t want to eat dishes loaded with garam masala and enjoy the simple ghar ka khana and also love to hear the story behind it.”
When she began the process to research food, she didn’t know where to start. “There is no book for such cuisine and one has to read the history and culture of that particular dynasty. Initially, it was aimless,” she admits. Although she was fascinated and was reading about Cholas, a visit to the government college of Arts in Chennai brought direction to her research. “The head of the history department told me to read Sangam literature which is filled with poems majorly in Tamil and some in Kannada and Telugu. Sangam connects all the three dynasties of Pandyas Cholas and Chera. The poet in the literature describes the kind of food served to a guest visiting the kingdom, including the method of cooking. It is easy but also tough.”
At 5’7’, Shri Bala is also an athlete and plays different sports. While she enjoys cooking, she is diet conscious (“I am a bad eater”) and prefers ‘unromantic food — boiled vegetables, dal and very little of millets.’ In future, she hopes to explore the food of Pallavas and Satavahanas.
