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INKUMARAKOM,
a sleepy backwater town sur-
rounded by mangrove forests in Kerala, India,
ShajiMalappuramarrives bearing a largemetal
urn in the crook of his arm. A heavy, caramel-
like odor wa s out. “This is the real thing,” he
says cryptically, “made special by my family.”
He waxes rhapsodic about its preparation:
heating
ghee
(clarified bu er) in a pan; break-
ing cashews into small pieces and frying them;
adding coconut milk, rice and cardamom; and
le ing themixture boil and gradually thicken.
“It’s a ritual,” he says, and with that, he hands
over the container and departs, too nervous to
bear witness to its reception.
In most parts of the world, a container
received in this fashion would hold a home-
brewed alcohol ic beverage—Kentucky
moonshine or Costa Rican
guaro
or Finnish
kilju
. Making friends over secret family hooch
recipes is the kind of thing that’s been going
on for ages. But not in Kerala, a lush, predomi-
nantly rural state running along the Malabar
Coast of southwest India. Here, alcohol is
widely considered disreputable, so locals have
turned to a rice pudding–style dessert known
as
payasam
for their social lubrication
.
Usu-
ally it comes at the end of a working man’s
Of Rice
andMen
While elsewhere bonds may form
over a beer, in this Indian region
friends are o enmade by way
of … pudding
BY ANISHMAJUMDAR
KERALA, INDIA
SUGAR AND SPICE
AND EVERYTHING
NICE
Coconut
payasam
topped
with saffron threads
and chopped green
pistachios
34
APRIL 2012
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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FOOD&DRINK