“The white barrel had hot steam coming out all around!
With delicate precision, coconut flakes over it was found!
The brown hot river had stones of pulse!
Eating that hot Puttu was his first impulse!”
After a long time, I had Puttu today and it was really bad! Hard and thick and hardly any coconut in between and to top it off, the Kadala Curry was thick and had no flavor and the banana was raw and sour! Of course I had no mood to eat but then that is an independent matter altogether!
Practically though Puttu has no actual taste of its own! I can literally see my Keralite friends folding their Mundu getting ready to kick me!
Now since anyway the Mundu is folded, I can tell you that the favorite breakfast of my dear Mallu friends is not from Kerala!
Keep your Mundu on and read on!
Now I have never been a fan of the Puttu and if given a choice between two tasteless breakfast main that is Puttu or Idli; I would unhesitatingly select Idli! You can simply eat the Idli with the Chutney powder or if it too hard or cold you can always make a good Idli Uppuma which actually tastes really good!
Now by their own both Puttu and Idli do not have much taste unless the Idli is made by my mother and her trick was that she always used the cloth to place the MAVU or flour! Those Idlis used to be so soft and hot that you can hold one end and the other end would break! My dad used to say how they must be like Malli poo or Jasmine flowers! So soft and delicate! Though the real taste of Idli is the samabar or the chutney! or even the spicy chutney powder with Ghee or Til oil! Like me, my mother did not have much inclination to make or eat Puttu! It could also be the fact that for five odd years in Calicut Medical college, the only respite for a vegetarian for breakfast was the Humble Puttu! Since the Idli could literally break my jaw!
Similarly like the Idli, the side dishes like the Hot Kadala Curry or the cheruvar payar curry or the roast bananas are the ones which give taste to the Puttu!
Again exception is the Puttu made by my brother Rakesh who used to make his famous brown and white puttu as part of the Puttu festival whenever he used to come home! In fact whenever I get or rarely make Puttu, my kids exclaim, “Oh! The doddu (a short form of dodappa or periappa which means the elder brother of the father or Tauji!) breakfast! During those times of course the special side dishes are again important but still my brother’s Puttu were so tempting and hot that you can eat at least some early bites without anything! Till your whole throat becomes dry and craving for some fluid!
The Special twist which I used to do in the Kadala curry is to roast some shallots and grind and put them in the gravy with some coconut milk! Also like my mother I used to make the Banana as morabba in Jaggery! We get this special Nendra banana which I used to cut in small pieces along with the skin and heat them along with jaggery and a little cardaomom! It is better since it’s more fluid than the dry Puttu! Also my brother puts a little sugar and salt in the dough along with a liberal dose of coconut gratings! The way he comes loaded with his multple Puttu instruments would put a Thatta kada (cart shop in Kerala) owner to shame! Then it could also be the fact that he serves it piping hot and we all would be eagerly waiting for him to push the Puttu on our plates! Since the day he makes Puttu which is usually for dinner, we would not make anything else! So all the hungry and eager faces would stare at him for his precious hot delight! The bloating sensation and the fullness the next day and the deep sleep may not be a coincidence!
So finally coming to the origin of Puttu since the Mallu friend with the folded Mundu is feeling cold! It has been said that the puttu was first made in Tamil Nadu. Today, puttu is also made apart from Kerala in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Sri Lanka! Even as far as the Assam there is a similar dish called Sungapitha!
The origin of the story is that puttu was mentioned in the 15th-century Tamil poet Arunagirinathar’s book ‘Thirupugazh’! But during the time there was no mention of Puttu in any Malayalam book!
There is an interesting snippet about puttu in Thiruvilayadal Puranam written by Param lyotthi Munivaran in the 16th century. The Thiruvilayadal Puranam narrates the story of Sivaperumal of the famous temple in Madurai. Once, Lord Ganesha, in disguise, approached an old lady who was selling puttu on the way side and offered to help her. However, the old lady replied that she didn’t have money to pay him any remuneration. Lord Ganesh then told the lady that he would accept the crumbled bits of puttu as his remuneration. The legend says that the entire puttu made by the old lady, that day, was crumbled. Even today, crumbled puttu is presented as and offering for the idol of Lord Ganesha in Madurai!
Now my dear Mallu friends, do not fret! Puttu record is by Kerala only! So a world record has been created for the longest puttu ever made!
Twelve final year students of Oriental School of Hotel Management, set the World Record by making the World’s Longest Puttu which was around 18 feet! Now that is a great reason for the mallu dance! And thinking how the recent malayalam movie has stirred up a craze for an old Tamil song sung by Birthday Celebrity S Janaki; It means that if it is good then Mallus or Keralites will take it!
Now if you are planning for the Puttu tomorrow then do not forget to soak some chickpeas overnight!
Shubh Ratri!
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