Lunch On The Go
A vegetarian lunch palette in a Kerala roadside restaurant:
the fast-food equivalent of traditional sadya cooking.
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Picture taken in a roadside restaurant, travelling between Cochin and Kottayam.
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Neither Use Nor Ornament 
That looks like the Thali that we get locally, a lot of variety but not too much food. I don’t think I could ever master using my hand to eat rice and sauce.
June 6, 2012 at 10:57 pm
In fact there’s far more food than is apparent: unless carefully watched, waiters keep replenishing the rice throughout your meal!
Although very tasty, I now find this typical Kerala lunch too heavy for midday.
Over the last few years I have leant how to eat curry without cutlery. When travelling, there is often no alternative. The art is to work the rice into a small ball before lifting it to your mouth – but I still struggle with very liquid dahls!
June 7, 2012 at 8:05 am
It resembles an artist’s palette … I’m wondering what the hot pink sauce consists of.
June 7, 2012 at 9:43 am
Yes, it always strikes me how the plate looks as though it’s been taken straight from an artist’s hand.
The pink-coloured dish is made from a beetroot base. Like many of the root vegetables introduced during British rule, having been spiced up, it is now a staple of the Indian diet
June 7, 2012 at 10:10 am
I remember many years ago Maddhur Jaffrey saying that artificial colouring is used liberally in Indian food, which I found a bit off-putting so I’m glad to see that the pink one is beetroot based. We still use her book for all our curries.
June 7, 2012 at 12:53 pm
I’m not aware of Dalila using any food colourants: it just seems to come from the spices and vegetables she is cooking.
June 7, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Locally the Tarka Dahl is like thin soup, not as I like it normally.
June 7, 2012 at 11:50 pm
Thin runny dahl is extremely difficult to negotiate without cutlery!
June 8, 2012 at 9:25 am
Could one lower one’s face into the dish and slurp?
June 10, 2012 at 1:05 am
One could, but one would lose all respect from the locals!
June 10, 2012 at 9:47 am