Latest news with #beckon
The Hindu
3 days ago
- The Hindu
How Chettinad's cuisine holds the secrets of its mercantile people. We find out on a food trail
The sweet smell of marigolds mixed with the still humidity of a Tamil Nadu afternoon linger in the air. We are in a palatial Chettinad mansion, one of many that we will visit in the coming few days. The tiles are a work of beauty, the Burmese teak pillars stand imposingly tall, and the aromas from the kitchen beckon. I am in the historic region of Chettinad on a food trail called Suvai, organised by The Lotus Palace Chettinad. Over this weekend, I try all the food that the region has to offer and learn more about the Chettiar community. Last year, the Park hotels restored one of the oldest mansions in the region and launched the Lotus Palace Chettinad. Located near Karaikudi, the hotel joins hands with other properties in the area for Suvai, a three-day festival celebrating the cuisine of Chettinad. Iconic properties such as The Bangala, Visalam, Chidambara Vilas, and Chettinad Mansion, are also part of the festival. So, I pack my bags and catch a flight to Trichy, to immerse myself in the region's rich history. Who are the Chettiars? Day one of the festival kicks off with a welcome dinner at The Lotus Palace by Priya Paul, the chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd. I am staying at Visalam, an art-Deco style CGH Earth hotel, a few minutes away. The dinner is curated by chefs Niyati Rao from Ekaa, Mumbai, and Ashutosh Nerlekar from The Park, Chennai, and is a mix of traditional and modern. Think almond soup with gundu milagai chillies, and lamb brain venpongal. With my drink in my hand, I join Kathiravan Karunanithi, the hotel's manager, on a tour of the property and a riveting history lesson. 'Chetty' is derived from the Sanskrit word sreshta, the same root for words like seth. They are a wealthy merchant class from Tamil Nadu. Legends say they originally lived near the coast in Kaveri Poompatinam and a tsunami drove them inland. They settled in villages in the Pudukottai district. Since they were maritime traders from the eighth century, they travelled far and wide. Their homes and kitchens bear testament to that; enamel and lacquer ware, antique wooden furniture, dry preserved foods like vatthals and dried meat, and of course, the spices. They even brought back the 'forbidden' black rice from East Asia and use it to make payasam. Between wedding feasts and street snacks After a breakfast of steamed rice kozhukattai and dosa, we are off to explore the town. The first stop is Soundaram snacks. I feel like Charlie in the chocolate factory, except it is heaps of murukus instead of trees of candy. A family-run and women-led business, Soundaram makes authentic coconut oil and rice flour snacks. After the tour and watching the women hand-make the murukus and seedais, I buy a bagful to take it back to Bengaluru with me. Lunch is at The Bangala, a property run by the 92-year-old Meenakshi Meyyappan. After a cooking demonstration using local spices, we sit down for a wedding-style feast. Banana leaf prepped, I watch in awe as the servers pile on dish after dish. Chettinad food may have a reputation of being spicy, but here I find it balanced and ingredient-focussed. To name a few, I have — banana flower ketti kuzhambu, mutton uppi kari, chicken pepper masala, peanut capsicum mandi and badam halwa. To get our appetites ready for the evening, we take an afternoon walk in the antique market of Karaikudi. Here you can find cast iron vessels, enamelware crockery and kitchen tools, that was all collected as dowry for the women in the community. Before dinner we stop at Chettinadu Mansion for high tea. The hotel has snacks such as black rice upma, sweet and savoury kozhukattai, paniyaram, and even a spicy and garlicy rose petal chutney. Tales from the kitchen The evening begins with an illuminating session between historian V Sriram and author Meyyammai Murugappan. Meyyammai wrote The Chettinad Cookbook, with her sister Visalakshi Ramaswamy. In the conversation she shares anecdotes about growing up near her grandmother's house, which was just across the lane, and how her grandmother cooked for her. After she got married, Meyyammai went to Malaysia and slowly learnt to cook there. Through the talk I learn how frugal, yet hospitable the community is. While the men travelled, the women ran the house. Saving and storing food is a large part of their culture; it would be trumpeted today as sustainability. We round off the day with a tiffin style dinner at Chidambara Vilas, an 118-year-old home that is now a luxury hotel. I go to bed thinking to myself there is no such thing as too much kozhukattai. From Burma with love The farewell lunch takes place the next day at Visalam. The house was built a century ago by KVAL Ramanathan Chettiar for his eldest daughter, Visalakshi. This lunch is inspired by Burmese flavours, reflecting the Chettiars' frequent travels to the region. We have a mildly spiced khao sway, bein mont (a sweet Burmese pancake) and peru soru, also called King's one pot mutton meal. Chettinad is its own pocket of culture, history and heritage in the middle of an arid landscape. Its stories, architecture, cuisine food, and enterprising people make it unique and a must-visit for lovers of history and food. The writer was in Chettinad at the invitation of The Lotus Palace Chettinad
Time of India
5 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
IND vs ENG: The transition is over! Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir deliver a powerful statement at The Oval
London: Once all the media formalities were completed, the Indian team whizzed out of the Oval fast on Monday afternoon. They reached the team hotel and had a short customary celebration before dispersing. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now If one went out for a stroll in the evening on the stretch from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus, one could have casually bumped into a few members of the Indian team. Prasidh Krishna was there with his family. Kuldeep Yadav hopped stores with former India leg-spinner Piyush Chawla. Arshdeep Singh too had his family with him. Head coach checked out of the team hotel by evening. Captain had his friends and family over to celebrate a memorable tour that has placed him at the centre of 's power centre. The coach-captain duo has come out of their first assignment with flying colours, having drawn the five-Test series, including the dramatic six-run win in the fifth Test on Monday. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Bigger milestones now beckon. Before this tour, there had been discussions around the future of the coach-captain combination. Having settled all the doubts, now it's time for the two to set concrete plans for the future. Poll Do you believe Shubman Gill is the right captain for the Indian cricket team moving forward? Yes, absolutely No, he needs more experience Undecided Gill landed in England with an Indian team in the first week of June with questions being raised about his inexperience. Now he deserves to go off the constant high-performance routine of an India cricketer for a few days. Meanwhile, Gambhir's tenure as India's head coach has revolved around his strong people-over-individuals philosophy. He is also a coach who came into the Indian dressing room to wipe out the superstar culture. IND vs ENG: Mohammed Siraj reflects on memorable win at The Oval Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin retired from Test cricket before the selectors could get down to planning for the English summer. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Jasprit Bumrah, the biggest name after Kohli and Rohit, declared he was available for only three of the five Tests. India boarded the flight from Mumbai to London after a disastrous first six months in Test cricket under Gambhir. The ICC Champions Trophy triumph in March aside, Gambhir knew he had to deliver. Not that there was any immediate threat to his position, but a drubbing with a fresh team here would have been detrimental to his reputation. The first thing he did was to instill enough conviction in Gill and the team. 'Before the start of the series, Gauti bhai (Gambhir) said that we are a young team, but we don't want to be looked at as a young team. We want to be looked at as a gun team'. The way we played today showed why we are a gun team,' Gill said. This has also been Gambhir's line of thinking. After India pulled off a draw in the fourth Test in Manchester, having trailed almost throughout the match, a typically combative Gambhir decided to front up to the media. 'I don't like to call this a team in transition. I will say they are inexperienced,' he had said. There is this unmistakable aversion to the word 'transition'. 'Even if there was no transition or if we had the old players, everything would have looked good if batters and bowlers performed,' Gill said. Then he went on to highlight his batting lineup's stellar performance in the series. 'Almost every batter in the series has performed. They have scored hundreds. They have scored runs in crucial and crunch situations,' he mentioned, offering enough hints that this team management had moved on long before the world could. Gill's confidence in his batting lineup is backed up by numbers. Gill himself scored 754 runs while KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja finished with more than 500 runs. Rishabh Pant scored 479 runs in the seven innings he batted before suffering a broken foot. Yashasvi Jaiswal finished with 412 runs. On the topic of transition or inexperience, Gill has been bullish about the potential of his team. He believed the scoreline before the fifth Test wasn't a true reflection of the cricket India have played. He maintained that even after the win on Monday. For him, even if India had lost the last Test, the scoreline wouldn't have been a fair one. The plans will be taking shape soon. There is a certain assertion in Gill's speech now which suggests he is a man who is firmly in charge. He is already looking ahead. Handling Bumrah That India managed to win two Tests on the tour without Bumrah playing must have settled a lot of nerves. TOI understands that Bumrah will either play an entire Test series or sit out of it in future. So, it could come down to picking either the two-Test series against West Indies at home in Oct before South Africa come in Dec for another two Tests. India don't have another five-Test series in two years. With the team expected to play on spin-friendly pitches in India, there won't be much load on the pacers. The selectors and Bumrah can comfortably plan his availability for white-ball tournaments like the T20 World Cup at home in Feb-March next year. ODI leadership shakeup With Gill and Gambhir striking a cord, there could be a temptation to revisit the ODI leadership group going forward. Gill is already the designated vice-captain in the ODI format. His consistency with the bat makes him indispensable. With incumbent Rohit Sharma not being a certainty for the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, there are murmurs in the board that if a new captain had to take charge, he should get a fair time to shape the ODI team according to his philosophies. India don't play much ODI cricket in the build-up to the 2027 World Cup.
The South African
27-05-2025
- Sport
- The South African
Kaizer Chiefs top target confirms talks with Nasreddine Nabi!
After yet another underwhelming season came to an end for Kaizer Chiefs, more hard work seems to beckon. Chiefs finished outside of the top eight and miss out on next season's MTN8 title for a second consecutive season. The club were able to finally end their 10-year trophy drought by winning the Nedbank Cup this season. That, however, came on the back of a terrible league campaign were they struggled for consistency. Coach Nasreddine Nabi had been very vocal about a lack of quality in his squad from start to finish. Upon the conclusion of Chiefs' final game of the season, a 0-0 draw against Polokwane City, he spoke up again, Nabi insisted that Chiefs are amongst the biggest opportunity creators in the league. He also believes that with a striker, they would've been much higher on the log. The one striker he signed in January was Tashreeq Morris. He took him off before half-time in that game, a sign that he isn't quite the solution. The Tunisian was honest, however, saying that the lanky striker was seen as a player to push an incoming top striker. It has been no secret that the striker Nabi wants is his former player at Yanga SC in Fiston Mayele. The DRC international striker recently opened up about talks with the Chiefs coach ahead of the next transfer window. 'Yes, it's true (Chiefs rumours). The coach Nabi was in contact with me in December. But this is not the right moment to talk about it. I am focused on the final (CAF Champions League) .'I want to stay focused on the final and finish the season, then I can talk, but at the moment, this is not the priority for now', Mayele told ahead of their first leg 1-1 draw against Mamelodi Sundowns. Chiefs fans, with CAF Confederation Cup Football on the agenda next season, how desperate are you to sign Mayele? Let us know by clicking on the comment tab. Or by emailing info@ or sending a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. You can also follow @TheSAnews on X and The South African on Facebook for the latest news.
