Pancakes from Kerala ….

Make those sweet coconut filling pancakes for breakfast tomorrow – That was Anil request for breakfast .. I was little surprised as usually I don’t get such request from Anil and also in past he avoided this specific (coconut filling) pancake sighting that it is very sweet and probably not a very quick item to cook for a breakfast (which actually is not so, it can be made less sweet and is pretty quick to make) So we had pancakes for breakfast , surprisingly Esther asked for more , and so did Ezekiel and Anil came early to have breakfast to have garam garam pancakes ….. hmmmm I thought , no matter how many generation pass by, some simple joys in life remain same …..and the flashback ..

My first few memories of the so called ‘Pancake’ is of the vacation time at Kerala during my childhood … anytime we visited our Chotti Daadi ji  whom we called ‘Urmis Ammama’ at Vappalassery a small village 3-4 kms from Angamaly , she would treat us with these sweet ‘Appam’ my brother and I would freak out on those, so soft, light , simple, sweet and she would assure us that its ok to finish and she can make more without much trouble or time…. This would have been 28-25 yrs back, our visits to Kerala usually used to happen once in 2-3 years , and in 90s when I came down to Kerala for schooling, did not think much about visiting Urmis ammama or the ‘Madaks/Pancake’…

8-10 years fast-forward in Bangalore had my own kitchen and I had no idea how the Coconut filled Pancakes were made this was at time when there was not much Google at home :) , what I knew was typical English pancake the thick one , and then one day I just tried making the Coconut pancake – made fluidy pancake batter made thin dosa like pancakes and grated some coconut mixed with sugar placed at the center and folded the pancake …. one bite and ‘yaad aa gaya mujko guzaraa zamanaa’. Realized there are some tastes in your life no matter what,but you cannot forget, like the memories associated with these tastes …. and till today I think of Urmis Ammama whenever I make these  pancakes .Today I also came to know that these pancakes are known as Madakku San or Mutta Kuzhalappam – thanks to Google !! :)  

Same way there are lot of memories tagged with ‘Avalose Unda’ and vacation ….. some other day ! :)