Spicy With a touch of crunch

‘Vada master’ at Venkadesa Bhavan in west fort has got down to his specialty: karavada, or spicy dal fritters.

It is Thiruvananthapuram’s own traditional fried snacks. including rasa vada

At Balaji Cafe at Vazhappally Junction, karavada is a hot favourite in the mornings and evenings. “We havwe always served karavada.

At Potty’s Resturant at Thampanoor, the spicy snacks is even listed in its online delivery menu. Restaurant’s location close to the bustling transit point of Thampanoor, many travelers from outside the district often drop in to try out the ‘exotic’ snack. “Some have a go at karavada for the novelty factor. Sometimes, I explain to such customers what the snack is about. I jokingly tell them it’s parippu vada’s big brother,” says Suresh with a laugh.

Plucked from the sea

Did you know where the agar-agar in your favourite dessert comes from? The answer lies in Rameswaram, where we join women divers on their quest for seaweed collecting seaweed. Used for making agar-agar, the marikolundhuvariety is sought after, and the women of Rameswaram go to great lengths to collect a sackful, which will probably end up in a bowl of payasam hundreds of kilometres away. Agar-agar or kadal paasi, as it is known in Tamil, is ironically not part of the local cuisine. “I rarely use it; it’s too expensive,” says Devi, removing her gloves. “But when I do get a packet, I make halwa with coconut milk as the base. It’s delicious.”  A kilogram of dried seaweed fetches them Rs 50. “We give it to the dealer in Chinnapalam,”

Tender coconut pudding with agar-agar (OPOS technique)

Ingredients

7 grams Agar-agar strands

1 cup Tender coconut water

1/2 cup Condensed milk

1 cup Thick milk

1/4 cup Fresh cream

1/2 cup Tender coconut flesh

Method

In a two-litre cooker, layer soaked and drained agar-agar strands, tender coconut water and close. Cook on high for two whistles for three minutes. Release pressure, and open. Add the condensed milk, milk, fresh cream, tender coconut flesh and mix. Pour into a mould and allow to set in room temperature. Serve chilled.

Recipe and photo: Tazin Faiz, co-author of e-book Non-Veg Delicacies: OPOS Cookbook

Complete your coverage by medical insurance

Q. I am a Central government employee aged 56 years. I am planning to take health insurance. Please suggest a suitable health insurance policy and the premium to be paid monthly. I am prepared to pay ₹1,000 every month towards such insurance.

A. Central government employees have the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) that bears certain defined medical expenses, mostly in government health care facilities and to a certain extent, at private sector facilities.

If you buy a separate health insurance policy you can claim under it in case of hospitalisation in a non-CGHS facility. For expenses over and above what the policy covers, you can approach CGHS. After your retirement, too, you can maintain your CGHS cover by making the requisite payments for coverage.

A basic hospitalisation policy to suit your budget premium would bring you a coverage of only ₹3 lakh or less, depending on your health status. You may be better off with a top-up or super top-up policy with a threshold designed to suit the limits of your CGHS entitlement level and this policy would cost relatively less by way of premium.

You can check various permutations and combinations for coverage, threshold and premium on insurance company websites which usually have a premium calculator.

Insurance for your family should also be a factor of the extent of CGHS coverage available to them.

If they are not sufficiently covered, then please take a basic hospitalisation policy for them, or else, top-up/ super top-up policies would work better. In the basic policy, you can opt for a floater cover where the premium would be less than individual covers, as the same SI is shared by all the insured.

Charitable hospital offers dialysis for Rs 600

In first phase, a 6-bed facility starts operations at Sulaiha Hassan Dialysis Centre

Murthuzaviya Charitable Hospital, popularly called “the 15 rupees hospital” in the north Chennai neighbourhood of Kodungaiyur, on Saturday launched a dialysis centre for the poor. In the first phase, a six-bed facility for dialysis has started operations in the Sulaiha Hassan Dialysis Centre on the premises of the charitable hospital.

Launching the facility, former Madras High Court Justice K.N. Basha said the dialysis centre would offer services to poor patients who cannot afford huge sums of money for dialysis. “Kidney failure is one of the deadliest conditions. We have to motivate people who donate money for such charitable facilities,” he said.

Presiding over the inaugural event, former Madras High Court Justice G.M. Akber Ali said: “Healthcare is a basic need of the people. But millions of people continue to be denied tertiary healthcare. People who donate money for providing affordable healthcare have to be commended for their initiative.”

Chief Medical Officer S.S.M. Khadri said the launch of the centre was a red-letter day for the charitable hospital.

Murthuzaviya Charitable Hospital president G.S.M.P. Khadri said the centre would offer dialysis services for ₹600. “The new dialysis centre will have six machines. Renal failure is becoming very common in the neighbourhood. Use of painkillers is one of the causes,” Dr. Khadri said.

He said the hospital now charges ₹15 from out-patients. Multispecialty services are offered at ₹50.

Free Gita Classes by ISKCON Chennai

ISKCON Chennai, will conduct Bhagavad Gita classes at Ashok Nagar and Abhiramapuram, on August 3 and 7. For details call 9791161439 (Ashok nagar) and 9840034498 (Abhiramapuram).

deaf training centre in Santhome

talented men from around the State have found a home and opportunity at Training Centre for the Adult Deaf in Santhome

The group of men and women at the Training Centre for the Adult Deaf in Santhome has broken into a flurry of signs and urgent motioning. You can sense that inside jokes are being cracked. This is in response to the question, “Who is the best cook here?” and no one believes he/she deserves the title.

The centre is home to 10 men, between the ages of 18 and 25, from cities such as Salem, Erode, Coimbatore and Tirupur.

“We have come here because this city can give us a platform to show our talents,” signs Manikandan, a 20-year-old from Thirupur, who’s been here for the past one year. The centre’s PRO, Chitra Devi, acts as our translator for the day. She also acts as a guardian for the four women students of the centre, and stays with them at a rented house nearby.

The men and women here are trained in different areas such as computer operations (data entry), sports including chess, badminton, and athletics, designing and graphics, and on the weekends, photography and dance, by volunteers. However its USP: the two-year fitter course for the deaf and dumb, is the one that gets the maximum placements.

 Training Centre for the Adult Deaf can be reached at 24641035.

Hot appams at nameless stall of Royapettah

The stall is seen only during the morning rush hour serves where many stop by to grab a quick breakfast on their way to work. 

The familiar aroma of appam and coconut milk hits the busy Venkatachalam Street in Royapettah every morning around 7 am.  cloud-white appams on an iron wok, Muniyamma Vishwanathan, who started the stall 35 years ago, walks in with the air of a supervisor, yelling out orders to the kitchen where Vatsalam and Vanitha — her daughter and daughter-in-law — stand. Pointing to Muniyamma, Vatsalam says, “My mother started this business. I remember tagging along, ever since I was 10 years old. Back then, we used to sell four idlis for ₹1.”

Owing to health issues, Muniyamma stopped the business a few years back, and her family took over — but she is still involved in it. They also had a brief hiatus when the apartment behind the stall was being constructed, into which they moved in eventually. Now, specific roles have been assigned to the family members — while Vanitha cooks from their home kitchen upstairs, Vatsalam and others make hot appams in the temporary facility as Karpagam takes orders and serves the customers.

Many customers carry parcels to work, says Vatsalam. Others — mostly employees at nearby offices — drop in for a quick breakfast. Regular customers also get the luxury of telling them how they want the dishes done. “If people want their eggs half boiled, scrambled or otherwise, we get it done. Some of them also ask for mutta dosa which we prepare according to requirement,” she explains. Other dishes served are: vadacurry (with appam), kurma, dosa, idli, chutney, sambar, omelettes and other egg items.

The stall serves, until 11.30 am — “sometimes it goes on till noon even,” Vatsalam says, as she serves more appams to the “bhaiyya.”
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The Dahlia City’s  oldest Japanese restaurant, catering to chennai’s many asian expartriates

Dahlia is at 37, Kaveri Comlex, 96, Nungambakkam High Road. Call 9840059852