Come February, there is always a flower show at Cochin. This event is a commercial ventures, who ever organises this sells stalls to anyone and every one, real estate guys being highly visible. At the smaller end, there are halwa vendors from Calicut selling halwa at 160 Rupees a kilo.
The word halwa is Arabic for sweet. Calicut had an Arab connection much before Vasco da Gama landed there, bang, halwa became a local product. My Arab Friend Khalfan al Kitani says, the jaggery flavoured halwa is just like the halwa made in Zanzibar, where Arabs had similar trade relations.
One plant many names, when I saw Vinky or Periwinkle, that is what I was reminded of. One section exhibitted this plant and labelled it, Vishnunarayani, name of gods in Malayalam, yet in another section the same plant was labelled Shavakotatta-poo, which means cemetery flower.
My friend whose family is traditionally employed as priests, told me that periwinkle is known by the name, nithyakalayani, becasue it opens a flower everyday, the plant blooms in a continuous cycle.
A magazine called Shell World once published the photograph of periwinkle and mentioned that the plant is medicinal, extracts of leaves used as anti cancer drugs.
Malaysian pandan plant is found in the exhibits, so, people have brought them here, and it has become poplular. Pandan leaves are sold in singapore, 20 singapore cents for 100 grams, - this leaf is used to flavour dishes, it is said that, leaves would make cooked rice fragrant.
One needs to test pandan leaves to check if rice pulavu will smell and taste better.
Monday, February 23, 2009
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