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When The World Gives You...

When the world gives you lemons make lemonade. I’m sure most of you have heard that saying but let’s alter it a little bit…how about…When the world gives you batter make idli… This star of the breakfast table in India has traveled from South Asia to South India then all the way to space.

I would explain how this idli came to be but the origin of this delicacy is still a bit of a mystery.

K.T. Achaya, the food historian says that the modern idli might have originated in the region that is now Indonesia, which has had a long tradition of fermented food. According to Achaya, cooks employed by the Hindu kings of the local kingdom may have invented the steamed idli there, and brought the recipe to India during the period 800-1200 CE.

But Al-Azhar University Library in Cairo also suggests that Arab traders in the southern belt brought in the idli when they married and settled down in those parts.

Idli is also considered to be the healthiest food due to the unique method of preparation which enhances the bio-availability of the nutrients in urad dal and rice. So, The Defense Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) has developed ‘space idlis’ along with chutney powder and sambar powder for astronauts for India’s first manned space mission

Proving that though the debates on its origins might go on until we find its definite origin, one thing everyone can agree upon is that Idlis will be relished all over India as a hugely popular snack and as our star of the breakfast table best savored with sambar and tangy coconut chutney a for years to come.