Jayaram eats all but prefers veg
- Pradeep M. Nair
Story Dated: Friday, May 16, 2008 15:32 hrs IST
What makes Jayaram likable to family audiences in his image as a man from the countryside. His tastes in food are those of villagers. He in fond of nice gruel and green gram, and ‘puttu’ and ‘kadala’. But he is not averse to other cuisine. He enjoys continental food when he is abroad. Once he was in Perth, Scotland with his family. All they were served was half cooked turkey and beef. Mind you, there were highly priced items there. Jayaram’s children had to go without food on the second day, but he had no problems because he could eat anything.
The Jayarams don’t use nonvegetaraian food at home. They go out to eat non veg. “We eat in all kinds of places, from top star hotels in the city to the newly opened roadside eateries. In the latter (‘thattukada’), we usually take ‘kothuporotta’, says Jayaram.Of course, his preference is always for vegetarian food. That is the way he was brought up. The family had two ‘sarpakavu’s, (temple like woods) places where snakes lived and were fed. They used to have sweets and ‘payasam’ almost everyday. This gave him a sweet tooth. Of, Payasams, he prefers ‘palpayasam’, to ‘adaprathaman.’Commenting on Parvathi’s cooking, Jayaram said she tries recipes from Mrs. K.M.Mathew’s cooking books.
At times, she makes some mistakes with the quantity of spices used, but he and children would always congratulate her and her experiments and enjoy eating the food prepares. As for him, he is not a good cook through he can make chapathi and ‘upuma’. He hasn’t tried his hands with complicated items like aviyal.
