The Manic Underground Looks At Rice Pullers.

We are going to be seeking, to explore alternative forms (of lifestyle or) of artistic expression; radical and experimental.

C​orvid-19 is still very much with us. But the curfew isn't, so the Curfew Cuisine Diaries are dead. We've got a lot happening at this end on the political front, but that's not what this space is about. This space is about fooooooood! There's so much we can do here - the main one being bringing people and cultures together proving we are all the same. We are all human. Nothing else matters. Too Heavy? Probably. Sorry.

On to tastier things. Rice pullers,

C​an you spot the rice pullers? There are two of them here. The Papadums and the Pickle.

C​an you spot the rice pullers? There are two of them here. The Papadums and the Pickle.

T​he rice puller has one job and one job only. To get you to eat more. It could be rice, it could be naan, it could be any other bread. The rice pullers job is to be, in todays marketing world, a disrupter. Good rice pullers do this with consummate ease. But before we look at rice pullers in detail, I've got to put them in context.

O​ver here in Sri Lanka, we eat a lot of rice. A lot of bread. A lot of Hoppers. A lot of Puttu. A lot of Dhosai. A lot of .... well you get the idea. We eat these "bases" with multiple vegetable dishes, and a meat dish (chicken or fish are common, beef, mutton and pork are less common ) and a "mallung" (or two) which is a leaf-based dish, uncooked (a hat tip to The Fat Free Vegan Kitchen for this - blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/08/kale-mallung-sri-lankan-kale-with-coconut.html - this ​is just one of the many mallungs we have over here).

The concept of the rice puller is to add a dash of 'colour' to the meal.

P​ickles and Chutneys are perennial rice pullers. Over here (as opposed to our sub-continental neighbour) our chutneys tend to be cooked, sweet and made with everything from mangos to tomatoes to guava to pineapple to date and lime to amberella (June Plum - I had to google that!). Our pickles are (like most) anything soaked in vinegar and sugar.

S​o imagine this; a plate of rice and a whole lot of veg (fried and white curries) a mallung or two and a really hot curry or two. Now imagine adding something really salty, really sweet or really umami (like a blachang - that's what we call it here, but its called belachan in Malaysia) or crispy (papadums spring to mind here) or sour (like a Malay pickle) or even a Bratwurst - anything that would disrupt whatever you've served onto your plate. That would be a Rice Puller. And life would be boring without them.

I know that HOW people eat in the west is different from the way we eat over here. (More on this in a post coming up soon - Chopsticks, Spoons, Forks and Fingers!). The concepts are totally different. A fork and knife is no way to eat a rice and curry, simply because you can never get a 'balanced mouth' in to, well, your mouth! Rice and curry has to be eaten with a fork and spoon or your fingers. Having said that, my uncle who has been in the UK for the last fifty years, still manages to get a 'balanced mouth' into his mouth - I really don't know how! For us lesser mortals, the spoon allows us to play around with the balance of what we've served onto our plate, into our mouths in the ratio we want. Even more so when we use our fingers. The perfect 'balanced mouth' would have a bit of everything and this is where rice pullers really shine. You want more hot curry on the spoon but even the rice can't soothe it enough? Increase the amount of rice puller and voilà, you've got the perfect 'balanced mouth'.

A​ll thanks to the rice puller.