Kappa Puzhukku – Tapoica Mash

There is one thing with a Malayali – he loves his kappa (tapioca)!!! I don’t think that there is any Malayali in this world who doesn’t. As long as you have some Malayali blood running in your veins, whether you are based in Kerala or an NRI or a person of Indian origin, whatever your status, say “KAPPA” and they will start to salivate! Seriously… I am not joking… Kappa happens to be the best street food that sells in Kerala. Couple it up with a spicy beef curry or fish curry, and it will run into the tummy faster than the fastest metro in the world! If it is not rice, then it is kappa for an average Malayali. You will see them eat it as a meal any time of the day…

We hardly used to have kappa mainly due to my umma’s diabetes problem. You know that the starch levels are dangerous for diabetes patients. But once she got hooked onto my Kappa Biriyani, she would ensure to push me to make it at least once in a month that slowly we all at home started getting bored of it… hehe… I mean if you have it once in a while, it tastes so good, right? Nowadays, a month seems like a week, so you feel, “Didn’t we have this the other day?”

Once, when D went to the market and got some fresh “neimathi” (those large sardines that are filled with gheeish goodness – yeah, there is no word called “gheeish”!!!), I literally begged umma to relent into making kappa puzhukku – boiled and mashed tapioca with some spicy mathi mulakittathu, which is basically sardine in a nice red hot sauce. The kappa puzhukku gets featured today, and InShaAllah, the mathi mulakittathu will come in tomorrow… Seriously – just looking at the picture is making me want to make it and relish it right away. Yummm… yes, my veins are 100% filled with Malayali blood, no doubt!!! 🙂