AVAKAI NOSTALGIA

THIS SUMMER TRY MAKING THESE TRADITIONAL PICKLES AT HOME

What do summer holidays bring? In India, the a l m o s t - u n b e a r abl e scorching heat also brings loads of delicious fruits, including the king of them all, the mango!

To me, summer evokes many food and family memories. Especially of those when my grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts used to meet up at our native place. And then we all would prepare the

avakai ( pickle). This Andhra tradition revolves around the raw mango — special types go into the regular

avakai, the maagai, the thokkudu pacchadi, bellam ( jaggery) avakai… the list goes on with each family using some secret ingredient, or a different proportion.

Vendors for all pickle ingredients used to come home. Sometimes we would use a special variety of raw mangoes from our own farms, and that made the pickle festivities even more enchanting!

Both my g r a n d m a s

( ammama and naanama) surveyed each mango carefully — turning over each one lovingly before dropping them into the

“ok” basket. They also insisted on the chilli powder from only one vendor for authentic colour, and flavour.

While mixing, no metal spoons were used ( otherwise oxidation or blackening of the fruit could occur) and only trusted porcelain jars ( jaadis) would be used to store this precious, annual treasure. Children would be given flat seashells ( alchippas) that could be rubbed on the ground to make a natural peeler. This mango peeling task was delightfully accepted and playfully executed!

Only certain people could mix the pickle ingredients too, and women took pride in being known for their

avakai! What an awesome example of slow cooked food, where tradition, pride, perfect ingredients, and memories were created,

year after year!