Row over 'insult' to Indian dish Kamala Harris likes

[hunter]

A tweet from a UK-based academic calling an Indian comfort food "boring" has sparked an amusing food war on Twitter.

"Idli are the most boring things in the world," historian Edward Anderson tweeted.

The idli is a steamed rice cake that is usually eaten with a lentil-based vegetable stew called sambar. It is regarded as a gut friendly staple breakfast and comfort food, popular with south Indians, living in India and abroad. Food writer Vir Sanghvi calls it the best known South Indian dish in India and perhaps, the world.

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris - who has an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father - has fondly recalled that her mother was keen to instil in her a "love for good idli" during her holidays in the south Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras).

--more--

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54464451

Now I'm hungry!

Check out the video at the end of this article of the Indian woman who makes the one cent breakfast as well.

[marble falls]

1. Dammit. Now I'm hungry for Indian food. I took a friend out for coffee (to go from a drive up) ...

and I swear I saw an India place just opened while we cruised. Hell if I can remember where.

[Aristus]

2. I can't imagine anyone not loving Indian food.

Indian cuisine has something for every palate.

I once had mouth-searing Tandoori chicken while visiting Birmingham, England. And I won't do that again. (Tandoori, I mean. Birmingham is wonderful.)

But there are so many other dishes I absolutely love.

One thing Indian food is not is boring...

[Laffy Kat]

5. For some reason I've never enjoyed curry.

I do like some of the other dishes, though. My mother was a very southern cook and I didn't even try curry until I first travelled overseas as a teenager. It could be that for some it's an acquired taste. Wish I liked it.

[DemUnleashed]

3. Anderson

I think this Anderson guy's got it wrong! Yes, idlis by themselves are boring but when you dip them into chutney and sambhar....yum!! Maybe he meant idlis by themselves are boring....in that case, he's right!

Btw, I am of Indian origin....born in South India but grew up in the US

[hunter]

4. It's like saying bread is boring.

Like bread, idli can have many subtle flavors and textures, even starting with the same basic ingredients.

Sourdough, for example, is not the same as generic store-bought white bread. The flavor of a bread depends on the lactobacilli and yeast used for fermentation.

As a fermented food idli can have many subtle flavors as well.

[Celerity]

6. My dumb idli tweet has led to media coverage across India & beyond (BBC, CNN!), TV reports, a radio

interview & lots of fun - and more heated - debate. Best of all may be this cartoon of
@ShashiTharoor
& me in today's Manorama, one of the world's biggest circulation newspapers!

Link to tweet

[DFW]

7. We LOVE Indian food!

Mulligatawny soup, papadam with mint dipping sauce and onion baji to start, then chicken vindaloo, yellow curry, tikka massala and tandoori all on buffet-share, with enough basmati rice to absorb extra sauce.

Oh, yeah, and a stretcher to carry me outta there afterward because I'm so stuffed, I can't move!