If you observe closely, food is one of the many tiny windows to our emotions. Tried and tested, good food often translates to a good mood.
And while it is easy to get lost in the interesting trends that originate every day, there are some that outshine the rest and you just can’t ignore. Such a trend is the idea of a ‘food pop-up’ by Saroja Shankaran and Insia Lacewalla, who have made Goa their home.
“We met over dinner at a friend’s place,” gushes Insia, whose bright mustard-coloured dress was only half as bright as her warm smile.
Standing just beside her, Saroja nods as she expresses her love for cooking and adjusts her beautiful traditional saree that she has paired with a modern cropped top as a blouse – a fitting example of how sometimes, tradition is meant to be tastefully honoured, rather than blindly followed.
Dinner turned to conversations and soon, their newfound friendship transformed into a joint passion project that they call, ‘Appalam’ which translates to papad in Tamil.
The idea of something as unique as Appalam Goa originated from Saroja’s love for cooking and Insia’s love for local travel. But the cliché plan to run a restaurant someday is not in sight for this duo.
“We love travelling, we love what we do and running a restaurant would mean being tied down to a place,” says Insia, a travel, food and beverage writer.
An added advantage, “Saroja is Tamilian and an amazing cook,” says Insia, who explains that in simple terms, the idea of Appalam is to bring different variations of cuisines from Tamil Nadu to the table in the form of pop ups and try to change the blanket statement that all Tamil cuisine in the same.
“Our idea is to bring about a small awareness through Appalam, but purely for Tamil food because that’s what we know,” smiles Saroja.
May 25 and 26, 2024, witnessed vision turn to reality with Appalam Goa’s first Madurai pop-up, hosted by Sarvaa Goa, an up and coming restaurant in Panjim’s Rua de Ourem.
Effortlessly assisted by team Sarvaa, "In today’s pop up of Madurai cuisine, we have the Madurai style preparation of food,” gestures Insia.
Straight out of the kitchen, the non-vegetarian thali consisted of Chicken 65, Nethili Fry, Beet Poriyal, Potato Pottalam, Kalathu Paruppu, Vathakuzhambu, Kari DosaI, Bun Parotta with Country Chicken Curry, Sambar and Sadham.
While the vegetarian thali was made up of Murunga Vadai, Kootu, Beet Poriyal, Potato Pottalam, Kalathu Paruppu, Vathakuzhambu, Adai Aviyal, Bun Parotta with Salna, Sambar and Sadham.
“This is our first pop up!” she says. In the past few months, the duo had also set up stalls at the Goa Open Arts Festival, where they served very simple Tamil street food that sold like hot cakes.
“That really gave us the confidence boost we needed, touchwood!” says the food connoisseur as she proceeds to touch the wooden table at the restaurant.
As for where the recipes come from, “We travel to the place, we eat there, we meet local people, we do all our research, then Saroja comes back and cooks all the dishes,” shares Insia, who also says that recipes come from different parts of Tamil Nadu and are shared by Saroja’s relatives as well.
Apart from this, Saroja also runs a PR consultancy and a stained-glass studio.
About managing their fulltime jobs and handling Appalam on the side, Saroja says, “It’s exciting, one you do for passion and the other to survive. We try balancing both, our fulltime jobs are the bread and butter, and this is the jam.”
In terms of feasibility, the goal is to host a pop up every two months, and when time permits, says Insia, as she taps away on the keys of her laptop while simultaneously preparing for their next pop up which will take them to Pondicherry, where they wish to explore the association with French Tamil cuisine.
Because, as beautifully put by Saroja, “to be able to afford jam, you have to find a way to afford the bread.”