Chettinad things.

Vodka chettinad.

Yes, the esteemed roomie had a couple of juniors over. One of them is this bloke with a zinc lined stomach. I mean, I generally assume that I can eat reasonably spicy food (that Bangal blood running through my veins, no connection to my Ghoti ancestry at all), but this guy takes the cake. Ok, its not really a cake at all, more like the pickle/achar. The achar in question was a really lethal green very chilli creation I found at the Indian store. Now I am reasonable when it comes to achar, especially such deadly varieties. About as much as one can put on the tip of a fork is enough. Well, this bloke likes two forkfuls with each meal!! And then complains that the food was rather bland!!! Ye Gods!

Which reminds me of a completely peripheral, but still related incident. This happened to my father years ago when he was a field geologist. His driver was pretty awful at cooking. Well, this driver once offered to cook dinner. His brilliant idea of a delicious curry was green chillis fried in a sauce made of mostly dried red chilli powder.

Chettinad food, the other part of the story comes from the hinterland of Tamail Nadu. There is standard lousy Tamil fare, which is idlis and dosas (stuff of my nightmares, comes from having suffered long and hard at the hands, or rather utensils of the Tamil cooks of the Institute Mess), and then there is Chettinad food. Chettinad people really know how to mix spices right. They grind spices fresh and have no truck with the packed stuff that we lesser people use.

Yes, so coming to the point here. This junior, goes by the name of Sethu suggested that we try vodka with green chillis. So, the concoction that we ended up with was one part vodka, three parts coke and one green chilli sliced longitudinally and squeezed into the drink. Lethal combination. If the booze doesn’t get you, the chilli will. This drink, I have decided to call “Vodka Chettinad”. Meanwhile, this other friend suggested that we drink vodka with Pudina Hara. Got to try that.