Today I repost a
cloumn I wrote about Chef Publis in January, 2011 for the “Daily Financial
Times, Sri Lanka” on a visit he made to the village I live in and the lessons learnt
from the interaction he had with our villagers. Hope you will enjoy reading it
as much as I did writing it.
Last week my column
was a photo-essay of Chef Publis in action at a village interaction. It must
have told the story of how he captivated his audience in sharing his wisdom with
them. Yet, there is another underlying story that those pictures could not tell
and today, I venture to share it with you. The link to the pix album is given at the end of article at the bottom of his photo.
For the villagers of
Kiula in the Deep South of Sri Lanka, it was not just another event. They had
heard of him, seen him on television and some had even tried recipes he had created.
They brought along exercise books, pieces of paper with ball-point pens to
write out quantities they thought he would prescribe for new dishes. Some had
imagined he would make a cookery demonstration, while some others even expected
gimmicks like sing-songs, quizzes and game-shows to accompany the session, like
they often see on that idiot box.
Instead, what they
were treated was to a meaningful interaction that touched their very own
lifestyles. It was about their families, their children, their aspirations,
their health, their ethos and their belief systems. The interactive discussion
began with food, nutrition and values. Chef Publis of the Mount Lavinia Hotel had
come to their village for he cared for their wellbeing. He sought to share his knowledge, experience
and practise with them. He was aware, how even in rural villages such as Kiula,
the influence of fast foods of convenience, was gaining ground. Television
promotions and advertisements of these foods were fast replacing the nutritious
and wholesome meals villagers had earlier placed pride on their meal palettes.
Chef Publis, who was
conferred the Presidential Award as a Tourism Legend in 2009, referred to over
350 herbs and vegetables available in and around a village located on the
borders of the wet and dry zones of Sri Lanka. That did not include the hill
country vegetables the likes of carrots, leaks, beetroots and cabbage,
introduced to us by our former colonial rulers. He emphasised the food and
health value of most of what was found growing in abundance in backyards of
homes and in shrub-forests around.
The area has “Rathu
Kakulu” (Red rice), an extremely rich source of protein and other nutrients, as
the predominant variety of rice that is grown. Its harvest is more than adequate
to feed the entire village population, three meals of rice a day. Contrary to
popular belief, he recommended that the villagers continue to consume as much
rice as possible with different styles of preparations to retain variety and
diversity.
Kola Kanda (herbal
soup) with rice in it, Kiri Bath (Milk Rice), Mung Kiribath (Mung Bean Rice),
Imbul Kiri Bath (Sweet Coconut and Juggary Rice), Red Rice flour string hoppers
with Pol Sambol (Coconut Sambol) and Kiri Hodi or Pol Roti for breakfast with
the accompaniment of fresh fruits and Iramusu or Beli Mal herbal drinks was
second to no other breakfast spread in the world he said, in terms of
nutritional value and for the quality of pleasing taste buds. References for
lunch and dinner included rice or similar main dishes with the accompaniment of
the rich variety of vegetables any villager can have easy access to.
Highlighting the
medicinal as well as nutritional value of our many spices, he called the women-folk
of the village to share their own knowledge with the audience of nearly two
hundred others. He said that he himself has derived most of the recipes he
tried out from those that are or have been in use in our rural homes.
He spoke of the ‘poison’
we eat as food in our cities and urged villages not to fall pray to claims of
fertiliser manufactures on gaining higher yields using chemical-based
substances. He called on them to use natural fertilisers and recommended composting
waste as a solution for home-grown vegetable plots.
He also spoke of the ‘Gymnasium’
each woman has in their homes and drew laughter as he referred to how most were
now abandoning it to visit fancy commercial outfits. The ‘Gym’ he referred to
is the kitchen with the Gym equipment being the grinding stone (Miris Gala),
pounding machine (Mol Gaha/Vangdiya), sieving machine (Peneraya), separating
machine (Kulla), coconut milk squeezer (Kiri Gotta) and the coconut-scraper
(Hiramanaya). This traditional ‘Gym’ equipment he claimed provided exercise for
all parts of the body and together with the frequent walks they made to the
vegetable plots and the fields, helped keep our village folk in fine shape.
Being a village close
to a banana growing area of Sri Lanka, he showed the villagers the value of
that ‘Kap Ruka’ (tree from heaven) and lamented on how much of its potential
was lost to us in Sri Lanka. In the Philippines, they made banana fibre dress-shirts
and other utility products, in Thailand banana chips and the many other
preparations enabled them to have lucrative export products bringing revenue
and reducing waste of a valuable fruit.
Chef Publis has made
it his life’s mission to position Sri Lankan cuisine on par with the best in
the world. He confidently claims that it is the best among the best, in its taste,
flavourful presentation as well as nutritional value. Coming from humble
beginnings, of which he speaks with pride, he stood as a beacon in making us
proud of who we are, what we are and what we can be, in reassuring the folk of
the Kiula village a little over week ago. It was part of his voluntary effort
of placing community before self, in visiting to share knowledge and
experience, at as many places as possible in Sri Lanka.
A Photo Album of his visit and the session he had can be seen at this link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.483581696965.264810.560176965&type=3
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