Chennai Summer sparkles

A hard and demanding back breaking work schedule for the past month.... mmm....... I failed to notice that Chennai is fast approaching its "oh my god its summer" season. Chennai has only three seasons, Hot, Hotter and Hottest. And........ .............
we are approaching the hottest season.

The hottest season shows its signs in March and reaches crescendo during the month of May and extends upto June. We hear people say, "This year's summer is the worst" of course, as the heat increases each year, this is uttered every year. Start of summer for Chennai means, board exams, temple festivals ( we are spiritual you know), arrival of summer sales ( we make the most out of the season) including revival of bandini prints and soft cottons, etc, the catch word for summer for fabric is "cool cotton, pure cotton", and some lip smacking summer delicacies too.

Though I have loads of stuff to write about the summer delicacies like when it comes to eating some of them including mango, water melon, muskmelon, cucumber, vadams, etc, limiting to only one for which I am a hard core fan.
Its fruit is considered as the king of fruits, but I am talking about its young version, the tender mango,popularly known as " maavadu" or " vadu mangai" in Tamil. I am damn good at making... err.... eating of the historical maavadu pickle.

The appetising colour of the pickle is a combination of deep green with solar red, a symbolic marking of its "toooooooo hot yet soooooooo tasty" nature. The art of maavadu or vadu mangai pickle making is an age old science. People when they talk about this, turns nostalgic about their grandma's secret recipes which make the taste unique to their family. It's quite surprising to note, while the recipe and ingredients are common, the taste comes out differently in different families. Having tasted the vadumangai in my home, my relatives and friends, I guess I have the authority to say this.

Picking up the right mavadu is an art (or science?) by itself, claims one of my friend in T.Nagar. I agree as I remember going for an exclusive mavadu shopping starting March in different markets. Normally it begins in Mylapore where the first glimpse of mavadu arrival is word of mouth spreaded. Then it moves into T.Nagar, the "anything any time" shopping place and finally at Parrys corner kothaval chavadi and another corollary markets nearby, please substitute koyambedu instead of kothaval chavadi now. If there is luck, we even get to go to Madurai and pick lot of mavadus in various categories. There is a popular belief that the best time for mavadu shopping is early morning before the arrival of the Sun God !

Mavadus are not sold in kilograms ( shun that city word), to retain the nativity, its sold in "padi". Some are glamorously named as salem mavadu, madurai vadu, etc.
simple Psychology!! one gets associated with their or mango's native when they hear the name along with the place, who wouldn't like it ?

Its touching to know some go for mavadu shopping after checking the almanac, as this is a year long pickle. I spare the recipe here for obvious reasons. I keep hearing that a quality mavadu pickle is the output of right ingredients, right time and right preservation technique. It cannot go wrong with all these !. Mavadu also serves a good bridge for lost friendships and contacts. I recall mavadu distribution is one way where one of my friend displays a fond rememberance to all her relatives. No one can say no to this best accompaniment of a cool curd rice during summer, isn't it?

Enough of writing about mavadu, I have started scanning the markets for this year's mavadu shopping, ofcourse my summer too starts with the mavadu shopping amongst the others ! ....... will catch up later !!!!!!!!!!!