Morning at the Beach: Aloe vera juice n' vegetable soups at Marina Beach

Location: Near the roller skating rink

After months of procrastinating, I went for a jog along the marina beach last Saturday. Within ten minutes the body was ready to rest. After watching the beautiful sunrise for a while walked back to the service road.

Being the weekend, there were plenty of people of all ages trying to get some exercise. Some of the exercise routines were honestly a little hilarious what with the sudden jumping and clapping by some elderly people. The youngsters were solemnly listening to music while jogging and getting steadily getting dehydrated. To rehydrate there were groups of walkers gathered around tables set up with fruits and steel jars full of vegetable soups.

Aloe vera juice

One of the tables was full of some kind of cactus which is Aloe vera! The owner was peeling away the green outer layer to obtain the transparent jelly like sap inside! Well, I had this once before and they give a huge quantity for 20 rupees. So decided to take it home and drink in batches. It's very cooling: would be better not to drink it when you're dripping with exhaustion. The aloe is mixed with buttermilk to make it more drinkable since aloe vera is pretty slimy and bitter too. And the taste/texture is honestly bad. :D But it's supposed to be healthy so can overlook this. There are plenty of bits of sap and you can add some lemon or orange to it at home and mix it better to make it palatable. Too much of aloe juice could be laxative so have in moderation.

Fruits and vegetable soups

At the next spot nearby there were cut fruits and vegetable soups. They had mushroom, keerai (spinach) and some other vegetable soup. Nearby there was a cut fruit seller. Asked them if they could give only watermelon cuz what's better than crisp, sweet watermelon in the morning!? For 20 bucks he peeled a fresh watermelon and gave a good amount of it with a toothpick to eat them with. Good stuff.

Ajinomoto Press Meet: A Seminar of Truth and Lies

Was privy to a press meet held by Ajinomoto at Hotel GRT Grand this week titled "Seminar of Truth and Facts about Ajinomoto". Yes, that Ajinomoto that everyone is scared to eat and believes will lead to ill-health. The company is trying to change that perception with scientific facts that prove otherwise. To this end they have roped in two academics who were there to answer any questions. The academics were Dr. Dharini Krishnan, a registered Dietitian (RD) also the chairperson of the RD board of the Indian Dietetic Association and Mrs. Devisri Sundaram (left most), Assistant Professor and nutritionist.

                                                                                   

The event kicked off with a lively introduction to the brand by Mr. Atsushi Mishuku (in the pic on the right), Director and GM, Ajinomoto India. He said he was aware of the acute negative view the brand's main product has in the food industry and the eye of the general public. But the company has decided to rectify this image by holding such educational presentations that give a science based background to ajinomoto and its history.












<----  Govinda Biswas - Manager, Marketing also gave a talk.

Some information presented at the event:

History of Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto was first extracted from a seaweed called Kombu by Dr.  Kikunae Ikeda who was convinced there was a fifth taste associated with the seaweed soup he had. In Japanese cuisine Kombu is used extensively to make Dashi stock that is used in dishes like noodle soup that are highly popular there. This fifth basic taste is "umami" which cannot be obtained by combining any of the other four basic tastes (namely sweet, sour, bitter, salty.) 





Making of Ajinomoto

                                                         Raw materials of MSG
                                      

                                                                                             

It was surprising to know that Ajinomoto is completely vegetarian. But then it makes sense, glutamate is a naturally occurring salt like common salt. The Ajinomoto sold in India is made by fermenting sugarcane juice and then neutralising the glutamic acid obtained from the fermentation process. So you will see a green dot signifying it is veg. Ajinomoto sold in India is made from Thailand and repackaged here in factories near Chennai. However they also have several new products under a brand name called "Hapima."

            
          
What is Ajinomoto and why does the company claim it is safe despite the rumors?

The main question is if it's safe for regular consumption. Yes, it is because it has been scientifically proven to not cause number of issues attributed to it like "Chinese restaurant syndrome" says Mr Atsushi and backed up by Dr. Dharini Krishnan as well. They said the studies that had concerning results were performed on rats by directly injecting MSG into the skin rather than through ingestion as would normally occur. Hence those results are misleading they said. 

By 1909 the work on kombu was complete. Ikeda made his great announcement in the august pages of the Journal of the Chemical Society of Tokyo. He had isolated, he wrote, a chemical with the molecular formula C5H9NO4. This and the substance's other properties were exactly the same as those of glutamic acid, an amino acid produced by the human body and present in many foodstuffs. When the protein containing glutamic acid is broken down - by cooking, fermentation or ripening - it becomes glutamate. Link to source article

In fact, glutamate is present in almost every food and is essential to the functioning of our body. 40 grams of glutamate is produced in the body every day! Human breast milk has a good amount of glutamate in it which may be a natural method to keep infants interested in nourishing themselves.

High quantities of glutamate is found in cheese especially ripe ones like parmesan, tomatoes and even potatoes. So having a pinch of added MSG is essentially the same as eating any of these natural foods. Another fact that was mentioned was that MSG is 3 times lower in sodium content than common salt, so it could be better to substitute some of the salt for MSG.










Since MSG essentially increases the savouriness of foods, one of the benefits of using it is that people would not skip eating meals due to the food being not so delicious. 










                                                                                                                                                                           

Chef Vinod made a delicious paneer 65 with ajinomoto added for that extra umami (we were feeling completely fine after eating it just for the record! :P )

To me, the story of MSG seems to be a perfect case of the general public being scared of artificial additives without realising the science behind it. A theme that's constantly occurring. In this case, MSG is not any more "chemical" than common salt or beer. The FDA (Food and Drug administration) has cleared MSG to be "Generally safe for use" 3 times over the course of the decades now. The same with every other country across the world. The interesting thing is that most of us have been consuming MSG since it is marketed under other names like yeast extract, hydrolized protein, soy protein, whey protein and much more. Next time look at the label of your favorite sauce. So the fear seems to be more a psychological one than physiological. If it's indeed all in the mind, then proper awareness needs to happen so that common people are aware it's nothing to be alarmed about and may in fact help people get their nutrition in a more "savoury" way.



Source: 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/jul/10/foodanddrink.features3

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20151106-is-msg-as-bad-as-its-made-out-to-be

Rayar's Mess, Mylapore, Chennai

An early Chennai morning, four of us set out pre-dawn for a ritualistic journey. Our destination, Rayars mess. For more than six decades hungry souls like ourselves have been trudging out from tens of miles away for the promise of the quintessential south Indian breakfast. One of piping hot idlies dripping in ghee and just-fried vadais whose pairing with the thick coconut chutney is one for the ages. Being my first visit I was eager to know if this place really was as good as it was made out to be.

The mess is currently located in a lane off Arundale street in Santhome. Earlier it used to operate from Kutchery main rd. The proprietor is also the chef here and before him it was his father who founded the place. The mess is set in the midst of apartments and flats. People are just stirring when we reach there but there’s already a small crowd waiting at 6:35 am on a weekday. If you have trouble finding the lane, get into Arundale street and check which lane has a bunch of people waiting outside the doorway! They operate by letting people inside in batches of about 12-16 each. Only after an entire batch is done having their fill will the next batch be let in. We were the second batch so we had to wait for ten minutes. The people waiting are a mixed crowd obviously from youngsters to NRIs.

 

The interior is just a room with an adjoining tinier kitchen, a wooden benches and desks with banana leaves laid out. Before we have time to dream about the food, the idlies arrive! There’s no waiter system here, the lady of the house or a helper comes with a big tray full of idlies or vadais and we just tell them what we want. 

In a few seconds a few idlies (rs 20 for a pair) and two medium sized heaps of piping hot pongal are served up. It's as delicious as it looks! Loved the pongal, vadais and idly. Pongal (rs 35) was just right for me from the softness to the salt levels it was all just yummy. Not too rich as well but with can be customized with extra ghee. Vadai was the best! Just fried seconds ago, it's oily but oh-so-crunchy n yum! Smaller sized too. You can get servings of getti chutney (a thick coconut chutney), ghee and podi (idly chili powder) for an extra charge. I tried all of it! 

They also have a chutney made from green chiliies that’s highly spicy! Don't have more than a touch!

Sambar was a bit different from what I expected. It wasn’t spicy but a tad bland. I’m guessing they purposely make it this way so it appeals to all. A smooth sambar that went well with everything on the leaf.

We were eagerly waiting for the vadais which we could see was being prepared right in the next room by the owner. He was deftly dropping handfuls of batter into the roiling hot oil. In a few minutes the mid sized vadais (rs 10 each) came to our table. It was super crunchy and tasty. Only minor drawback was that it was oily, but being just prepared this was an easy sacrifice to make. I ate more than four of them.

After a fulfilling breakfast, we waited outside. Filter coffee is to be had outside while one waits to pay. Billing here is highly informal we just tell the person what we ate and pay. There are no checks it’s all word-of-mouth.

They are only open in the mornings and evenings. Evening time is for snacks like bonda, adai and the like.