Cuisine

One of the top restaurants in the world located in Brazil, serves something belonging to the Siddi diet. They serve the tender part of palm and red ants. Siddis prepare food items like crab, which is called kurli, tambli, which is fish and red ant chutney. The latter is made due to the lack of protein in their diet as they don’t find meat everyday. Talking about the red ant chutney, it is made by first catching red ants from trees. Grinding them with a little coconut, onions, garlic, chillies and turmeric powder. It is usually eaten with rice.

Machli tambli which is basically fish curry is also something made in the Siddi community. It is a konkani dish. Fishers set baits at night and collect the fishes caught, in the baits, in the morning. The masala for this dish has a lot of herbs and spices. First, coconuts are grated and black pepper is added, followed by green chillies, turmeric, garlic, ginger, red chillies and coriander. Adding kokum, known as wotambo, gives the masala tanginess. For the tambli, oil is added to a cold pan, followed by garlic and tomatoes, masala, water, chilli powder, salt. After the above has come to a boil, fish is added and coriander to finish off the dish.

They also make a dish called murdhi bhaji which is made using murdhi leaves found in the wild. The dish is made by heating up oil and adding black mustard seeds followed by green chillies, chopped onions, turmeric powder and tomatoes. Murdhi leaves and salt are added later on. This completes the dish.

Citations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek4XEWXAD8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07JCxRbKVLo 

- Chinmayee