Working Life The lost taste of India By Masako Yamada	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
懐かしいインドの味を求めて 雅子さんは、昨年夏にインドで食べたアッパムというパンケーキの味が忘れられません。アメリカに戻ってからも、インド系のレストランを見つけてはメニューに「アッパム」を探すのですが、どの店にもありません。それなら自分で作ろう！と決意したものの、試行錯誤の連続。果たして、アッパムを再び味わえるのでしょうか…。

大学時代の友人の実家を訪れ、正しいアッパの作り方を教わる筆者（右）。ついに、インドで食べたアッパムと同じ味を再び味わうことができた。

Little did we know that appams are local to Kerala. Had we known that at the time, we probably would have had a lot more of them. Ever since returning to the States, I've carefully perused the menu of every Indian restaurant I've come across. However, I have never seen appams. As a matter of fact, it seems that many Indians have never tried appams. I know people from Bangalore, Bengal and Delhi who have never even heard of them. India is a large country with at least 15 languages, so it isn't surprising that some foods haven't traveled far beyond their geographical origins.

Since I knew I would not be able to eat appams in a restaurant (or even in the homes of my Indian friends), I decided I would have to make them myself. Thanks to the Internet, I was able to find a few recipes.

I also visited the Indian store in Albany to see whether they had the kind of rice flour required. I chose a product that looked promising, but the appams I made on my first try were soggy and heavy, not lacy and crisp. They didn't have the rich, almost cheesy flavor I remember, either. Miracle of miracles, I noticed a pack of frozen ready-made appams on my next visit to the Indian store (I didn't know at the time but it turns out that the owners of the store are from Kerala) so I tried a pack: They were so stale I couldn't finish a single pancake.

筆者がインド系食品店などで買い求めた米粉の数々。アッパム作りに欠かせない主材料だ。

One of my Indian colleagues took pity on me and went to the Indian store herself to try to explain to the shopkeeper what I was looking for. They asked her, "What kind of appams?" and she could not answer, so the conversation ended there. It was only recently that I realized that there are at least a dozen types of appams.

I was close to giving up on ever being reunited with that wonderful taste when I remembered that one of my best friends from college is from Kerala. I wrote an e-mail to her explaining my fond memories of appams and I asked her for a reliable recipe. She forwarded the e-mail to her mother, who not only sent me detailed instructions, but who also invited me to visit them so that they could show me how to make them.

This weekend, I was finally reunited with the taste that I'd been trying to recreate since last summer! The family gave me hints in making the batter, but the biggest secret was in the cooking method. They used a little cast iron pan that looks like a small Chinese wok and enables the edges to become crisp while the middle remains soft. They then cooked the appams on a gas burner.

For comparison, they also used some of the same batter to make pancakes in a frying pan on an electric burner. The taste was still rich and delicious, but the texture was less delicate. They told me that appams are a specialty of the Keralan Christians, and that on Sundays, appam-ｖendors line the streets in front of churches. I realized that perhaps one of the reasons appams have not spread more widely in India is because Christians are such a minority.

More importantly, I hadn't seen my friend in ages - she currently lives in Europe and was visiting her parents in Massachusetts for only a few days - so we spent the entire day eating and gossiping. The drive was two hours each way, but the trip was well worth it.

Shukan ST: June 4, 2004

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