World Idli Day at India Cultural Center, Milpitas
On World Idli Day, March 30th, the Indian Cultural Center, Milpitas, was teeming with hundreds of people who came to attend the Shastha Idli Fest, a community event where one could taste a variety of idlis and hear about a talk on gut health from Dr. Pal Manickam, a California based gastroenterologist and motivational speaker on health.
Sponsored by Shastha Foods, the Shastha Idli Fest was the first community food tasting event of its kind put together to celebrate the company’s 20 year successful presence in the bay area. Different varieties of idlis that would satisfy varied palates were available to order, like the Traditional idlis with podi, Kanchipuram idlis, Curry leaf idlis, Rava idlis and Thattai idlis, which were categorized as Heritage Idlis. Then there were the Healthy idlis made with pearl millet, ragi and green mung beans and finally, the GenZ idlis with Idli manchurian, idli burger and mini idlis.
An overwhelming response from idli lovers
For guests like Kayal Krishna from San Jose, who had lined up with her husband at 8:45 am to try out the spread, “the pearl millet idlis were a complete win”. Syamala Raghuram, President of Shastha Fresh, said “We had an overwhelming response from idli lovers from all over the Bay Area. We had sold 500 breakfast tickets but had about 1500 walk-ins. We had to reorder idlis, sambhar and chutney to be brought in from our commercial kitchen in Hayward and from the Kovai cafe.”
Dr. Pal Panickam on gut health
Along with the traditional South Indian breakfast of idlis, dosas and filter coffee, the big draw of the day, of course, was the talk given by Dr Pal Manickam. The California based gastroenterologist whose YouTube videos on gut health have millions of followers spoke about “Gut health and fermented food“. With his trademark humor, Dr. Manickam said, “Fermented complex carbs like idlis seem to be uninteresting food to the bad bacteria and they pass down into the lower levels of the small intestine to feed the good bacteria hence improving our gut health.”
He emphasized the importance of leading an active life, intermittent fasting and eating smart to reduce belly fat, as well as the importance of protein in the diet – about 0.8 gms of protein per kilogram of our body weight (for those aged 12 and above). “We should not use our body as a dumping ground for processed food”, he said. It was a very interactive session and several in the audience asked interesting questions on gut health. Many had come to thank Dr. Pal for helping them lose weight and become healthier.
Good water for tasty food
Madhampatty Rangarajan, a celebrity chef from India and another guest speaker at the event, spoke about his love for food and cooking which he inherited from his parents who were his inspiration and role models. He shared his memories of a childhood home filled with the fragrance of kathrikai yennai kozhumbu and mysuru paa made by his parents to cater to nearby weddings and big events. “For the food to be tasty, good water is essential but the most important factor is the love you put in while making the food – just like a mother would when she cooks for her children”. No wonder all of us think that our moms food tastes the best!
There were also felicitations and talks from Sunnyvale Mayor, Larry Klein, Vice-mayor, Murali Srinivasan and other prominent city and county council members like Teresa Cox, Tara Sreekrishnan and Bay Area based cardiologist Dr. Romesh Japra. The event MC was the stand-up comedian Raman aka California Kalaignan of Building 18, the tanglish (tamil-English) comedy club popular in the Bay Area. He kept the audience laughing and engaged throughout the event.
Mr. Mani Krishnan, founder of Shastha Foods, expressed his wish to put idlis and dosas on the world map of popular food. He said “that over the past 20 years, Shastha Foods has served 160 million dosas/idlis and going forward his company’s goal is to serve one billion idlis/ dosas throughout the world.“
