The Kitchen

Kitchens are always exciting places, the hub of activity that makes us all happy, and that is no different at Rising Star Outreach.  Our kitchen is temporary, as we are awaiting the building of our new dining area and kitchen.  This will be a separate building from the hostels.  At present the kitchen is rather primitive, by our standards, but very adequate to produce some wonderful meals.

You may remember from a previous entry that one disadvantage to where we live is that we are right across the hall from the door into the kitchen.  It is continuously visited by many people, big and small, and is therefore a very busy, happy, loud place!  The kitchen is presided over by our head cook, Padmini, and her husband Govendaraj.  They live here with their two children, who are both in the school.  There are many helpers in the kitchen, including Vijaya and Magesh, two beautiful women who sit on the floor and do all the chopping of the vegetables. Vegetables are a big part of every dish.  The protein often comes from the lentils, so many of our dishes are vegetarian.  Chicken is included twice a week, eggs, three times a week, and fish, twice a week.  The children get milk twice a day, and in the morning it includes protein powder. The after school snack is milk and lentils or fruit. Their diet is really very good, although by our calculation they probably get too much white rice, which is pretty much empty calories. Everyone loves the rice!

Some of our favorite Indian dishes that they prepare here are Dahl, Biryani (vegetarian, or with chicken or egg), Masala (with chicken or egg), Samba rice, Brindal sauce, and onion curd with yogurt, tomatoes, curdled milk, and something green (parsley?).  Idli, a rice pancake, is good for breakfast, and of course many good breads:  naan, parota, chipotte, and puri.  They also do a great side dish with beet root, as they call it.  The beets are chopped with onion and always many spices.  The curd dishes are served, I think, to soften the spice--Indian food is spicy!!  So many dishes are based in the curry sauce, with peppers and other hot ingredients added.  Even the children's food is spicy.  (Remember, all towns, foods, personal names and words in general, have many spellings, in case you think my spelling is bad--it is!!) 

In the morning, the children begin with their milk (it's always boiled), then a bit later they get their Samba rice, or some noodle dish.  They carry big pots to their rooms (six girls rooms and six boys rooms) and eat sitting in a circle on the floor.  Every meal begins with Hindu and Christian prayers, and songs.  All eating is done with the fingers--right hand only.  When finished, they bring all the pots and dishes back to the kitchen area, washing their own plates and returning them to their rooms.  At lunch time, taking food to their rooms is repeated.  The staff are served on the floor in one of the downstairs rooms:  teachers join in this meal, as well as cooks, cleaning ladies, gardeners, after the teachers and office staff.  Their meal has more variety than the children's  food--we often take our dish and receive a plateful from someone in the circle who is doing the serving.  Today's lunch will be a vegetable dish, with cauliflower being the main ingredient--it's delicious if you can tolerate the heat!  For dinner, the children sit in big circles out on the front area--part green, part dirt.  The pots of food are placed in the center on the ground, and the children are served by the older girls or boys, or by the housemothers.  The staff eat much later, also outside (all this is of course contingent on the rain.)

Everything smells so good, and to watch these beautiful women in their saris, with the flowers in their hair, working so hard, just adds to the anticipation of a great meal.  The children are thriving with this wonderful food, and so are we!