Podcasts in English

Jackie: An obvious question, tell me about the food, Rosie.

Rosie: Well, I've always loved Indian food, but er… in a lot of Europe um… Indian restaurants, the cuisine tends to come from the north of India.

Jackie: Oh, right.

Rosie: So Southern Indian cuisine um… their cooking is… it's predominantly vegetarian, most people in the south of India are vegetarian. It's er… spicy. It um… tends to be hotter. It's not the gravy-oriented food. Um… a particular specialty of Southern India is the andhra meal where you actually have a banana leaf as a plate…

Jackie: Okay

Rosie: And er… waiters come round… it’s um…

Jackie: Sorry, can I just ask: is the banana cut into the shape of a plate or you just have it as a banana leaf?

Rosie: Well, it's a part… banana leaves are very, very big so it's cut, it's torn into a big rectangle…

Jackie: Wow

Rosie: …and you take the edge nearest to you. Well, you first of all sprinkle water on it… just… they are all cleaned anyway but this is part almost of the ritual, wipe that off and then you curl the edge of the banana leaf that’s nearest to you upwards because you’re going to

be served a… a variety of foods that have got liquid so that stops it all running off into your lap.

Jackie: And you know what I'm thinking about er… there's hardly any washing up, either.

Rosie: In fact er… you go to the… certain parts of India, and not just the washing up but the whole ecological aspects of using disposable er… banana leaf or you could be on a train and you’re served a cup of tea out of a clay cup. Just an ordinary earthen, clay cup, you finish your tea, you throw it out the window. [Jackie laughs] You're not throwing litter, that clay cup just breaks up and becomes the earth again.