An encounter with Chow-chow

                                                                         Plate - 1

Hi everyone, it has been months since I have posted anything, let me break this extended fasting with a “Chow-Chow Kootu”. Why this peculiar dish? Let me take you through my encounter with chow-chow.

 Sparked a moment, when I saw this vegetable’s spelling in a super market and I started to wonder on the genesis of this name: Chow-chow. Not that I have never knew this vegetable but never have I tried to spell it all through my age. This particular vegetable commonly called as chow-chow in Tamil Nadu has been widely used to make sambars and kootu and my mom is an expert in it. But doesn’t this spelling resembles a Chinese name? so the next question within me was, “have I been eating a Chinese sambar all these days?”. So I decided to ask this guy Gokul (that’s how my father calls “Google”) and it said the actual name of this vegetable is Chayote and it is native to Mexico and Guatemala. Apparently it is not Chinese, but a Mexican Sambar.

Chayote was introduced to the old world by the early explorers during the Columbian era. Chayote is a Spanish word and it is called with different names in different countries like, Choko in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, Siamese Gourd in Indonesia and Malaysia and Christophene in United Kingdom, Ireland (probably in the remembrance of Christopher Columbus who might have faked them the vegetable to be a divine one from “India” and convinced them to consume, to become as rich as Indians). And one more shock to me is the Chayote alias Chow-chow is actually not a vegetable but a fruit that is consumed as a vegetable (hopefully this controversy did not reach the Financial Commission of the India just like the tomatoes made to the Parliament house).

This Fruit come Vegetable is a thin skinned and fleshy one and quite easy to cut and cook and delicious to eat. Chow-chow fry with chapattis and dosas are one the my favourite combinations. This is not only one of the cheapest vegetable but a nutritious one too. It is rich in potassium, magnesium, manganese, copper, Vitamins C, K, B6, B9 or folate, Calcium, Iron besides a whopping 2.8 grams of dietary fibre and contains absolutely no fat, sodium making it an ideal vegetable for those on weight loss journey. Thus a Mexican fruit in Indian kootu, Porial and Sambar has made a sumptious plate for ammavashya unavu at my home.

Adiós (Good Bye in spanish)  

                                                                                                                                      Harini Sha