Sathiya KrishnamurtiBack

Sathiya Krishnamurti

Sathiya is the only person we know who lives here and is a migrant from the South of India. Her culture and language are very different from the rest of the Indian migrants who inhabit this region. Sathiya has many skills, including cooking, and we invited her to take part in the first performance and cook Dosas for the audience. This was her introduction:

“My name is Sathiya and tonight I have cooked Dosas and Sambar for you, like my mother used to cook for me. Dosas are thin pancakes made from fermented batter and rice. They come from the south of India, and I also come from the south of India. It was only when I moved to another country that I realized how dosas are so popular around the world. Historians say that dosas were already being cooked 600 years ago. To make a dosa you need rice and black gram dal, that you soak overnight. Then you make the batter and ferment it also for one night. It might take two nights, depending on the weather. Then there is Sambar. Sambar comes from the word Chambaram in Tamil, my language. It is a soup with lentils, vegetables, tamarind, the plant asafoetida and sambar masala powder. It goes back to the 17th century. There are different ways to make sambar, in different regions. My mother used to make dosas and sambar 3 or 4 times a week, when I was a child. We argued with her because she made it too many times. I thought it was easy to make, but my mother told me that when she was a child there was no grinder and everything was made by hand. There were 15 people in the family, all using their hands to make the batter. It was a lot of work. Then, they only made it twice a year, for the Diwali festival and Pongal festival. After giving birth to my daughter I often cook it for her because it is so nutritious. And tonight I have made it for you.”

Photography by: Pavel Tavares