I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: the pandemic has been uniquely hospitable to the proliferation of condiments and therefore dangerously enabling to those of us suffering from Condiment Acquisitive Disorder.
That’s where Padanilam was born and lived until he was six, when his family emigrated to Springfield—not a hotspot for Keralan expats. But he really didn’t become an avid home cook and student of the food he grew up eating until he moved to Chicago to study accounting and history—specifically post-colonial theory.
Yet Superkhana International has survived the last year through a unique combination of pop-ups and packaged goods produced by industry friends and employees and sold through its carryout window. That’s kept cooks like Padanilam employed. It was Superkhana chefs Zeeshan Shah and Yoshi Yamada’s idea to start a pickle business, but it was Padanilam’s idea to narrow it to the achars, podis, and general flavors of his home state.
To that end he’s plotting a sequel for late April or early May: pothi choru, toasted banana leaf packets stuffed with rice, chutney, seasonal vegetables, and some kind of protein (egg scrambles, fried fish, or chicken). “This is something my parents would have for school lunch,” he says. “It’s kind of a working-class meal to go. The same idea as a burrito. You’re packing in all these nutritious calorie-dense things into a portable container for you to consume while you’re on the road or when you don’t have time to sit down and have a proper meal.”
