Venba

The spice of life

- Oscar Taylor-Kent

Tea towel on the steaming plate, idli batter dolloped in, and then twisted just so to ensure each plate’s steam moves up to the next one. That’s the key to the soft texture that Venba remembers from her grandma’s recipe, one she’s utilising here for the first time, the generational cookbook forming the foundation of this family tale.

Each time we check in on Venba’s life, significant time has passed. While we first help her with those breakfast rice cakes, she and her husband Paavalan are already feeling the pinch of being immigrants to Toronto, Canada from south India, with bills to pay and their own skills undervalued due to discrimination.