Sneaking Wine in Pondicherry

There we were, two tourist bums sitting on Pondicherry's seawall, drinking wine hidden in a bag. 

Pondicherry (now Puducherry)  is in South India, and therefore the wine was Indian--Grover Vineyards Cabernet-Shiraz, produced from grapes grown on the slopes of the Nandi Hills near Bangalore.

I had met Margaret at an ayurvedic spa outside Bangalore, and we ran into each other again in Pondicherry, a former French colony on the Bay of Bengal below Chennai.

I was staying in an ashram guest house, where liquor was not allowed, so Margaret volunteered to pick up a bottle at a shop near her hotel.

In the cool of the evening, when Pondicherry's residents parade along the sea, we sipped our wine discreetly, checking out the wares of itinerant vendors--I bought a wooden flute--and sharing our rupees with beggars.

When we were finished, we gave the bottle and the two plastic bags that it was wrapped in to a beggar woman. She carefully tied the bags around her bare right foot to use as a shoe and hobbled away.

I didn't taste that wine again until a couple of days ago, this time in Los Angeles. A friend from Mumbai had given me a bottle.

"Best served with spicy food," the label said, and so I cooked an Indian dinner to go with it. It was simple food, chicken rubbed with a spice masala, roasted potatoes, the way an Indian friend makes them  (the recipe appears below), and spinach puree as prepared by the late film producer Ismail Merchant, a master at making Indian cookery easy and accessible. 

My notes from Pondicherry described the wine as "surprisingly good, very smooth and drinkable." At home, it tasted rustic and a little wild, and it needed the highly seasoned food to tone it down.

Grover exports its wines, and I've seen them at Indian restaurants in Los Angeles. But that first bottle, so charged with the enchantment of being in India, will always be my favorite.

MIRA'S ROAST POTATOES

1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspon herbes de Provence or any dried herb mixture
1/2 teaspoon salt
Generous dash freshly ground black pepper
1 pound small red potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the coriander, curry powder, garlic powder, cumin, mixed herbs, salt and pepper in a small dish and mix well.

Scrub the potatoes, trim and cut in half, but do not peel.

Place the potatoes in a baking pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Sprinkle with the olive oil, then with the spice mixture and turn to coat them evenly with the seasonings.

Arrange the potatoes cut side down in the pan. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes, or until tender and the cut side is browned.

Makes 4 servings. 

Comments

[g]

I've enjoyed this post, and really enjoyed the sushi posts. I want to have enough time to comment thoughtfully on them.

My husband and I may have the opportunity to go to Japan this summer - your travel writing is so wonderful, I will be plugged into reading you again.