Twitterati Divided Over Meena Harris’ Spin on a South Indian Staple, Yogurt-Rice
- Vice President Kamala Devi Harris’ niece takes to twitter to confess substituting rice with cauliflower rice to make thayir sadam.
Meena Harris has done it again. The 36-year-old attorney, entrepreneur and niece of Vice President Kamala Devi Harris, has once again sent the Twitter junta into a tizzy. But worry not, it’s nothing controversial. Instead, it’s a food post that’s done the trick this time.
Harris took to Twitter to share her version of a South Indian staple. No, it’s not masala dosa that her aunt and Mindy Kaling so famously made. And neither it’s the tamarind rice which “Top Chef” host Padma Lakshmi whipped up on Inauguration Day to celebrate Kamala Devi Harris’ swearing-in.
Meena Harris made yogurt-rice, but with a twist. “South Indians are going to come for me hard on this but I need to confess somewhere that I just made rice and yogurt and lime pickle with cauliflower rice.”
So far, her tweet has 7,689 likes, 337 retweets and 91 quote tweets.
While manyTwitter users were open to the idea of swapping the traditional rice with cauliflower rice, some didn’t agree with her fusion dish.
Mindy Kaling chimed in as well, sharing one of her experiences. “haha I said I like raisins in my samosas the pain that rained down on me omfg,” she wrote.
Twitter user Sandhya Ashok was fine with Meena Harris dish. However, she had one piece of advice. “This has been a staple among many South Indians who are trying to cut carbs for a while now,” she tweeted. “Tastes even better when you season it with mustard seeds, green chilies, curry leaves & hing (talichi kottina).”
A user named Abhishek Redz, in a reply to Mean Harris wrote: “Woww !!! Why would we come at you ?! It sounds tasty,” he assured her.
“The true spirit of being a Southie is to realise that lime pickle and curds (thair/ perugu) goes with everything,” a user named Akshay replied to Meena Harris’ tweet. “We regularly have thair+ yong tau foo in this Chindian household.”
Techie, author and musician Krish Ashok tweeted: “Hehehe, interestingly, rural Tamil folks were far more likely to be eating millets with yoghurt some ~100 years ago. The wholesale switch to rice is a British raj phenomenon thanks to their push towards just wheat and rice to ensure food security. So cauliflower rice is [good].”
Similarly, Bobby Nair wrote: “You are forgiven. Cauliflower rice is neither rice nor Indian, much less South Indian. Of course, we’d have to send the minions after you if you dared to pass it off as South Indian. Sorry, but we do like our carbs.”
Sharath Dorbala was thankful for small mercies. “I mean it would have been crazy if you had said yogurt was made from oat milk…then yes you would have gotten the WTF reaction,” he tweeted. Neal McLoughlin had only one comment: “Lime pickle is the only thing that makes cauliflower rice edible!”
There were some who were appalled by the substitution of cauliflower rice.
Artist and educator Soumya Lakshmi tweeted: “I don’t even know what to say here. I’ve studiously avoided this crazy cauliflower rice trend and thayir satham w pickle is mf sacred, yo.”
Similarly Regina Dincic was disappointed with the combo. “Yup I’m south indian and disappointed, Meena. Cauliflower rice???????”
Larisha Govender used a GIF to express her opinion on the dish. “Just, my entire South Indian self just crumpled inward at this tweet,” she wrote.
And Mitali Chakraborty blamed it on the COVID vaccine. “Your vaccine side effects are weird. Think about what you’ve shared here. Get some rest,” she tweeted.
A user named prad88 went off on a tangent. “We (South Indians) have so many real things to worry about,” he tweeted. “Why don’t we get our spouse work authorization and green cards on time from a country for which we work so hard everyday?? No energy to go hard on someone for yoghurt rice. Enjoy your rice! :-)”
However, a user named HABIB had only one issue with Meena Harris’ concoction: “You missed out on fried chillies, which goes well with curd rice.