Egg puffs
| Photo Credit: Murali Kumar
“An egg puff is the heart of South India’s bakeries,” says chef Avin Thaliath co-founder of Lavonne Academy in Bengaluru, about the region's most beloved snack. He loves a good ‘mutta pups’ as they are colloquially known, with a cup of a chai on one of Bengaluru’s many rainy days. “I’m willing to bet this is one of the reasons they’re so popular.”As an ode to the iconic snack, and to mark what is National Egg Puff Day on June 13, Lavonne is organising an egg puff crawl through the city’s best bakeries that will culminate in a baking session at the academy.What is an egg puff?If you are not familiar with what an egg puff is, Avin explains, “They are flaky and buttery puff pastries, wrapped around a hard-boiled egg and filled with a delicious onion masala filling. These puffs are handmade and baked until golden and crisp. It is the perfect balance of crunch, spice, and comfort.”Bakeries in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu stock up on these baked pastries daily, and some say their history goes back to when the British were here. “My educated guess would be that it is an adaptation of the European puff pastry introduced during the colonial era. Kerala’s bakery culture embraced these techniques and transformed them with local spices and flavours, creating the version we recognise today.”These bakeries mastered the art of making dishes that are tasty, affordable and designed for the local palate. Egg puffs top the list of these dishes. They are filling, familiar and for certain generations, they taste like nostalgia.
