Imagine your favorite
Indian restaurant: the spices in the air, the richness of curry, the crunch of
samosas, the buttery-ness of fresh naan – all ending in a cozy food coma.
Ever wish you could
extend that delicious comfort? Well, you can: in the form of cute and cuddly
stuffed toys called Happy Bellies.
courtesy of Happy Bellies
Happy Bellies is a
staff-picked Kickstarter project launched by three food lovers living in
Bangalore – Diana, Jackie, and Avantika – who want you to be able to hug your
favorite Indian foods, no matter where you live. The proceeds will go towards
bringing life-changing technologies to villages in India, through Diana and
Jackie’s non-profit Essmart Global.
** The campaign ends on
November 3rd, so don’t wait to check it out! **
Diana is a close friend
of mine from grad school and happened to be in Philly earlier
this month. While we embarked on our own mini food crawl through Center City, we
chatted about Happy Bellies, the different characters and crews, product design, and
Diana’s efforts to learn Indian cookery – with plenty of tangents in between.
This is Part I of our meanderings, with Part II to follow.
Stop 1
We started at
Metropolitan Bakery (262 S. 19th St.), a Philly mainstay. I
wanted to try the millet muffin, which I had heard about on the podcast the
Local Mouthful. While our conversation there wasn’t really quote-worthy for this post, we did
have some laughs about AirBnB’s Obama O’s, YouTube stars, and savvy swag by
presidential candidates.
Stop 2
Fried chicken and donuts?
Yes please! The conversation got back on track at the Center City location of Federal Donuts (1632 Sansom St.), over za’atar-spiced fried
chicken accompanied by a particularly delicious honey donut.
Me: How did you come up with the idea for Happy
Bellies?
Diana: Actually, nobody
on the team did. Esther, my college roommate, had come to India to visit me
last year in August. We did this crazy all India tour, and we were eating a lot
of food. I think we were in Shimla in north India, but were eating a south Indian
food, idlis. She’s very visual -- and is also Asian and in architecture – so Esther
was like, “Oh these look like little pillows! So cute!” And then, “What if we
made them into little pillows?” That was the question.
What are idlis?
They are made out of
fermented lentil and rice. So they’re like steamed rice cakes in a way, but a
little sour. Idlis are a very popular south Indian breakfast food. But they’re
kind of tasteless until they take on the flavor of the sauces. It kind of relates to the
character ‘Lil Idlis. We made them
little children because they have no taste of their own. They’re very
impressionable.
So then how did you go from, “Maybe we should make
them into pillows?” to starting an Essmart spinoff -- for lack of a better
word?
I don’t think we took it
seriously until June of this year. We were in a fundraising mode, trying to be creative and seeing if
we can supplement our operations with something completely different. I don’t
know if there’s quite a market for it, but it’s fun and ridiculous – kind of like
us.
Where did the name Happy Bellies come from?
I think we ripped it off
of somebody.
[We laugh]
There’s this bakery near
our office that’s called Happy Belly Bakes. It’s one of my favorite bakeries because
they have amazing cupcakes, my favorite being the banana walnut cupcake.
There’s also a thing called
“Delhi belly,”when you go to India and you eat the food and get diarrhea. It’s really
bad. So, we’re still dealing with Indian foods but we are in contrast to Delhi
belly. We are Happy Bellies! Yay!
So how did you pick out which foods to highlight
and make into characters?
We chose the foods mostly
based on their shape – and, I guess, how well known they are. I
mean, personally my favorite food is not on the list. It would be a chicken
kotu parotta.
What is that?
A parotta is south
Indian, sometimes called a Kerala parotta. It’s a flatbread that’s layered and really
rich. Like a flat croissant. I don't know how to explain it… It’s awesome. It’s
like really oily, full of ghee and made up of a lot of layers.
And what do you eat that with?
Usually it comes with
some kind of korma, like a veggie curry. But the way I eat it is kothu parotta.
“Kothu” means “cut.” So, on a flat area, [chefs] take this stainless steel cup
and they go boomboom-boomboom-boomboom-boomboom-boom
and they chop up the parotta. Then they mix in egg and chicken and masala
spices and cilantro. It’s so good. The first time I ate it, it reminded me of
[Chinese] chow fun.
Ooh, interesting!
I was like, “Oh my gosh!”
And the best one I’ve ever had was in Polachi, Tamil-Nadu, down south close to
the Kerala border. The parottas are crispier there. It’s ridiculous. So good.
But … chopped up dough and chicken don’t make a good stuffed animal.
It doesn’t
look like anything.
Likewise, you can’t do a gravy, like a butter chicken or
--
Or a
tandoori chicken.
Yeah, that doesn’t look
like a good stuffed toy.
[We both laugh.]
But what do look good are south Indian breakfast
foods, which is a cuisine all in itself so you need to honor it. [Our characters] are the trinity, the triumvirate of the south Indian breakfast
foods. Like the masala dosa, which is similar to an idli but the batter isn’t
as fermented. It’s like a crepe with potatoes inside. We named it Dozing Dosa because it makes you really
sleepy after you eat it.
I like that name.
Yes, it’s very cute. And
then we have idli because it’s also classic, and they’re really cute.
Then vada. They’re kind
of like savory donuts. We made them Auntie
and Uncle Vada because vada are something that oftentimes people make at
home and serve around teatime. They could also be a morning thing, but we needed
something to represent south Indian hospitality.
Everyone also seems to be an auntie and uncle.
Yup! That’s true. If you
don’t know the name of your elder, just call them auntie and uncle and that’s
perfectly fine.
So we chose those
[three]. For our other crews - our other groups - we had wanted to do, for
example, something based on foods in Kerala because they’re really
funny-looking. But we decided not to do that because nobody knows what they are
outside of India -- like an appam, or
an idiyappam. We ended up going with
the street foods because they’re a bit more famous.
We had to do a samosa.
Even though I don’t really eat that many samosas when I’m in India, everyone
knows what a samosa is. So we made it Superstar
Samosa for that reason ‘cause it’s so famous. And then jalebi wasn’t on our list initially –
Is that the one that looks like – no offense --
It looks like poop!
I was gonna say worms!
It’s basically deep-fried
dough coated in a sugary syrup. Our first iteration of the jalebi was much
thinner, much more like jalebi. But we wanted it to be cuddlier, so we asked the
manufacturer to stuff it more. Then it started to look like a pile of poop, and
now… We’re going to change the dimensions. It needs to be cuddly but can’t look
disgusting.
[We both laugh]
Then we chose pani puri,
which are little fried crispy balls that are filled with flavored water.
via Happy Bellies
Now, do you have a favorite character?
It’s hard to say. [pause]
On the website, I wrote that it was the idli because Avantika already took the
dosa. I would get the dosa, though. It’s the cutest and most accurate. The idlis
are also very cute, but our first prototypes were closer to life size, which I
thought were adorable. But we made them larger so that all together they’re
like a cushion. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.
So when we sent our stuff
to the designer, our manufacturer –
What kind of manufacturer are you working with?
He’s a soft toy
manufacturer. We just Googled a lot and found a guy in Bangalore who was
actually decently responsive.
Are they all handmade?
[The fabric] is cut with
machines but the embroidery is hand done.
How are you hoping that the Kickstarter will relate
to Essmart, either in the short-term or the long-term?
In the short-term,
fundraising. We’re funding it out of Essmart money and we’ll take all the
proceeds back to Essmart as a revenue stream. Will it be a long-term thing? I
have no idea. If it’s successful and people want to buy them, who knows, maybe
we’ll set up another company and sell it. But right now we’re just seeing where
the Kickstarter goes, and if there’s interest.
///
Check out Part II for more on Happy Bellies, glitter and sparkles,
the struggles of cooking Indian food, and more.
To learn more or simply
get your dose of cuteness and humor, head to the Happy Bellies Kickstarter page
or their website.
///
“Creative Good” is a new series on creative ways
to bring good to communities around the world. I love hearing about new
initiatives, so if you have suggestions for a company, project, or person (or
something else!) to profile, get in touch!
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