Tasting a Tasteless Taste: Stoneflower Lichens as a Spice in Indian Food

By Priya Mani

I WAS ONCE INVITED to a nuptial spectacle in an indistinct town of grand mansions in Chettinad; it was a town where no bus paused but the scale of such affairs had been glamorous for centuries. Sitting for the wedding lunch in this small South Indian place, I anticipated a typical Tamil virundhu served on a banana leaf. Instead, a thin yellow broth with…