© of Winslie Gomez
Anna, here’s a few words to help you enjoy your delight.
Pappadoms
May your charm never reach a sell-by date or ever get icy.
May your wit crackle and pop as a crispy poppadom.
Your humour hot, dry and spicy.
May you rise to life’s little challenges like a papad in hot oil.
But hopefully, unlike the very same poppadom,
You will never be brittle nor snap, bubble or boil.
For those of you not familiar with this South Indian delicacy that accomapnies every meal and usually served with a variety of pickles.
How do you spell ‘poppadom’?
As with many words from foreign languages which have their own alphabets, there is no universally accepted way of transcribing the Tamil name of this food into English. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1999) lists the word at poppadom, but mentions poppadum, and popadom, as alternatives. The variant spellings which have been listed in Oxford dictionaries include papadam, papaddam, papadom, papadum, papodam, papodum, popadam, popadom, poppadam, poppadom, poppadum, poppodam, puppadum, puppodam, puppodum. However, there is nothing to say that you cannot use the unlisted spellings papodom, popadum, poppodom, poppodum, puppadam, puppadom, and puppodom. Take your pick!
