Food In A Time Of Flood: Vimala’s Curryblossom Café Steps Up And Helps Out

COMMUNITY NEWS

CHAPEL HILL – Vimala’s Curryblossom Café doesn’t usually serve cornbread and collard greens, but these are not normal times. With Carrboro and Chapel Hill still in recovery mode after Chantal, Chef Vimala Rajendran is doing what she can to help.

Rajendran told The Local Reporter that in the aftermath of the recent flooding, she has been sending food to the volunteers who’ve been cleaning up the flood damage. That includes both food for the workers themselves and for the people they’re assisting in hard-hit areas such as Camelot Village and Weather Hill. Working through the volunteers, she said, is the best way to determine how much food is needed and where it is needed.

Since Chantal moved on, the restaurant has sent out a half dozen batches of food, all of varying sizes: 50 meals one time, 30 another, 25 a third. Sometimes it’s the Indian food Vimala’s Curryblossom Café is known for, sometimes Southern. When people are struggling, Rajendran said, “it’s important that we also give them culturally relevant food.”

The Curryblossom story

The Curryblossom Café website describes Rajendran as an “accidental chef” who never planned on becoming a professional cook, never went to culinary school, or “made any of the conscious preparations that an aspiring chef would make.” She loved cooking, starting in childhood, but she saw political science or education as more likely career paths. Even so, she soaked up cooking knowledge from family, neighbors, and friends, gaining an encyclopedic knowledge of the recipes, spices, and subtleties of South Asian cuisine.

Years later, in the United States, that knowledge became a game changer. By then, Rajendran was a single mother of three and a survivor of domestic violence. She had no documentation for her education or her degrees, no money, no access, no family support, “only the confidence that God was with her.”

Cooking became her lifeline. First weekly meals served in her home or offered as takeout, in return for donations dropped in a vase. Then a makeshift commercial kitchen on Rajendran’s porch, allowing her to cater large events and to raise funds for non-profits. Weekly trips to Carrboro Farmer’s Market for local ingredients became part of her routine.

Inevitably, Rajendran’s growing success attracted attention from the health department. When word spread around the farmer’s market that she’d have to close down, the owner of the Sandwhich restaurant said he was relocating; would she like to move into his old space? In the spring of 2010, she did just that, opening Vimala’s Curryblossom Café.

Giving back

In addition to supporting organizations that help domestic-violence victims, Rajendran provided meals during the pandemic to refugees, elderly shut-ins and hospital workers. The same spirit prompts her to donate cooked meals during the ongoing Chantal recovery. She said the Indian meals include tandoori chicken, chicken curry and rice, sauteed green beans and vegetable curry. The Southern food includes roast chicken, collard greens, cornbread and the classic staple macaroni and cheese.

Non-Indian food isn’t something the Curryblossom Café prepares typically, but it’s not unprecedented. She also works with the charitable group Feed Durham, and at one of their events, provided vegetarian food for 125 people. “It was not specifically Indian style,” Rajendran said, “but spiced generic-style, with garlic and onion.”

The biggest challenge in delivering the post-Chantal meals is that the need for food can surface at very short notice. “There is so much need and sometimes unexpected shortness of time to prepare the food.” Sometimes she’s had to ask volunteers to pick up the meals as the cafe’s delivery ability is limited. Still, she said, it’s worth serving up the food to help flood victims and show appreciation to the volunteers. “Those of us at home who are unaffected are not able to do anything unless you keep your eyes open and are able to reach out.”

Rajendran said if community members who don’t have a restaurant kitchen handy want to help, they should reach out to organizations such as Day One Relief and Durham Mutual Aid. “Contact them. Find ways to get into the grime and muck and help.”

Fraser Sherman has worked for newspapers, including the Destin Log, the Pensacola News-Journal and the Raleigh Public Record. Born in England, he’d still live in Florida if he hadn’t met the perfect woman and moved to Durham to marry her. He’s the author of several film reference books and has published one novel and several short story collections. This reporter can be reached at: Information@TheLocalReporter.press