The story of Charlie’s Pickles begins long before the first jar was filled.
It starts on the docks of Kerala in India where Charles Michael John’s parents boarded a ship headed to British Malaya. With little more than hope, family, and whatever food from home they could carry, their trunks and jars were scented by spices, ground masalas, and other ingredients they hoped would survive the journey. Their food, they believed, was how home would be kept alive, even as the Keralacoastline faded from view.
As a young man, Charlie found work at the Land Registry Office in Kuala Lumpur, eventually earning a role as an Officer. The title came with a modest home that frequently housed relatives and friends staying for a bit or longer.
Being a bachelor with his own place meant one thing: Charlie had to cook for himself.This is where his diaspora inheritance truly came alive. In his small KL kitchen, far from the coastlines of Kerala but close enough to its memory, Charlie began to recreate the flavours he’d grown up with, especially his beloved spiced saltfish pickle, the “padda” he had known since childhood.
In his late twenties, Charlie met Lily Alfred, a poised, beautiful, and independent young woman recently back after completing an education in Australia. He didn’t take long to propose, and she said “yes.” Now, Charlie’s home became Charlie & Lily’s place, where visitors were always met with smiles and food. It was during their first year as husband and wife that Charlie introduced Lily to his beloved saltfish padda.
And it was love at first bite.
From the 1960s onward, padda was no longer just Charlie’s favourite; it became the soul of the John household. Batch after batch vanished, eaten every which way imaginable, with plain rice, spread on toast, spooned into many a dish adding a spicy tangy twist, and even, sometimes, eaten simply on its own! For the John’s, this pickle wasn’t a side dish; it was family shorthand for comfort, love, and the feeling of being home, no matter how much life outside changed.
When Charlie passed away in 1994, his absence left more than an empty chair at the dining table. Missing too was his frequent, loud laugh, comforting voice, and expressions of delight when eating the foods he loved, especially his padda. Lily decided that his signature dish couldn’t be forgotten so she did what diaspora families have always done: she kept the recipe alive by cooking it herself, carefully, faithfully, making the saltfish pickle that had been Charlie’s pride.
In honour of the man who gave it life in their home, she named it Charlie’s Pickles.
Since that moment, the man and his recipe live on, and now, far beyond Kuala Lumpur as a new chapter of Charlie's Pickles is born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
