The change

Last weekend, me and G went vegetable shopping. As we were scanning and examining few vegetables (What!!! each piece has to be checked ), a girl who was standing behind me interrupted us.

Girl: Excuse Me
Me : Yes
Girl: Can you please tell what is this? (Pointing to a bunch of leafy vegetable)
Me: It's Corriander
Girl: So Whats the difference between this and this (pointing to another section where coriander was)
Me: (Got a doubt, picked up one bunch, sniffed it) This is also coriander. Both of them are.
Girl: Thank you.

Later when I turned back, G said, you should've said one is Nati(local) other one is not. We just laughed over it and came back home.

But this reminded me of those days when I couldn't tell the difference between Daals (lentils), I dint know what was the base ingredient of lot of dishes. I remember calling mom to ask for recipes.

As time flew, I got better with this stuff, and there were times when I was telling mom about recipes, and helping her in identifying a lot of the non indian ingredients.

So when we came back home, and me and G were thinking of an unusual dish to prepare, the transformation just hit me. How things change, and how we grow up....

Golden Pears

Its been so long since I have written anything here in this space. Its not that I dint have ideas. Sometimes I have a written an entire post, but its all either in my dream or when I am lying down on the bed, and in no mood to open my laptop to post.

And that's why my one or 2 readers I donot have any post for so many months.

Going forward, I am going to try to publish atleast 1 post a week.

By the way, we get this fruit called Golden Pears, near our house. I am obsessed with it right now. They are so juicy. I love succulent fruits. I bring one fruit to office and its already sliced into 8 pieces. And I keep munching on them every hour or so. That way my craving to eat something is satisfied and I am not thinking of junk food. Lets see how long this is going to continue. And guess what, this made me open up my blog and publish a post. So Golden Pears, this post is dedicated to you :)

Kai-tuthu

Summer holidays meant spending 2 weeks with Paati, mamas, younger cousins. And in those times lunch and dinner times would be awesome, coz all of us(cousins) would sit in a semicircle, with our Paati in the center. She would have a huge bowl of sambar rice, and would make almost perfect balls and place it in our hands. We would, cup our palms and ensure that as soon as Paati places the mixture, we pop it into our mouth. After the sambar rice, we would continue with curd rice and end up eating more than how much we would have eaten, if we were just given food in our plate. That was our favorite Kai-tuthu. She would ensure that all of us have had our full and only then go to eat her lunch.

Couple of days before my wedding, we had mehendi ceremony at home, and most of my cousins were to stay in our house that night. We again had the Kai-tuthu. Ofcourse, my hands were not free, and I was directly fed by my Paati. But all my cousins who were no longer kids, enjoyed this process. Even after my wedding, we have had this kai-tuthu a few times.

It’s been a long time, since we have had this. Next time I meet Paati, I might again request for Kai-tuthu from her. She would more than happy to do this. I am sure about that!!!

They say parents love their kids unconditionally. I think grandparents also love their grand kids unconditionally. Probably a little more than their own kids.. Like they say interest is more interesting than the principle J

Pop The Corn

What is the main reason which can drag you to a movie theatre. Ofcourse the movie.. but apart from that… Come on.. think about it.. Well let me just bring it out.

A large tub of salted popcorn, with butter as a topping. You spend the entire movie munching on one popcorn at a time. Well, this used to be my condition to go to movie while we were in US. Even if it happened to be the most boring movie, and if G wanted to watch it, I wouldn’t mind, as long as I get my individual tube of butter loaded popcorn.

Once we came back to India, the extra butter wasn’t there, but if the popcorn was fresh, it was still worth it. We used to get 2 large popcorns for both of us and enjoy at our pace. Now, we get 1 tub of popcorn for both of us together. Now, I am totally okay with this arrangement. Only problem is the way both of us eat our popcorns. I take 1 in my hand, and bite into half and relish each and every piece, while takes a fistful in his hand and shoves all of it in his mouth. So while I have just finished a fistful of popcorn, G has already emptied half of the tub, which leaves me furious. How can he just eat all of my popcorn. Alright our popcorn. I give him the ultimatum everytime that this is the last time I would be sharing the tub with him and he has to get his own popcorn from next time. He plainly refuses, saying whats the fun in that. And when I insist, he says, alright I will not eat from your tub.

The next time we went, I reminded him that I will not share my popcorn with him. He agreed, got me a popcorn tub and as soon as we sat on our seats, and I dug into the popcorn tub, I see a fistful of popcorn in G’s hand going out from my tub.

“My popcorn”, I said and pulled the tub away from him.

“Just once”, and he grinned.
“Whatever”, I rolled my eyes.
                                                                                               
After a while he dint touch my popcorn, but I couldn’t concentrate on the movie or the popcorn, and ended up sharing my tub of popcorn with G, coming back to square1. Even though I had lesser popcorn, even though I had to share, I was more content and happy with the movie experience.

This doesn’t mean, I don’t create this scene in the theatre when we go for movies now. I still claim for my individual popcorn everytime, and end up sharing my popcorn with him. Sigh!!! Now that I have got used to it, I probably cannot eat a tubful of popcorn alone, and need G to empty the tub. Oh!! Such complicated issues of life!!!

Rice Payasam

Rice Kheer or the Rice Payasam – I hate it, there I said it. I really really hate it.

Payasam or kheer, is as such my least favorite sweet dish. I prefer the barfis, the gulab jamuns, the rasgullas, basically something which can linger in my mouth for a few seconds, and I can squeeze out all the taste in my mouth, before I gulp it in. With Payasam or kheer its just sweetened milk, with something additional in it, either rice or dal or semia or sabudana or rava or even broken wheat. So the moment it goes in your mouth, its gone thru the food pipe. What the fun in that?

I remember, it was always a torture during festivals, when I had refuse these payasams. Mom would give some reason for me drink, and when you visit relatives, they would tell you hundred other things on why you should have this tasty drink. One of my aunt’s even used this wonderful trick. “If you don’t drink this, then it means you don’t love your mother” (Bah!!!!) as if I would listen to that.. I would just tell everyone, I don’t care if you think I don’t love mom, but I do, and I don’t have to prove it by drinking this. Slowly people stopped forcing me to drink it.

Even today, I do make the payasam or kheer on festivals, but I hardly taste a spoonful, just for the sake of it. I don’t mind sevai Kheer to some extent, if its thick enough, like made from milk maid, or if its in the rabri consistency, and I alos don’t mind chilled channa daal kheer, again that’s coz it tastes like icecream to me. I cannot tolerate the khus khus payasam and most of all, I don’t like the famous “Rice payasam”. And I am totally aghast or give a weird experession, when somebody declares. I love Rice Kheer!!!!

FMS

This happened during one of my trips during Engineering. We were about to have lunch (lemon rice and curd rice – packed from a caterer). It was in those paper packets, no fancy packing, no spoons.

All of us sat in a group. Since we were tired of playing around, as soon as we got the food, we started digging our hands and filled our mouths and started chewing. One friend of mine, opened the packet and was just staring at the food. I couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t even touched it. This was the conversation we had.

Me : Hey S, are you not hungry?
S : Very much
Me: Is something wrong with the food?
S: I don’t know. I haven’t tasted it yet.
Me: You don’t like rice?
S: I like rice, esp curd rice.
Me: Ok. Then what’s stopping you from eating the food.
S: Can I get a spoon?
Me: Emm.. I don’t think we have spoons. We have anyway washed our hands, why don’t you just eat without the spoon.
S: I can’t
Me: Look S, where are we going to find a spoon for you in the middle of the forest. Come on, go ahead and start eating.
S: I know, but I can’t
Me: Why?
S: I don’t know how to eat rice, without a spoon.
Me: You mean you have never had rice using your hand.
S: yup.
Me: You mean, never, ever?
S: yup
Me: Ok.. This is a situation. No problem. I will teach you to eat using FMS.
S: FMS?
Me: Flexible Mobile Spoon :) Our palm and fingers
S: ok.. lets try
Me: See the incentive is you get to eat your favorite – Curd rice.

After a few minutes, S could manage to eat using his FMS and thanked me a ton, for helping him and not letting him starve.

SubWAY

I had been a year since I joined the comapany, when I heard a Lady say, the food in subway is really good. I knew she had been to US, so she was talking about Subway over there.

Background : Subway meant those underground crossings which we have where pedestrians are not allowed to cross the road. Ofcourse in Bangalore they have these hawkers selling pety stuff over there, so I assumed she meant the food she got there was good. I thought, lucky people, they get good food even in subways, all we get here is peanuts/cut guava/ or something which doesn’t look very healthy enough for us to eat.

I never discussed this with anyone to clarify, what subway food was all about. Few months later, I was in US and one of my friends suggested we go to “Subway”. I was thrilled, and wanted to see, what it was all about. Off he drove and stopped in front of a sandwich shop, which was called “SUBWAY”. The conversation was like this:

Me: Here?
Him : Yeah… this is Subway
Me: Oh (laughing at myself)
Him: It’s ok right? Or you want to go to Indian restaurant
Me: Its fine… I can try it out.

The first time I dint know what to order. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about. Bread and few veggies, so why go ga-ga over it. I dint go to subway for a long time after that.

Later, on a trip, one of my friends showed me that we could add sauces to it, have it with veggie patty etc etc. I started loving the sweet onion suace, slowly mustard. They even started with a broccoli cheddar soup. I liked that too…

Today when I was ordering in subway, when I asked for sweet onion, southwest, spicy mustard and I saw so many people in the queue (esp new to the corp world).. I wondered, when I was like them, I dint even know what this thing was… How things have changed!!!

Also, now I know Subway is just not the underbridge, but it’s a food chain.

PS: Hey the train system in New York is also called Subway… So if there was a Subway within Subway.. how would you say it?

Sambar, Rice, and Spoon

Cookery shows have been my favorite since I was in school. Although at those times I used to tell my mom to make all those dishes. Recently, I have made some stuff, following these shows. It's kind of fun. Once in a while, I even see those clips, where I already know how to make the dish. I do this, just so that, I can see some difference and try it out.

So, I was watching this sambar recipe. Well, incidently, I know to make sambar, with the powder (which mom/M-I-L make) or ones where we grind the powder. Now, anytime anybody asks me, how do you make sambar? there is no single recipe. Every house, mind you, not every community or every caste, but every house has its own taste of sambar. The sambar powder mom makes is different from what my M-I-L makes, and who knows, someday, I might have my own recipe(thats in the far future). So, I just tell them the basic recipe if they already have a powder.

Now coming back to the show, the chef prepared the sambar, and for the taste, he mixed it with rice and started eating it. He was eating with spoon. As he ate 2-3 spoons, he kept on thinking what was missing, and then he realized, it was the spoon.
He makes this statement " Sambar, Rice, and Spoon, never go together". I was laughing out loud when I heard this. I have heard this a lot of times since my childhood "Who eats Sambar Rice with spoon?? " and sometimes its totally true. Atleast at home, most of us grew up eating our food using our hands without spoons. Exam times, study times were different when we would have the liberty to use spoons, but otherwise it was always hands.

Infact, until I had a lot of north Indian friends, I dint even seem to notice. Well I have seen them using spoon for a dosa. I have never understood that part. My roommate was one such girl. She used to make the dosa piece into a cone and put in sambar using a spoon and then eat. I would lose interest in eating dosa in such a way. Some of us even tried to tell her, how we eat it, but i guess she never left her comfort zone.

Well, all you people who feel eating rice and sambar using your hands is weird, let me tell you its not. Infact, using the spoon for this very reason is injustice to rice and sambar :)
Well, on a different note, when I go to Indian restaurants in US, and I happen to eat sambar rice I use the spoon, only because, I am lazy to go and wash my hands in restroom and they dont give a finger bowl here. But at home, it's always my god-made spoon :)

To eat or not to eat

I dont remember a time when I have liked Cauliflower. Sometime when I was young, I associated this vegetable with human brain. I still dont know why, but after that, I hav never ever liked anything made of this vegetable. I would rather eat plain rice, chapati with ketchup instead of Gobi sabzi. My mom tried several tricks so that I could eat this. But the moment I saw this vegetable in any dish, I used to throw a tantrum and never ate it.

Years later, once when mom tried Gobi Paratha, I liked this vegetable a little bit. Ofcourse, this was because, the vegetable was kinda mashed and I couldnt see the florets. Then one day we went to one of the fast food joints (The shanti sagar types). We had gobi manchurian as an appetizer. I tasted one, with reluctance and then there is no looking back. Gobi manchurian is my favorite appetizer ever.

It seems strange that I still hate anything else made of this vegetable, unless it very finely chopped and I cant see the florets. But Gobi manchurian, I can have it any time of the day. Its very sad that, most of the Indian restaurants in US, dont serve this. In India, we categorize this in chinese dishes. But I have never seen it in Chinese menu either. May be it completely Indian and just because we have Soy Sauce, we call it Indo-Chinese. Anyway, for all I care, I love this and was missing it a lot in US.

Since I am on the cooking spree, I tried this at home. And I must say, it was awesome, it was 99% like the ones we get in India...

Here's a pic of what we ate. G loved it. We finished the whole plate in a few minutes.

Poori

Pooris were our favourite when we were kids. We could gobble up the hot pooris anytime of the day. Those were the days, when people were not obsessed with fat-nonfat, oooo will I become fat sort of things.

Mom used to make excellent round and fluffy pooris. I used to love bursting the those. We would have it with Chole, Rajma, Sagu,Aaloo sabji. There were times when we had it with cabbage, beetroot sabjis too. Mom realized that she could get us to eat vegetables which we dint like with pooris. She then started making palak and beetroot, green pooris, red pooris so yummy and healthy too.

Well, it had been days since we ate pooris. I was trying out some new curry for chapatis. And then thought, why not make pooris instead. So this became our lunch for the day.

Poori and Pitla.



Pitla it seems is a Maharashtrian dish. Its made of Chickplea flour,onion, tomatoes and spices. Seems, its usually eaten with Bhakri.

Well I just made a poori-pitla combination and it tastes yummy :)

Cooking expeditions...

When I first came to US all I knew was to cook some basic stuff. There was lot of work pressure those days. So cooking time was like relaxing time. I used to call Mom and ask for new reciepes. Slowly I learnt more about cooking. There were times when the food used to be a little messed up. The saviour would again be mom. I would tell her the problem, and she would give me a solution. This way, I learnt some tricks and tips too.

Recently, I developed this interest of trying new reciepes again. So, I tried to make some Khandvi 2-3 weeks back. It was pretty simple to make, but only problem I had was to flatten it. I succeded to some extent, and it was tasty. To add in my touch, I sprinked some sprouted green moong. We enjoyed a nice evening snack :)

Little Tea party

I just happened to see a photo of a small girl playing with a teapot and a cup. This just triggered my memory and my childhood just flashed in front of me.

As a part of our childhood, we had so many dolls but the main thing was to have a kitchen set. We had these made of steel, clay, plastic. They were replicas of what mom had in her “real” kitchen, and this was so exciting. Mom would lend grains to put in these teeny weeny containers. And yeah!!! Before we had a actual fridge at home, I already had a beautiful plastic one which was as big as my dad’s palm… But hey this was one thing mom dint have and I had… and being the nice daughter I was, I had even offered mom she could use mine… That time I dint know why she never used it (ofcourse much later when we had a real one, I knew why she had refused).

If there were no children to actually play with me, mom would volunteer. She would be my guest, me being the perfect hostess, would offer her tea, juice and lot many things to drink (all of which would be water in a thumb sized glass. Then we would have lunch in our play plates, so peanuts were to be assumed as rice and sambar. Of course we would use up the snacks and take bigger plates and eat those.

As I grew a little older, I grew out of these smaller vessels and containers and actually started making something in the kitchen (say: Tea). I was always fascinated with the whole tea sets which were shown in movies. So sometimes my parents used to play along with me. We had 2 tea sets at home, and they were to be used only on special occasions. Well, mom used to carefully take it out for me and I used to prepare the tea decoction (tea without milk – water a tea powder boiled well together) put it in the big tea pot, then hot milk in the smaller pot, then sugar in the sugar container. I used to take the whole tray in front of them. Then pour all these one by one in the cup. In the end, you are supposed to ask the quantity of sugar. Once all this is done, I used to serve them the tea with some biscuits. This whole thing used to take much more time than the usual, but the fun and the time we used to spend on this was totally awesome.

How I wish I can be that little girl again!!!