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| FISH N' CHICKEN SIZZLER-COMBINED CREATION |
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| CHEESE CAKE WITH HANDMADE DECOR |
What can I say about food that will warrant any attention
except perhaps the fact that like most people I too love (though live would
have been more appropriate) to eat tasty food. Food that tantalizes my taste buds.
Not that I do not indulge in the omnipresent peanuts, ice-cream (divine pralines
n cream with hot chocolate and almonds- bless you Baskin n Robbin) , salted
cashew nuts (the unhealthy variety not the roasted ones), muffins,
mixture(especially the hot and spicy variety…like BBSR’s Mukharuchi) and such
other fattening, blissful comfort foods- while bracing in those rare idyllic stolen
moment in front of the idiot box. Wow! It sure feels amazing uuum, smack smack…even
the mention of those easy handy bits make my mouth go droll droll!! There I
digress from my main course. Well what I’m saying is that I am a foodie to the
core and the most dangerous kind that exists, because I’m cursed with a sweet tooth.
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| CHOCOLATE N VANILLA CLUBBED CAKE |
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| CREAM PUDDING |
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| CHICKEN DUMPLINGS |
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| SIZZLER WITH VEGGIES N BROWN RICE |
Forgive
one more itsy bitsy diversion-Apparently we can train our babies to become
healthy eaters, or unhealthy ones right from the womb. Obviously this
information was not so livid during the seventies and so viola you have my
case. Well coming back to the main point- food has long graduated from man’s
basic need to man’s(that includes Wo-man—the hip n’ happening kind of man)
leisure, comfort, muse even a source of income. Decades ago my friends in
hostel had relegated my kitchen duties to that of a dish washer-literally. I
was happy to lick my fingers and praise my friends for their culinary skills in
creating allu bhaja, tomato poda with all the smashing paga’s. Mind you these
were heavenly delicacies, making a 360 degree difference to our staple diet of
rice, curd and rasam or was it a watery sambar? Creating these wonders required
skills in sweet talking our chef bhaiya into handing us a piece of potato or sneaking
into the store just a wee bit for that unattended onion in the huge heap. Wow! We
felt like James Bond on a mission.
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| BLOOMING ROSE |
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| CHRISTMAS MUFFIN |
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| GAJAR HALWA |
Well I have left those memories in the past.
After marriage my friends were worried for me for a long time. Though with
successive visits they began to put their concerns to sleep. They were assured
that I won’t starve to death with a husband who could brush up a killer mutton
keema and a few other lifesaving antidotes. During those first falls and bumps
in the kitchen my hubby gave me some "gyan"(food for thought) that I appreciate better now. That
was a time I had grudgingly heard him say “ Presentation matters as much as the
taste.” Hummh! Food is for mouth not for eyes” I had foolishly blunted.
Well I
have left those times far behind in the past too. I may not be eligible to win a cookery contest but still time and age have placed me quiet a few notches higher than my dish cleaner days. My present goals are pretty far-fetched though- namely to beat Mom-in-laws divine Biryani and Mom's awesome Dhokla and Rolls.At present my best motivation
to cook food that tastes as well as looks great are times when – Son says “Mom
do you know how much I love you?” and goes around the inner perimeter of each
room of the house with his arms wide open saying “Thisssssssssss Much” or When
daughter comes from school and enters the kitchen sniffing the air “East or
West Mama’s food is the best.” I know it
may sound like I’m buying love….but what the heck all is fair in love and war
and especially war for love.
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| STRAWBERRY N VANILLA SMASH |
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| VANNILA DELIGHT |
