Kitchen Experiments

FISH N' CHICKEN SIZZLER-COMBINED CREATION

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.

CHOCOLATE N VANILLA CLUBBED CAKE

CREAM PUDDING

CHICKEN DUMPLINGS

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.

BLOOMING ROSE

CHRISTMAS MUFFIN

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.

STRAWBERRY N VANILLA SMASH

VANNILA DELIGHT