Some Reading, and Some Drooling

When Jayashree tagged me to do this book meme, I decided to ignore the first rule - it requires me to pick up the nearest book. Well, the book nearest to me now has some pretty boring stuff in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth sentences on Pg 123 (methought it was a murder mystery; it turned out to be more of a romantic thriller - one pair of charismatic cops and one pair of charismatic suspects for nice balance), so I hunted for a book which I thought held more promise, but while the book is very interesting and funny, this extract doesn't say much about the book itself.

To recap, here are the rules for this meme:
Pick up the nearest book
Open to page 123
Find the 5th sentence
Post the next three sentences
Tag 5 people and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

Here's the extract:

The 5th sentence (which is a quote from another book): "If someone tell you an obviously untrue story, on the Continent you would remark, "You are a liar, Sir," and a dirty one at that."
"In England you just say "Oh, is that so?" Or "That's rather an unusual story, isn't it?"
Turned down for a job as a translator, for which he was completely unqualified, Mikes was told, "I am afraid your English is somewhat unorthodox." He found this hilarious.

The book: Talk to the Hand
Chapter: The Universal Eff-Off Reflex
Author: Lynne Truss, also known for the international bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Whom She's Quoting: George Mikes, How to be a Brit

I'm tagging Sig of Live to Eat
Jayashree of Spice and Curry
Pragyan of Sorisha
Sukanya of Hot and Sweet Bowl
and
Vidya of Tales Grandma Never Told and Hooked on Hobbies for this meme.

Till next week, here's some food for you to drool over - all very "homely items" made for my friend S who came over to spend a couple of hours, and who brought some really creamy and I think, vegan, Aloo Dum for us to eat. It's not visible but it's in the white plastic container at the back. The rest are pappu charu with bottlegourd, prawn curry, dosakaya pachadi and pumpkin curry with jaggery.

Meme Book Mem Lynne+Truss

The Maximum Convexity of the Butt

Is this the maximum convexity of your butt?” she questioned, holding measuring tape around such named part.
“Eh?” was my response.
“Is this the maximum convexity of your butt?” she repeated.
I confessed I did not understand. (Physics (and Chem, and Maths) left me scarred and I gave up ‘convex’ and ‘concave’ soon as I left school, and hearing those words after all these years set off those familiar, unwelcome palpitations.)
“I mean, is this where your butt is the most … how to put it, standing out?” she said.
“Judge for yourself,” I said, turning away to give her a better view.

I didn’t make up that question – those were her exact words. I was in the gym, an agonised weightwatcher going back to those confines after a break of more than six months. Other than the fact that most of me is at its maximum convex now, what struck me was how a simple question was rendered rather baffling because it was put across so bookishly.

People seem to have forgotten simple English, methinks. The need to appear oh so smart and polished, business-like and tech-savvy, and Westernised, too, is what drives this painful turn of phrase.

The other day, I got an e-mail from someone from whom I needed information, saying, “Get in touch with so-and-so – he will give you a good download.” Really?
And then there was the person who called and asked if he could “have access” to so-and-so. As if so-and-so was a vault and you could turn a key in his back and open him up!
There are the publicists who urge you to meet so-and-so “just for a relationship meeting, Madam” – their way of saying that it’s just a preliminary meeting, and that there are no expectations lurking anywhere. And the newbie, fresh out of college, who obviously had not mastered how, when and where to say “Fair enough.” To everything I said, he kept saying “Fairly good” with a wise and understanding expression on his face and never was I more tempted to correct a total stranger!

Rant over, I now focus on a recipe that hasn’t got much to do with any maximum convexity, unless you drench it in ghee and bury it in a mound of rice to get rid of the sting.

But before that, some acknowledgements. The blog header you’re seeing is courtesy Sandeepa. Thank You, Sandeepa.

Then, Nirmala gave this blog the Yummy Blog Award and Kalai gave me the You Make My Day award. Thank you both.

Now the Yummy Blog Award mandates that I reveal the desserts I like the most. Here they are:

Angoori Rabdi (At a restaurant, as part of a Gujarati thali)

Bread pudding (my own, that’s right, no humility!)

Khubani ka Meetha with cream, in a Hyderabad restaurant

One grandma’s laddu, another’s palatalikalu

Panna cotta with vanilla bean

Then, Lavi tagged me for a meme – I told her I’d do a truncated version. Here goes:

Last movie you saw in a theatre
Taare Zameen Par

What book(s) are you reading?
A Prisoner of Birth

Favourite board game
Scrabble

Favourite smells
Lavender, vetiver, jasmine, herbal soap

Favourite sounds
Birds chirping in the morning

Worst feeling in the world
Anxiety

First thing I think of when I wake
Did I have to wake up already?

Storms – cool or scary?
A nuisance, at the very least

Favourite drink?
Lime-ginger

Finish the statement – If I had the time, I would …
Look for ways to spend it!

One nice thing about the person who sent it to you.
She has big, beautiful eyes.

Morning person or night owl?
Night owl.

Eggs over easy or sunny side up?
Over easy

Favourite pie?
Apple

Favourite ice-cream
Vanilla choco-chip

The recipe I have today is a fiery and simple one. I received a present of ripe red chillies and didn’t know what to do with them for two weeks. Finally, I used them for a chutney.

Ripe red chillies: 200-250 gm, chopped
White onions (or any colour): 3, quartered or cut into eight pieces each
Tamarind – lime-sized (Wet in a little water much ahead, no need to soak it in a lot of water)
Salt, to taste
Garlic – 5-6 cloves, skinned

Tempering
Mustard seed – 1-1/2 tsp
Cumin seed – 1 tsp
Hulled, husked and split urad/black gram dal – 2 tsp
Curry leaves – a few
Oil – 2 tsp

Heat oil, temper with the black gram. As it begins to turn brown, add the mustard, cumin and curry leaves.

When they pop and the gram turns a nutty brown, add the chillies, garlic and onion. Fry them till they become glossy and onions become translucent.

Cool, add salt, tamarind and grind in a mixer. Beware, it’s really hot.

For a variation, you can mix a bit of this well with some curds/yoghurt, temper this again and eat it with rice or use it for idlis, dosas and the like.

I have since been enlightened about how chillis and raspberries belong to the same family, so this is my submission to Dee for AFAM-Raspberry.

Red chilli/Pandumirpakaya pachadi Curds/Yoghurt Meme Onion Humour

An Update, A Recipe & A Meme

I’ve been tagged for a couple of memes in the recent and not-so-recent past. Much as I have fun doing them, I can’t always come up with material, and of late, I’ve even been forgetting about being tagged. Memes have their uses – not only do you get to talk about yourself on the very expedient, guilt-free excuse that someone wants you to do it, but they also fill the silence when you don’t have anything much to say.

Rachel of Tangerine's Kitchen tagged me for this meme. Considering I’ve not been honest about the really bizarre side of me, I hope this is at least a halfway good read.

1) I can never read books or watch movies or shows which don’t have women characters in them. I try, especially if it’s a must-read/must-see, but I can never go through with it. I find them extremely drab, and yes, I’ve missed out on a lot of good works this way. I’ve been this way since I was a kid.

2) Similarly, I can never finish self-help books. I’ve borrowed several to read, and they’ve gone right back to their owners. I have one with me right now, which my friend swears is wonderful, but the very layout of the book is putting me off! Bad, because it promises me that if I adopt its teachings, I will get whatever I want.

3) As much as I dislike traveling by autorickshaws (the Indian equivalent of cabs), because of the bargaining and arguing involved, I do. Often, when the driver grumbles on the way, I shout him down with unassailable arguments of fair, just and such virtues, or if he doesn’t return the change, shake my index finger violently at him and curse him that he will lose double that money, then reach my destination and begin worrying that he will somehow wreak revenge on me.

4) I am a worrier. If, for some reason, I catch myself feeling good and relaxed, I worry about that. Didn’t I have something to worry about just a few minutes ago, come on, bring that back, what was that?

5) I’m often accused of being too polite and too politically correct. (My mother won’t agree, of course.) I can be tediously nice but since that’s not naturally me, I sometimes slip and say something that sounds most tactless and clumsy.

6) I am quite opinionated but of late, I’ve been trying to put myself in the shoes of most other people before I criticize them - and it’s become a bad habit. The heat of all this tolerance is threatening to melt all my cherished beliefs and principles, and I’m turning into a dithering jelly of doubt.

7) I used to snack in even numbers. Yeah, so if I had a third chocolate, I'd have to have a fourth, and so on. Happily, I've gotten over that ...

I tag Shyam, of Food in the Main; TBC of The Budding Cook; Saswati of Potpourri; ET of Evolving Tastes; TC at The Cooker; Revathi of En-Ulagam and Bhags of Crazy Curry. Up to you, of course, to take it up or not.

AFAM update: I expect to be busy for a week starting today, and even have to travel for a couple of days next week. I will do the round-up of AFAM-Pomegranate after I return. Meanwhile, here’s a recipe I’m pretty chuffed about, a recent discovery.

I rarely pick up these beans because the ones I get here are mostly pod and very little bean, but I’ve discovered this is a nice way to include them and get over your dislike of just the pod.

Chikkudukaya/Broad beans – ¼ kg, chopped/ 2 cups, boiled till just tender
Toor daal – ¾ cup, soaked for 30 minutes and boiled till soft, but should hold their shape
Dry red chillies – 2-3, broken up
Garlic – 3-5 cloves, minced
Mustard seed – 1 tsp
Urad dal, split and hulled – 1-1/2 tsp
Cumin seed – ½ tsp
Oil – 2 tsp
Curry leaves – a few
Salt and red chilli powder – to taste

Heat the oil in a pan, pop the mustard and cumin.

Add the garlic and as it sizzles, add the urad dal.

Once the urad dal turns colour, add the red chillies and curry leaves.

Turn just once, and immediately add the beans.

Saute well on medium heat. Add salt and red chilli powder, stir well.

Add the toor dal. Mix so that all the seasoning and tempering is well distributed.

Remove from heat.

Variation: Moong dal can be used instead of toor dal. This method can be adapted to many other vegetables, including amaranth greens and stalks.

AFAM-Pomegranate Meme Chikkudukya/Hyacinth bean Toor dal Chikkudukya/Hyacinth bean Vegetarian Chikkudukya/Hyacinth bean Stir-fry

Vegetarian Rogan Josh & My Life in Fours

What do you call a situation when you look at a cookbook and discover you have every single ingredient the recipe calls for?

A miracle.

What do you do when you realize, after pledging to stay true to the recipe, that it calls for deep frying?

A. Chicken out
B. Compromise: Don’t fry at all – use the vegetable directly/ bake it and then proceed with the recipe
C. Stick to the recipe in the interests of authenticity.

From the above multiple choices, I chose C.

The recipe is from The Pleasures of Kashmiri Cookery by Anu Wakhlu (Hind Pocket Books, 1995). The dish is called Parim Al Roganjosh (Red Pumpkin in Roganjosh Style). I didn’t change a thing. The introduction to the book says the oil traditionally used is mustard but that refined oil is also used now – I used one which was a mix of sunflower and rice bran.

Red Pumpkin – 500 gm
Oil - for deep frying + 2 tbsp
Beaten curd/yoghurt – 1 tbsp
Aniseed/Saunf powder – 1 tbsp
Ginger Powder (Sonthi) – ½ tbsp
Salt to taste
Red Chilli Powder – 1 tbsp
Cloves – 2
Asafoetida water – 3-4 drops
Water – 1 cup
Oil – 2 tbsp

Peel the pumpkin and cut into pieces.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and deep fry the pumpkin to golden brown (actually, mine stayed a golden yellow).

In another pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil.

Add the asafetida water and let it fry. (Careful, it splutters and sizzles like crazy.)

Add the pumpkin pieces and fry well.

Add the chilli powder and 1 tbsp of beaten curd and mix well till a red colour appears.

Add the other spices and mix well.

Add 1 cup of water and cover the pan.

Simmer for about 20 minutes till the vegetable is cooked and the gravy thick.

This resulted in a mild curry.

Sig of Live to Eat has tagged me for this meme. I wish my life was as full of travel as hers, or my meme as delightful, but here goes:

4 Places I’ve lived

Coimbatore
Hosur
Guntur
Hyderabad

4 jobs I’ve (NEVER) had

Food & travel writer
Award-winning novelist
Fat-advance-bagging novelist
Gazillionaire rich witch

4 favorite places I’ve holidayed

Matheran, Maharashtra – For the memories, the serenity in our resort, and the reservoir nearby
The UK - For its countryside
The US – for New York, for Las Vegas
Goa - For many of its quiet, isolated forts and churches

4 favorite foods

Now this is tough!

The ‘stir-fried bean sheet with vegetables/shrimp’ that I get at a Chinese restaurant down the road
Semiya payasam (Vermicelli in sweetened milk)
Jeedipappu paakam (Cashew-jaggery brittle)
Chikkudukaya koora (Hyacinth beans stir-fried), the way grandmothers/cook at home make it

4 places I’d rather be

In a home office
In a more ergonomic chair than the one I’m sitting in now
In a serene country cottage with vistas of rolling meadows
Travelling all over the world

4 bloggers I'd like to tag

Musical of Musical’s Kitchen
Sharmi of Neivedyam
Sunita of Sunita’s World
Jyotsna of Curry Bazaar

Red Pumpkin Kashmiri Roganjosh Meme Humour

Me, At Random

I

That’s me.

II

It was a certain boredom that drew me into cuisine’s fold. A break of several months between an MA and an M. Phil found me discovering a few cookbooks lying around the house and trying my hand at the recipes.
Seeing my enthusiasm, my father repaired an old oven that his sister had owned. I only made ‘high-class’ foods – cakes, puddings and such. Who was interested in rice and dal? Certainly not me!
The folks at home were anything but thrilled – my grandparents thought I was wasting my time but were reluctantly indulgent and my mother always feared the mess that would confront her later in the kitchen.
There were other successes but what stood out was a savarin that rose splendidly and soaked up the syrup brilliantly.

III

A friend told me I was considered a snob, and someone who didn’t offer acquaintances more than a reserved smile. I was overjoyed! For someone who is beset with doubts about whether she’s being over-friendly and eager to please, this was reassurance.

IV

In Standard I, a classmate told my cousin and me the secret of making rubber. Here it is: Scribble something with a pencil on a piece of paper, then erase it really hard with an eraser. Gather those grey bits that come off the paper, mix them with wood shavings that come from sharpening pencils, put them into some milk and refrigerate overnight. The rubber will be ready in the morning. (No, I don’t know whether the milk was to be boiled or left raw.)
I still remember the light of the fridge underlining the disgusted look on my grandmother’s face as she opened it to put in not one but two cups of this formula!

V

Years ago, a friend insisted I taste the delicious tea at an Irani café deep in Secunderabad. Though I didn’t drink tea and wasn’t used to it, had no standards to judge it by, I acquiesced because her enthusiasm was infectious.
There we were finally, getting off my bike after a long ride through the city and going into this dingy little café with blue-green walls on a dark and cold evening, full of men staring at us as if we had come off an alien spaceship! I don’t remember the taste anymore, but my friend does. That was an adventure!

VI

I am not good at repartee. My presence of mind is absent. So it was a notable victory when someone tried to do me out of the computer I routinely used for that hour of class. She refused to yield it to me. “I’ll continue to practise on this machine, but come, use this,” she said, patting the seat next to her, “it’s very good.” “If that is so good, why don’t you use it yourself?” I asked her, riled by her manner. Scowling, she picked up her stuff and huffed out and away. Petty, maybe, but I was oh so thrilled that I could retort as I had!

VII

I had to attend a conference and report on the proceedings. At the end of it, I was depressed – I didn’t understand what the point of the meeting was. Why didn't I get it, had I chosen the right profession, should I consider doing something else, how would I handle bigger challenges?
Slowly, I picked myself out of my seat and made my way out. There were two very senior and accomplished colleagues there, one younger than the other.
The younger man asks, with a totally bewildered expression on his face, “But what was the conference about?” And the older man bursts into laughter … I’ve even forgotten his reply but gathered he didn’t think much of it either, but needless to say, that boosted my morale no end!

Thank you, Sunita and Sharmi, for tagging me. I read somewhere that one's required to say seven things about themselves and tag seven others. Most people I know have been tagged. I’m tagging Santhi of Writing on the Mirror, Pooja of My Creative Ideas, Sreelu of Sreelu's Tasty Travels, Prema of My Cookbook and Jyothi of Andhra Spicy for this meme. Only if you're interested, of course, but I'd love to know more about you.

Meme Random

Five Things Most People Don't Know About Me

So this is the flip side of me telling the whole world and its sister that I love memes! I get tagged to reveal five things that the world doesn’t know about me – and run the risk of letting the whole world know what an uninteresting person I am. It’s been a few days since Anna of Anna's Cool Finds tagged me for this meme, and every day since then, I’ve been jotting things down whenever I remember, desperately trying to total up five, and think I’ve just about made it.

But first, a diversion - here's a bit of my kitchen:



Ok, back to the five things:

It's been almost eight years since I started blogging. (I updated this on April 9, 2013.)

Not many people know that I have a blog - just some family, and a few friends.

Hardly anyone knows why my blog’s called what it is: Many, many years ago, two cousins and I reconstituted some packet soup, poured it into mugs and took ourselves out to the front verandah. A few sips later, my boy cousin suddenly said, “Wait!” and scurried into the kitchen from the verandah where we were sitting – he refused to tell us what the matter was. Then he scurried back to us and showed us his soup mug – there they were – tiny, curled-up, soft, white worms that could well be mistaken for noodle rings or pasta alphabets or whatever! Well, they were quite dead, of course, but when I was thinking of a name for my blog, I thought of how the worms had well, wormed themselves into our soup, and … it’s not entirely logical that I say my soup came alive when the poor things died, but let me not explain further and make it all prosaic and boring!

Not many people know that I taught English for a short while. That was my very first ‘job.’ I was taking a course in computers when the people that ran the centre there decided they would do well to start a TOEFL course and asked me to teach it. I had just two students, both much older than me, engineers, I think. I was paid Rs 750. It was only for a few weeks.

And (confession time!) not many people know that once in a while, I can’t bring myself to eat a dish that I’ve put on my blog!

I tag Pooja and Coffee for this meme!

Guessing game, and a Meme about Them

The guessing game first. Now tell me what this dish is, or what it contains. You have the herb to start you off, what do you think the rest are?









Now for the meme. (Am updating on popular demand)
Background: Jayashree of the blog My Experiments with Food wondered if we ever thought about how our blogger friends looked – I joked that we should do a meme, and Maheswari seconded it, so I started it but was reluctant to stick my neck out and do it ever since I read what Sandeepa had to say about it. But Asha tagged me for it, and I think it’s only fair that I do it when I started it so, here goes … this is how I intended it to be.

Sandeepa, who always has a comment for whatever I put up here, sounds like a sensitive person with a strong streak of humour. Looks? Hmm … I’m inclined to think she’s cherubic. Just a hunch, really can’t justify it. Please tell me if I’m right, Sandeepa.

Maheswari – a gutsy and creative soul, I would think, for the way she’s dealing with a couple of issues, including her failure to eat a good amount of fruit. Wish you all the best! As for looks, I’m not able to conjure up a face for her because I keep thinking of the South Indian actress Maheswari, who has sharp features and looks light-complexioned on screen.

Pooja sounds like a vivacious and fun-loving girl. For some reason, again one I can’t justify, I visualize her with short hair. Am I right, Pooja? And she must have a lot of energy if she conducts an event and does a round-up every week.

I'm hesitant to continue this, but here goes:
Coffee kept changing in my imagination. I keep thinking of her as a tall person in elegant clothes - could it be that her being a professor is giving me this impression? Does she have long hair? Or am I saying that because it fits the painter image? Tell me, do, Coffee!
Mallugirl, as she's signing off nowadays, reminds me of my classmate Shaheen. She was tall, smiley, had naturally brown, thick hair, well-defined features, was well-built, light-complexioned and used to wear bright pink offset by pale pink. I'm unable to put a face to Mallugirl, can only imagine a figure driving a car on New Jersey Roads because she's mentioned it - still, everytime I look at her blog, I think of Shaheen. Anyway, Mallugirl comes across as a busy mom who takes immense pride in her Malabar heritage. Beauty and symmetry are important to her, as her blog shows, an offshoot of her architectural instincts or most likely, she chose architecture to study because she was fond of these qualities.

Funny, isn’t it? I could be miles away from reality, but let me know how close I got!

The Three Things Meme

Oh, how I love memes! I’ve participated in just a couple, initiated one (which hasn’t taken off despite being labelled ‘interesting’ – sob, sob!), and now this! Thank you, Sandeepa, for tagging me. I’m not going to be as self-effacing and humble as you were in your memes, oh no, and am going the whole hog with this just a day after you mentioned me – indecent haste, but that’s my meme personality!
I’m not sure whether it’s the late hour after an intense and long day at work or whether it’s the attempt to strike a fine balance between being engaging, honest, politically correct, smart alecky-but-humorous, venting some pet peeves but not wanting to carp, and tempting fate (WHEW!), but this took me hours to think over, complete and refine, and I’m still not satisfied! Oh well, you can’t have it all!


Three people/things that make me laugh

My Dad
Everybody Loves Raymond
Sridevi in the Telugu movie Kshana Kshanam

Three things that scare me

Me
Sleeplessness (but probably this blog/meme wouldn’t get done without it)
Weight gain :)

Three things I love

Travelling
Reading
Getting together with friends

Three things I hate

Male chauvinists (ugh!)
Jobless, malicious gossips
Braggarts

Three things I don’t understand

Science (I liked biology, though)
Why I want more clothes despite having so many
Why people extend invitations to visit them when they don’t really mean it

Three things on my desk

A picture of me sitting on a log in San Francisco
A Scrabble CD, which we bought long ago but haven’t yet unwrapped
A dolphin carved in stone

Three things I’m doing right now

Thinking of how to wow people with this meme :)
Wondering if I’ll be able to sleep after this
Wondering what I should put down as the third thing

Three things I want to do before I die

Travel extensively around the world
Live in at least a couple of the greatest cities and picturesque countries in the world
Be content

Three things I can do

Listen
Play word games
Do the dishes painstakingly

Three things you should listen to

Silence – so delicious in the late hours of the night and wee hours of the morning, with just a car or truck to offset it now and then
Birds chirping in the early hours of the morning – I’m surrounded by concrete but I still hear them, isn’t it magical?
Still afternoons, enhanced by the occasional rustle of leaves or a crow cawing

Three things you should never listen to

Raucous music (now I know ‘raucous’ is subjective)
Well-meaning people who egg you on to break your diet just this once
Yourself – if you agree with them

Three things I’d like to learn

Patience
Baking
More languages (I know five-and-a-half – I can read Russian, but don’t remember enough to understand it or speak it, any longer)

Three favourite foods

Salads
Most seafood
Fresh, thick curds/yoghurt

Three beverages I drink regularly

Water, water and more water, that’s it!

Three TV shows/Books I read as a kid

Enid Blyton
Amar Chitra Katha
Sesame Street

Three blogger friends that I am going to tag
(Only if you're interested)

Lera
Manisha
Mallika

A Meme About Them

I was inspired to start this meme when I visited Jayashree’s site My Experiments with Food. She wondered whether we gave other bloggers a face and I joked that we should start a meme on ‘how do I think they look.’ When I visited her site a few days later, Maheswari of Beyond the Usual had seconded my suggestion, and so here it is!
I’m not sure how to take this forward except to tag a few people and request them to link me (http://whenmysoupcamealive.blogspot.com) in their responses and in turn mention my request to the people they tag – this is the first time I’m doing something like this and I’d like to see the course it takes.
So, I’m tagging Maheswari, Jayashree and Sandeepa of Bong Mom's Cookbook – all you have to do is tell us what you imagine your blogger friends look like, and maybe why you think they look so. I’m not sure if I can give my own opinions without being tagged so I’m not volunteering any :) And naturally, you'll do it only if you want to.

Five things to eat before I ... Aargh!

Five things to eat before I ... (And want a steady supply of)

Thanks Asha, for tagging me.

As I write, I can only think of three. One is something I’d like to try, the others are something I’ve eaten and yearn for. As for the other two, let me see if I can come up with something!

The first is raw food of the vegan kind. I read about it in the New York Times, which said it was fast acquiring cult status and even reviewed a few restaurants. It was a fascinating read. The pictures looked, well, good enough to eat. I want to try it before I decide whether I want a steady supply of it.

Where have all the oranges gone? That’s the second item on the wish list. Big, heavy, loose-skinned tangerines with juicy segments. Which exploded with juice when you bit into them. It’s at least 10 years since I’ve seen that quality. All I find are diminutive, fist-sized abominations that are sour and very often, dry, orange-turning-sickly-white and wrinkled inside. Or the big, very orange, imported ones that seem to have an endless web of fibre and thick skin inside that by the time you get to the flesh, most of the juice would have slipped through your fingers and you’re left with two choices: lick all the surfaces it dripped on to and eat the remainder uncomplainingly, or not eat them at all. I take the easier way out.

This receding citrus brings me to the fourth item on my wish list - its cousin, the pommelo. This sometimes conical, sometimes round green fruit with its thick peel and pinkish-inside membrane parts to reveal segments with sturdy, pale pink ‘pearls.’ Sometimes they could be yellow, but I prefer the pink beauties. They make an appearance in the bazaars only in August, and only a week long, at most. If you don’t have a tree yourself, their presence in your home largely depends on the grace of neighbors who possess a tree or kindly aunts who arrive bearing a limited bounty of two or three. No sourness here, just a hint of it and a suggestion of bitterness - a taste all its own! Sigh!

The third item on my list is Haleem. The haleem I ate in Hyderabad’s old city in the month of Ramzan many years ago. That’s the real thing, they said. You get authentic haleem only in the old city, they said. There on a visit during the same time last year, I was surprised to notice several restaurants all over the city offering it. I wish I’d had the time to try it, but at least, it’s not uncommon anymore, like the tangerines or the pommelos.

And lastly, there is no fifth item. There are several foods I’d like to try and they are too numerous to list. It’s also happened that sometimes, the foods I’ve finally tasted are not as good as I’ve imagined them to be. Which, I think, is a good thing, though a bit romance-killing, because that way, you can keep deep disappointment at bay.

I would like to tag Sudha of Food Newbie for this meme.

Playing Tag - The Butterfly Effect Meme

I’m tagged, for the very first time. Thank You, Paz!
This meme asks us to name food items or events that changed our foodie lives. Specifically, we’re asked to recall an item, person, event or place that affected us profoundly, and marked defining moments in our lives. Not necessarily “big and splashy” but can be something small and simple, something that changed the way you view the world. I’m not sure if they changed the way I view the world, but they did change the way I cooked, thought of food and made it a joyful experience.
These are the categories:
An Ingredient: Yeast. My interest in cooking began with baking. And like many who take on a new hobby, I was all into it, wanting to make my own bread, my own pizza bases, and what not! But my yeast would never “start foaming”. I didn’t realize that I had to use warm water, not hot water, which was killing it off. When I finally used warm water, by accident, it worked, and for me, it was a big day – the joy that I’d got something right, that I finally owned the knowledge to make something work. A moment of pure happiness.
A Dish: This is more recent. It’s not so much a dish as a method. I’ve always liked stir fries but this recipe for vegetables I saw in a Bengali cookbook somehow makes it very simple and quick, and is a great way to use up the stray vegetables in your refrigerator. I also like the spice mix that goes into it: a teaspoon each of mustard seed, aniseed, fenugreek, ginger, nigella and cumin sauteed in oil, pieces of five different veggies (potato, eggplant, peas, okra, most veggies, really) then stir-fried on a high flame , then simmered in their own juices, covered – the result is an inviting mix of veggies, neither squishy nor hard.
A Meal: Each new meal is a discovery and affects our lives in its own way. However, I will name a traditional favourite that brings back fond memories of grandmothers and airy kitchens and a day buzzing with activity: Rice with ghee and mango pickle of the first day. Fresh pickle is always pungent and even a tad bitter with its freshly-ground fenugreek and mustard seed powders. At home, pickle was made by the barrel and emptied into jaadis (earthen jars) to cure before it was ready to be shipped out to the rest of the family. The residue in these barrels would then be mixed with hot, soft, rice. Some butter would be added to it and that would be the treat of the day! Watching the white butter melt rapidly in the red, hot rice was magical!
A Cookbook or other written work: I have to say that my love for food and cuisine was intensified by the Dining and Wine columns of The New York Times. I wish I could write like that.
A Food Personality: Sanjeev Kapoor, I guess, but I haven’t watched his show, or anyone else’s, in years.
Another person in your life: My family and friends – Some didn’t really approve of my hobby, but would always indulge me, try a bit of what I made and invariably say it was good; the others always encouraged me, one to the point of calling me a food artist!
Paz of The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz tells me Dan@saltshaker.net started this meme and that we should let him know and link to the original post, so here it is!
http://www.saltshaker.net/20060630/the-butterfly-effect
I would like to tag Asha of Foodie's Hope http://www.foodieshope.blogspot.com for this meme.