the unison of colors and healthy food

vanshi...i need to buy a steamer...i tried steaming these in a pressure cooker...but really i need a steamer...then i will do some zucchini!

the social dimension...

'Exotic' is so value loaded nowadays. But these are two fruits from Thailand. Thanks to Avishek who shared them with me....one is mangosteen....and the pink one is dragon fruit....interesting! but i guess our mangoes are the best! well, a secret...i aint a mango fan and i hate it when people brag about how much they know about mangoes and love about mangoes. uff, so parochial. in general, fruit eating coz of its economic cost is more of a rich people's thing. but if you observe....all fruits are horribly classified and put in a hierarchy (only man could conceive of that!)...papayas and apples? the fruits of the poor and the rich. i even had a debate with my boss who believed that apples are rich in iron. I HATE WHEN PEOPLE SAY THAT. my nutritionist mom always said apples have nothing! so how and why did the phrase come up...an apple a day keeps the doctor away? it could be coz these people were the rich and western where apples are a normal thing...if the indians made it, maybe it would be mangoes and papayas!....now papaya dude is so inexpensive (i love that part) and SO HEALTHY...its got all the vitamin A!...oh...so my boss took out his phone and did a quick search and was shocked and said, ya, apples dont have iron. now that makes me move to food fads and myths and there is no place like INDIA where they are richly present! would be cool to study why and how food related misconceptions come up (i hate them so much). actually no one puts money in researching on origins of  misconceptions....if we did so...we could work out better communication strategies and have a healthier population. and one more thing...there is something really amazing about apples....yes their shelf life...i guess no other fruit can win in that...oops the hierarchy/competition!

my sandwich making obsession...like most of my obsessions...it lasted a week.

when fusion needs some zing!

here is a another fusion of mine. its a chole chaat. you know why the chole? i actually wanted to make hummus. YES I WILL SOME DAY. but i dont think i can make good hummus. even the sesame seeds i am sure will go bad if i dont make it soon. by the way i have found a nice place in nehru place where you get yummy hummus. its finger lickin' good! so i dint make the chole and my dad told me to make a chaat. so i added the veges on top and it was done. god i am so hungry now. its 9:50 pm and my dinner is waiting. okay so i bought an avocado from Hong Kong (i know its funny)...but i wanted to show my sister what its like...now in india you get many things which we dint earlier (lettuce, zucchini)...stuff i have grown up eating coz of my multicultural food experience (which still is QUITE limited). so we had some avocado and i was like....na not my thing. so i thought to whip up some guacamole....thanks to my only Mexican food cook book i got the recipe and it was too easy! but still quite heavy as a dish...so after a few days i dont think it got completely finished. i learnt that chole chaat and guacamole dont go together....both are quite soothing in taste, no one is fiery! i would add some paprika flakes for that zing...and for those who like it sweet even some date palm jaggery flakes may heighten the flavor....and ya.. Howie likes guacamole...sorry to bring in the Backstreet Boys! old fanaticism dies hard!...could also explain my love for Mexican food!

when long hours pay off with the best....

i cant believe myself. was home alone one day and i actually spent the whole day making burritos from scratch. i know those sort of tortillas look more like  paranthas. but i have to tell you that i learnt fusion! i have only bought one cook book in my life. i was in college i believe. it was on Mexican Veg cooking. and man, lotsa substitutes it had. like you cant get jalapenos easily so use mirch! and all that...so i am glad i have practiced making rotis. made my tortilla making easier. i mixed atta with maida to make it healthy and not too roti like. it is very roti like. i still aint good with making it thin yet soft. i did a fusion by making a dip. i dont know what kind of what dip it is. just crushed some black pepper and garlic and mixed it into yogurt. it took me half a day to make the burritos (the dough, rolling and roasting the tortillas, the dip, the refried beans, cutting the capsicum inside, melting the cheese and my version of salsa). but it was so yum that i made it again for my family when they came. kids love it. its fusion and adaptation. and more than ever, it takes a long time and finishes in a tenth of the time you make it! so get help in cutting and cooking....but i would say this is the BEST thing i have ever made.

my love affair with Korean shigumchi....

little did i know that i would travel to Busan this year...was my first international travel alone....and believe it or not i went crazy over reading and learning about the Korean culture...went into the history of North and South Korea and the 38th parallel...its like India...where two portions got divided politically but culturally and in terms of food they are so similar!...i always believed that food divides people...but today let me be the optimist and say, food unites....there is so much to say on Korean food and for months i read about it and tried remembering the names....i saw alot of similarity with Indian food traditions...like elders having it first...so food became a mechanism to keep the hierarchy based on seniority intact...and the Asian society is full of it!...booked my first table at the Gung...thanks to Vanshi's advice and found my partner to tickle our tastebuds....so over that elaborate lunch of flavours and textures quite new too me...and moreover, the steel chopsticks!...
thanks to my everyday Korean breakfast...i had the Korean spinach everyday and loved it like crazy....then i went up to the server and asked him...'what is this called'...he said, 'its something Korean you may not know'...i said, 'at least tell me the name' and there is was...'shigumchi' ...i went beyond the bipimbap, both in Delhi and in Busan...but i never found anything like shugumchi...came back home, read the recipe and made it! mine was quite bitter, maybe the season for spinach had started...i need to learn how to get rid of the bitterness of the spinach..i even ended up buying mega expensive sesame oil for this dish...(need ideas how to consume the rest!)
Indian spinach is cooked for long with many spices (reminds me of what Husna used to tell me about Indian food...how its cooked through and through...unlike other food)....but Korean spinach is quick and mild....you feel the texture of the spinach and the stems....but Indian food likes to discard all the stems and extras of every vege....ooh...interesting topic to think about....

one thing is did feel, that the kimchi in india tastes better than the kimchi i had there...i guess there it was more fermented and sour....
i better get up now...made pasta and its waiting all hot!

doin' it with dhaniya

learnt that chopping coriander leaves brings out the flavour...everytime i add coriander i get irritable coz it takes long to clean and wash it...i personally do not like cilantro...its flavor is very strong and it overpowers the milder flavours....but my sis loves it ALOT...so i always add it to dishes for her and end up making some dhaniya chutney for her EVERYTIME she comes...now that shes gone back..the chutney is in the fridge and there is no one to have it!!....hehe...also, dhaniya chutney tastes best when fresh.....
this is the way i like gobi/cauliflower...mildly done and crunchy...added a carrot coz it had no place to go and needed a home! really brought out the color and did not overpower the gobi with its sweetness...

beginning with breakfast....

so i love talking to the autovala guys in the morning on the way to work...i dont really start a conversation but if they do, i continue it and try to understand what i dont know...so Friday...uhmm December 13th...what! it was Friday the 13th! I dint even realize...this has become such a problem with me...i float nowadays...i have no clue where i am, peoples' numbers, names of their kids...dates...i am like a living zombie sometimes...you can call it lack of social connection or too much of personal connection! so i wanted his point to be my first post....those who know me well, know i cant ever have breakfast at home before leaving for office (i cant get up and sometimes i think its a good use of time in the auto to eat)....what an insult to food man! still i wont change...old habits die hard...so i was nibbling on that boring toast (at least i take out time to toast!). and with my new obsession of eating less, i seriously and sadly do not put anything on that super boring toasted bread....okay....so the guy was like 'you only have bread for breakfast??'....whoaaa...i didnt even realize that only bread is 'only'....i told him i had milk...now the role of milk in indian culture is yet another fun topic to explore (and the little or lack of milk in culture...Vanshi...yes thats something i need to explore too)...interesting....very cool!

okay.......then he went on and said, 'dehat me have parantha with salt...but parantha is a must have....'. Then i went down to theory.....two things...what fills us up...now thats culturally constructed...like you go to those European restaurants and order a dish from haute cuisine and you are startled! (especially if you're the Punjab de puttar/kudi)...the main course really looks like half an appetizer!....so what fills us up? yes there is something natural about it...like bread is better than few peanuts....but peanut butter bread maybe better than plain toast!...now i may sound conservative here....but rice is more like a snack to me...and i have become the middle aged lady who needs her rotis! oooh...rotis and women's status...another topic for a post...god this is getting sumptuous!

even my roti making endeavor is worth documenting.

you know like how the rice eating part of india need their rice. okay so what fills you up is completely culturally constructed. what you ate as a kid is what will fill you up, physically duh! but psychologically truly.
second....is anybody watching how India's transforming from paranthas to bread...lotsa young people dont eat paranthas...not coz its just easy to eat bread....but also this new generation of 'eat less fat'...yes, there are many who say bread is unhealthy....but there are more people who says its better than those paranthas...i have grown up in a mix of foods...my association with food is one of a kind...perhaps nothing what anyone would have tasted....there are many reasons....thats for later. but it ALL explains my unique association with food. so i grew up seeing paranthas as unhealthy and even associating them with breakfast for those who REALLY need to eat something filling or for lunch skippers...even very desi....now i opening a debate and FOOD like religion is very contentious in this country! Indians are VERY particular about their food.

personally i am not a parantha person...just cant have it....only two times paranthas are good..the cheese ones...which i learnt from my cousin sister who loved them (just break a cheese slice into the 2 paranthas like the way you would with alu)....ooh...alu is another guy to write about..and my love hate relationship with these guys who fit like everywhere! some attitude it has na!....ya, cheese paranthas taste best with ketchup!...and dhaba paranthas when you are off to the field and lunch is known to be unknown! whats super interesting is that my sis CANT live without paranthas...SHE EATS ONE EVERYDAY.....!god can only explain these diametrically opposing taste buds!

so here it is....the parantha....who is apparently more filling than bread and more unhealthy compared to bread....but dont ignore the nutrition values when you buy bread....the brown breads may have more sugar and the multi-grain ones tend to have more fat....(sugar to make it tasty and the multi-grain ones have seeds)...i leave whats healthy to the expertise of the nutritionist ...
it aint no coincidence that i am a daughter of one!

the reality based appetizer....

so i was walking back home one evening and it struck me!!! why not this new blog where i put my thoughts on food...coz i keep thinking about it. on my 28th birthday i really wanted a book on the sociology of food or how food represents culture and food can be used to study culture...and i searched and didnt find one...i did find one book...by Maeve O'Meara...and i love her alot...she is the only person i know who has described food within the cultural context...at least from Food Safari you can pull out cultural nuances and think and explore further....i dont know how my sudden love for food started...but i credit Maeve O'Meara for getting me into exploring it...
so like i was saying, i kept searching for books on it and i never got what i wanted...i did want her book....and even hinted someone to get me it...but my birthday this year turned out to be a near disaster...alone in a hotel room...no cake...no one to celebrate...it was the first time i did not have family or friends around on that day and it was never celebrated...for the first time in the 28 years of my life, my birthday was not celebrated by those who i expected would....i did feel the maturity run through me...and accepted it...BUT i must appreciate my boss who was there with me and KNEW it was my birthday....and he got me a some mini assorted pastries from the buffet dinner and told me to cut and celebrate...whoaaa! birthdays and food...now that could be a separate post!
so i never got the book i wanted and i grew out that desire...Food Safari also stopped airing new shows and i went into a miserable emotional phase....but food stuck by my side...no NOT as an anti-depressant...or maybe it was...BUT as something to think about...food for thought...no thought of food.....god these prepositions....thought on food...whatever!
so then it began...i must say that i met someone who i feel in love with and we even planned to open our restaurant one day...i CREDIT him big time for initiating the love of food in my life...the love to cook, to taste, to have your taste buds go crazy...he got me into one of the MOST fascinating things in the world...INDIAN food...i was always the italian and mexican lover BUT he told me about chutneys and sarson...no not lamenting...BUT BY FAR he is the BEST cook in the world...he even cooked for me and when he cooked (AND when he ate) HE knew nothing else than food....he wouldnt even connect to the person next to him...he would drown himself in the creativity and flavors nature had to offer! (i even put on weight that time!).................this first post was not meant to go this way....but we credit our guru na!
cooking remains the strongest de-stressing activity in my hectic stressful life...i do find alot of solace in it...no not in eating...but in cooking...in experimenting, creating and mixing ....nice way to connect with nature too....but i am not too much on the cooking front...but more of the sociologist....
hehe...remembering someone else...who talked to me about the first sociological theory of food i had heard...i hope he publishes that theory...i wont talk about it (copyright issues)...interestingly i fell in love with him too...okay now i sound like some hopeless insaan....uff thats not the point...hahah...
you know when i meet prospective guys...whatever...i ask them if they can cook...heheh..something like what women are asked! heheh...no man asks me that...(perhaps they expect it)....but i STRONGLY believe that when a man cooks and connects with the food and kitchen, he is definitely more sensitive towards his spouse (if the spouse cooks that is). I will prove it someday.....and i will write more on it someday...need to reorganize my thought on it.....
i did not come here to write all this...but its like the introduction or vote of thanks.....where you mention who all influenced you....i dont know who really influenced me...but thoughts are spilling....there is so much to say.....