Foodie ... Part - 1

I feel there is no sincere and genuine love than the love for food for some. I am the odd woman out in this category.

 Some eat to live and some live to eat and I belong to the first category.

Though I do not have any likes and dislikes for food, I enjoy give respect to what I eat or what's before me.

Eating is stress busters for some and for some it is stress creator.

Our country is famous for good tasty ,delicious and a  variety of food. Each region comes out with its own preparation even if the item is the same, taste differs and the ingredients differ. 

I have seen some are really good cooks and some are disastrous in cooking and I consider myself as a moderate cook. I try to have the taste in  my  tongue  while preparing and cook, I can also say to some extent whether salt is added or not or less by looking at the color of the item cooked.

 I try to follow according to my own way if I see some cookery show, sometimes I wonder what is the level of the show, once I watched an actor trying on a cookery show a simple 'dal fry' which is a regular item in a  day's menu! What's so great in this except that it is  tried by an actor?

TV channels are filled with  many cookery shows and cookery competition. More than the preparations I would love to watch what are the tools and instruments are used in cutting, peeling, mashing etc...

 The way the food is decorated in the end while displaying them, the chef's feedback, the contestants facial expressions etc are quite interesting to watch.

 Some men and women are not only good cooks but also are good judges , some are good in tasting the food items but may not be good in cooking . My husband is a good critic as well a good cook and a good 'relisher' of food items. He will be too willing to cook but one should not see the kitchen after his crafty work! May be earlier birth he was a chief cook!

I do not know till today whether it's a curse or what, I always.. ALWAYS  I forget to serve ' appalam and vadam  [papad and rice chips] and earlier I would be reminded of it after the guests leave. Later I requested [ shamelessly ] my husband to remind me to serve them.
 Nowadays  I keep it on the table itself in a transparent container to avoid last minute embarrassment.

 At the time of marriage I knew a little bit of cooking , later as necessity is the mother of invention, somehow learnt, not only thanks to Meenakshi Ammal - 'Samaithu paar' .

Nowadays it is a cake walk for gen Y everything you get with a click of the mouse , blessing in disguise is You Tube videos. In our days all we had was either write or approach people nearby for recipes.

 Though my husband and I belong to North Arcot, there are a lot of difference in the way of cooking.  Sambhar without grinding specially there is no sambhar whereas in my house it's ordinary powder and simple way if the consistency is watery you just have to add a little bit of rice powder  with water and pour in the sambhar, and you get the correct consistency.

It's not so , there is no question of 'mavu karaichu kottradhu' in my in-laws house. In the beginning I had difficulty in getting the right consistency, OMG my in-laws are best foodies and there is no compromise when it comes to food, 'pucca' means 'pucca'.

My husband is good in cooking whether its pulao, masala dosai, mendiyak kuzhambu,  rasam etc his speciality is Gulab Jamun with kova and maida and sugar syrup.'When he cooks he needs more of  coriander leaves, curry leaves [kuppai as per my kids]gr. chillies, lemon and hing  [- asafoetida or perungayam ].

Once he tempers any thing he cooks , the first thing is to add hing and come to the hall to smell hing, otherwise he would add more, it would be hing sambhar not onion sambhar. One should see the way he arranges the pulao in a plate, he would fill the glass bowl with pulao and turn it upside down and garnish with  finely cut coriander leaves.

It's not so , there is no question of 'mavu karaichu kottradhu' in my in-laws house. In the beginning I had difficulty in getting the right consistency, OMG my in-laws are best foodies and there is no compromise when it comes to food, 'pucca' means 'pucca'.

They are not bothered in  hurting  the new d-i -law, for them it's the taste - in haste the comments are passed.

Even the cutting of vegetables for some items are different, and in my parent's house, food is eaten to live and it's vice versa in my in -law's house.  They won't even waste 'temple prasadams'. Any time of the 24 x 7  x 365 they are ready to take if it's 'prasadam'. The beauty is they would force others are also to be like them.

 We were brought up in a way that there is a time for eating anything unless you are sick, follow time zone and frame [ Like   'மலை  வாயில் சூரியன் , உலை  வாயில்  சோறு ']  just cannot eat at any time .

I am used to sambhar made of Radish, carrot, onion, capsicum, drumstick , seppangizhangu,ash gourd, pumpkin, brinjal ,lady finger and sometimes even potato. But for my in -laws its drumstick, onion sambhar only other things they do not relish much, vathakuzhambhu is also with the same, but I would like to have with garlic, dried sundakkay, manathakakali, Red pumpkin [khaddu] kothavaragay and  lady finger.Even rasam can be  of lemon, Mysore, plain tomato,  pineapple and gottu rasam.

Nowadays its difficult to think of cooking due to the spiralling onion prices, we are the ones who add onion in any sabji dry or gravy and it's a mind blogging exercise to cook without it.

 Mostly we have north Indian type menu everyday only with rasam to add, roti is for lunch and dinner.  Unlike earlier times, we get cauliflower, carrot, peas  and beans all seasons so it becomes easy to prepare the dishes accordingly. The more you have South Indian menu , one tends to consume rice more and I prefer rotis for rice, not only its filling , it also takes time to digest , best way to avoid diabetes.

 I will be posting some simple recipes of sabjis and snacks along with the easy method of  preparing different types of  powder for sabji, sambhar and  rasam.

P.S  Wait for the list of restaurants we visited in Bangalore.