Cuisine paradox

Its been FOUR whole days since I landed in Kuwait and it has been a typical vacation. When I say typical, I have been relaxed yet active, haven't thought about work at all (for which I will have to pay next week), been a constructive contributor to household work, argued with my sister about the lifestyle of me and my dad in Chennai, followed a perfect three meal-snacks-juice diet and not thought about any of the usual crap that keeps me preoccupied (except for the certain someone dream all the three nights). To top it all, the bonanza of happiness that my cute little niece adds, has kept me busy and smiling all along. I haven't seen enough of her yet to write about it.

Well, no prizes for guessing, the title and the italicized, hyphenated phrase in the last paragraph has very well given away the intent of this post. I'm keeping it as simple as possible.

My typical menu in Chennai

Coffee (which I can't live without)

Bread toast/sandwich/poriyal

Dosai (with packeted Idli Molaga Podi)

Maggi noodles (the Chinese Chef in every poor man)

Corn Flakes

McDonalds/KFC (when I don't mind a drive to Velachery)

Subway (the weekly tester of the life of taste buds)

Pizza (the salary celebrator)

Noodle King (Home service of course)

If you take a look closely, I live on a so called western diet almost all the time. Basically, I love food. I enjoy my eating and I stop eating or don't eat when I feel I won't enjoy it. If I had as much as 5% of the passion I have for food, on any other thing, I'd be the master of that. Having said that, I was a big fan of all the above mentioned food, or at least I thought I was.

Menu in Kuwait (for the past four days)

Saturday

Breakfast - Idli (with onion chutney and homemade Idli molaga podi)

Lunch - Molagootal with kothamalli thogayal, curd rice, Morukootaan (from the previous day)

Dinner - Kuboos with Hamoos and Philaphel (Kuwait special) :P

Sunday

Breakfast - Dosai (with homemade molaga podi)

Lunch - Rasam with Podalangaa Kootu and curd rice.

Dinner - Repeat of the breakfast (we were out that evening and came home late)

Monday

Breakfast - Ravaa Upmaa

Lunch - Avial (with yam, carrot, potato and other vegetables), curd rice

Dinner - Vegetable soup and Sphagetti (Brother-in-Law Special)

Tuesday

Breakfast - Bread toast with a chocolate cream stuffed croissant

Lunch - Radish Sambar, Kovakkai Poriyal, curd rice

Dinner - Aappam and Green peas curry

Add to the above, a cup of coffee every morning and evening, some juice between breakfast and lunch, flaovured yogurt after lunch and some snacks with the evening coffee.

I know its just FOUR days, yet, somehow I have enjoyed my food more than forever. When I eat lunch at someone's house and they offer me a second yelping of rice, I'd always give my clichéd "I don't eat so much rice" dialog. It surprised me today that I am indeed serving myself an unusually large second yelping of rice to have with curd.

No matter how much I argue with my sister that me and my dad are indeed leading a satisfactory life in Chennai, when it comes to food, I can't but agree with her that we need to step up and bring about a big transformation.

I recollected what my mom used to say about how my uncles from the Gulf used to come to India craving for that one meal of hot homemade Sambar or Molagootal. It ironical that I had to travel all the way from India to enjoy the same. Only disadvantage here is that they are compelled to use Basmati rice for all kinds of cooking, the quality of which I should say is amazing.

Now that I realize what I have been doing wrong regarding my food, hopefully, I'll put it into perspective after getting back to Chennai.

Anyways, signing off on that note. Off and away to sleep with a clear mind (like always after writing in this space) and a properly filled stomach (now, that unusual). Oh! There will be that dream again. Hmmm. More on that later.

Goodie Foodie

Food has never been a problem. My mom used to make everything from Kozha Puttu to Dhokalas, a mix-and-match of everything. My dad is another great cook! His Pav Bhaaji, Palak Panner and Lagada-Paatis taste awesome.

Once my mom told me, "When I was carrying you, I used to pray that at least, unlike your sister you shouldn't give problems to eat food". And later she also told that, "She repented praying for that".

There is a saying that "Food is the best medicine". It is really true. Choosing the proper place and proper food at the proper time is important. Touch-wood (touching my head now), I'm immune to all kinds of what you call EATABLE. Be it royal food, annapoorna (a famous chain in Cbe like saravana bhavan in Chennai), small mess food, road-side Thattu Kadais (my sister is gonna get all squeaky by now) and the list goes on, I can just eat and my stomach never makes a big fuss about it except that it gets a bit bigger everytime :(.

Especially during the good (not yet) old college days, Vibushan, Vivek, Vijay and me have hit quite a lot of places. Just say, there isn't a single foodlet in Cbe where we have not paid. The waiters at Peking, Rich Food, Akka Kadai (the one in colony), Food Joint(or Point I forgot), Village etc must be wondering the sudden disappaerance (since last September) of their favourite customers (when it comes to the bill :D).

Two days back (Friday), I hit the bessy (Besant Nagar Beach) with my dad, sister and my cousin/roommate. After that, we decided to eat at the all famous "Muguran Idli Shop". Though the origin of this one is from Madurai (I've been there and it is great), the one is Chennai is too well known. We just wanted to see what's the big deal.

As soon as we got a table to sit (we had to wait for sometime), they had already laid Plaintain leaves to eat. Before we even thought about what to eat, they had served four chutneys (Coconut, Onion & Tomato, Coriander Leaves and No-idea-which-one). For cliche sake, we ordered a couple of idlis each. I enquired if they served "Kushboo Idli" and they did not know what it was. This annoyed me a bit, but the idlis they served were so soft and with the Idli Chilly Powder they served (later) it was WOW!

They served big fat South Indian Doughnuts (Vada) along with the Idlis. The vadas were excatly like the one they are seen on the posters put up at hotels. It deserved some clicking and I did click it. As we were tasting the Idlis, came Morrappam or Kuzhi Paniyaram, which was again great! We ordered for one more of those in the end. We also ordered a couple of roast items and my sister chose Onion Uthapam (if Vivek is reading, there are other kinds of uthappams also; hope you realized that at least now).

One of the best Idlis i've ever had

The bottom-line is : "Everything was great". I'd call it "Tastier than the Tastiest".