Mundane Musings

This is the story of a marriage of flavour, taste and textures. And the magic it makes on the senses. Yes a good marriage affects other people too :). I have been a big exponent of combinations, in my food I mean. After all why else would we make so many dishes in a meal? Not just for sight surely. If that aloo or aamras didn't go with pooris or that naans with dal makhni why bother making them together? Its because of the said marriage magic my friend.  And like any real marriage, there has to be a certain dance and flow of energies and rhythms to side step potential failures in combinations. In my plate on any given day, I would concentrate on the items that land up there and the play of texture and flavour they may bring about. I have mentioned that feeling in this post . This here is the popular South Indian swashbuckler Mr. Sambar and among the types of sambar, this guy is a stud - he is our Drumstick Sambar - I mean considering the various benefits of drumstick and its great...

There have been quite a few restaurants I had visited these few months that have so thoroughly satisfied my food cravings. "Quite a few" is pretty big for me as against the ordinary number which stands pretty much at one or zero a month. First on my list of visit-again restaurants is Fromage. Not just for their great mango mojito and beef lasagna, but also to re-order a few other items which were a blur on my taste buds leaving just a tantalizing promise of flavours I could have enjoyed if not for the boisterous company. A visit to Fromage materialized when the darling husband read about it on a friend's FB post and shared it with me. I don't need much incentive to check out a restaurant...especially one serving Continental food. So up I jumped and planned a Sunday lunch with two other friends before S could get cold feet. Off we went from Kilpauk, all the way to MRC Nagar, a good 15 kms away to try a restaurant that had 'cheese' in its name. I h...

This book came recommended on Senior Reading Raccoons, a group I follow on FB. I finished it yesterday and I am still wrapped in the warmth of the book, pretty much like how the main character, Rinko had felt by the aromas of her cooking. From the moment I had come across a mention of Rinko giving madeleines to her landlord to reduce the rent of her love nest, I was sold. When have I last read a book which wasn't a cookbook that featured a madeleine? Never.   And then on the 17th page I came across this passage - At first, the words my grandmother used to describe differing amounts of seasoning such as tekitou and anbai were like another language to me. But I gradually came to understand what they meant. They were soft terms with rounded edges that painted a vague picture of the appropriate amount of flavour, and only those words could describe the resultant state of perfection .  I have often felt this way too when I have wanted to express flavours in our...

After two weeks of melting our hearts with their sweet mannerisms and angrezi accent, my niece and nephew have left for Dubai to stay with their mother's set of parents. The two weeks they had stayed here have flown by like a breath of fresh air and the saying that time flies when you are happy could never have been truer. This visit of the brother and his family was more special as this had been their first that Anakutti would remember. She interacted actively with her cousins from London instead of watching them with curious eyes and garbled words as she had done two years ago. I was excited by their visit for the sake of the kids...my kid specifically, who craves company of people her age. So these two weeks have gone in managing pick ups and drops between mum's place and ours and organizing lunches and dinners for the family as a whole. I don't think I have eaten out as much as this in a long while. I wanted to expose the children to a bit of Indian food during th...

I'm presently sitting contently in front of my laptop, trying to meet some work deadlines. But all I can think of is the delicious lunch I have had an hour ago. If there is indeed a temporary heaven for gastronomically satisfied bellies and stuffed hearts then mine would already have found a place there; instead of trying to sit and make sense of words in a document and put that into some sense. The meal was a simple, home-cooked fare - rice, nachikota keerai sambar , potato fry, tomato rasam and curds. I shall leave humility aside and accept that it was a good day in the kitchen and all items were very tasty. Every element was a lip smacking addition to our meal, which by itself should have elevated the lunch to nirvana status. But for me it was the combination of the various elements on my plate that contributed to a perfect mouthful. The pairing of the right dishes that look ubiquitous on the plate but transcend all expectations when they touch the tongue and give that sock ...

With Christmas last year, we have come to the end of a delectable line of festivals that come in the latter part of the year. I associate festivals with food, the making and serving of it and the indulging of the various delicacies that is synonymous with these celebrations. It’s easy to live this dream in a multi cultural, multi ethnic country like ours. There are so many festivals to celebrate; so many excuses to eat...unapologetic-ally if you please.   For Eid ul Fitr or for Ramzan, I get asked if I would invite people over for mutton biriyani ; I remember asking my Hindu friends for kozhukattais during Vinayaka Chatturthi and sweet pongal for Pongal; I have forgotten the number of times I have asked my mother to make her trade mark paruppu payasam for Onam. You see, it had to be prepared during the said festivals, even in a non-participating household or else it never really got made.   A small Onasadhya, with my favourite dal payasam I credit my d...