So here is how it began…
My earliest memories of food date back to a childhood where
my mom would spread sheets of newspaper on our carpeted floor and sit on them,
to fold little pastries into triangular moulds and fill them with a
mildly-spicy potato-peas curry. It would be mushy in texture and the smell
would be inviting. I’d sit on our sofa and gaze at her intermittently while
playing with my toys (the other times, I’d be busy with my kitchen toy-set).
She’d fry these little filled pouches in hot oil and I’d be shifting on my feet in a
waltzing motion so she’d pick one out and blow them cool, and I could
immediately stuff my mouth with one of them.
My awareness of food was always at the highest. I would remember
not people and events and occasions to celebrate, but the memory of the food at these gatherings would
always be fresh. I do distinctly remember, though, the first time I tasted sea food and relating it to characters I’d
seen in my favourite movie, The Little Mermaid. Whether the rest of the
creatures could be eaten or not, I didn’t have the heart to ask, for Ariel and Sebastian held dear to me, as did the rest of the school of fish.
I would often watch my mother cooking for long hours, never
looking like she was toiling, in the kitchen. This, I’d try to replicate in my
own mini kitchen my father bought me, where I’d be busy days on end banging
utensils and spoons against each other and filling our little house with enough
cacophony. I’d produce something at the end which I’d make my father eat, and
he’d always smile with appreciation at the pretend-delicacies, which were in fact empty plastic bowls. He’d maintained
his encouragement through the years, more so during the first few times I was allowed
to touch the knife and real vegetables. I would realize only much later of his
plight, when he would be asked to taste a “special dressing” with his salad,
which I would prepare by soaking chopped chilies in water!
My cooking has come a long way since (thankfully) and my
zeal and attachment to food has only been growing by the day. Especially with my
goddess Nigella Lawson, Kylie Kwong, Sanjeev Kapoor and more recently Gordon
Ramsay my main course on TV, my world is more accentuated with their
exclamations as I try my hand at some delightful new dish. Not to undermine of course, a dash of creativity here and a sprinkle of traditional cooking methods there.
My 9 to 5 (or should I say 9 to 9) job does give me satisfaction,
but what really sticks a smile to my face which rarely wipes off till I go to
sleep, is the adventures in my kitchen and the thinking I put into whipping
something up which more often than not, is received with much enthusiasm at
home. What I call home these days is a modest apartment in Bangalore I share with three
other friends, all of whom, much to my luck, are foodies who’re very willing
guinea pigs to my adventures and experiments with food.
For whatever you are about to read on this blog, I owe a tiny bit to
them, my parents and of course, technologyJ
