me!

I think I am weird sometimes. I think about food all the time. Is that normal? Mind you its all forms of food, anything that has to do with food, I dream about pastas, pairing the pasta with wines, the cold avocado soup and my new favorite the spicy-cold cilantro soup, i dream about the mudda pappu with avakai (thats the best pairing ever), I think about the awesome bajjis and punugus on the road side stall, pani puri and chat slurp, the different flavored bread pudding I made for my clients, the rice festival I held for another client, the 18 types of dosas for another, the big barbecue with the Scott's, my orange and lemon jest pulihora and I think about the dinners I made for my clients, friends, God (as offering) while i was back in Salt Lake City, how I used to ride my motorbike to the venue, cook exotic food and then go for a looong ride (that kinda became a routine). All that was something very close to my heart. After moving to India I feel I miss doing that. All I do here is to run along with the world to earn big bucks from a job I thought would satisfy me but apparently I deceived myself. As Leonardo DaVinci said "The greatest deception men(/women - added by me ;) )suffer is from their own opinion". I yearn to get those days back. It doesn't do good to keep thinking about the past - true that, but what if I intend to make my past my future. Grab my set of Knives (which I left back in SLC), put my jacket on, hop on Dhannu (that's my bike - you can see my bike in my profile pic of the blog) and just ride. Taking up cooking assignments on the way and just go! whoa some dream isn't it? But the day is not far when this would be realized. My Dhannu is still waiting for me in SLC. Its almost time - I can feel it.

So guys wish me oh sorry and girls wish me luck! Pray for me.
Before I end this ramble or what ever it is, just want to mention some beautiful cooking moments I had back in the US.

The day I made chocolate flavored bread pudding topped with hot chocolate sauce, hint of cinnamon - that is what I called Chocolate Nirvana - just by revealing the ingredients got $200 paid by a gentleman who gave me 2 assignments after that.

The night when I made Garlic chicken wings for Native American (Navajo) reservation. OK a lil back ground. There is a service center - Bennion Center at the Univ of Utah which does service trips every spring break. I coordinated one of the trips to the Native American reservation, helping them with their chores, provide info regarding sanitation etc. We were put up with a native family. The head of the family, Berna is 85 years old and stays with her daughter. The daughter's son and his family come over for dinner everyday. So I cooked for them that night. Berna who usually doesn't each chicken had 3 helpings. Her family loved the food and gorged on happily till the last bit. I had no problem cuz I am a veggie and I was happy gorging on their bread.

Come tomorrow - It was some day of celebration to the Navajo and Berna being an influential member of the reservation volunteered me to cook for the elders. Reality hit me like a thunderbolt - I had to cook for 25 people with meager resources.
Fortunately I took some bombai ravva with me (I usually carry my spices on me and since that was my second time going there, I took some BR to teach them how to make Indian food). I got early (like at 4 am) and set the fire wood for cooking. Elders flocked around me to see what I was doing and I knew there were passing comments(everybody was laughing). Anyways I made Upma (took 4 kgs of that ravva - FYI), to go with it, the traditional roasted groundnut chutney and Rasam as soup - called it Mulligatawny ;) Anyways I cooked for them on that auspicious day and boy were they happy! I vivdly remember one of the kids (english speaking) saying that was one of her best meals or something along those lines ;)

Cooking at One world cafe! You eat there, you either pay for the food or volunteer at the cafe for how much ever time you feel depending on the value you set for the food. "One world - Everybody eats" is their motto. There is no way you gotta think that food there is of less appreciable quality. Decent chefs in SLC volunteer there. When I offered my services they had doubts, because i was introduced to them as an Engineering grad student. The masala dal came to my rescue. Its one of my favorites and by adding a hint of lime, it gave a new flavor to the dish itself. Then made the world famous Hyderabad biryani and paired it with mint lemon chiller (our lemon soda with mint ;) ) then another personal fave of mine - green rice. I had gala time over there volunteering in every way possible and that place has changed the way I looked at things, food, people and hunger.


As I mentioned before, my days are not too far away - Chocolate flavored Grease!!