Home Sweet Home

Well, its been a long time since I’ve posted. And I’d like to blame a bout of viral, Cyclone Nisha messing up my net connection & an attack of laziness. Now, I’m sitting with nothing to do and I thought I’ll make up for all the time I’ve not blogged. I’d been home recently & it was after a long time. Add to that a recent birthday & it was feast time at home with Mom & Dad pulling out all stops. I’ll try to relate 2 days of unabashed gorging in as much detail as I can.

I arrived at home at about 9AM in the morning on Saturday. Breakfast was puttu with kadala, the kerala speciality. I happen to like this & Mom’s version is absolutely delicious. This was downed with a couple of papads – plain & chili flavour. I washed down breakfast with a glass of orange juice. Not Tang, not freshly squeezed pulp, not Minute Maid’s Pulpy orange, but rather orange coloured sugary water manufactured somewhere in southern Tamil Nadu. I believe there is a limit to how much one can swig Tang and other things you can pick up in the supermarket and that one should stop once in a while to taste what rural India has to offer. As an aside, the Bovonto drink (Tamil Nadu’s answer to Coke) from Kalimark is a really interesting drink & finds favour with many, me included.

Getting back home, the specialty of the day was Lobster. I’d never had Lobster & it was decided that it would be the meal of the day to celebrate my recently concluded birthday. As much as I’d have liked to have Lobster from Maine, I had to settle for Lobster from the Bay of Bengal. Mom & Dad paid a trip to the local Fish store (Sahayamatha Fish) & bought a kilo of Lobster & also a quarter kilo of King Fish or Seer Fish. (When I have non-veg at home, I like to have as much and as many varieties as possible )

Mom had refused to cook any of this, so it was up to me & Dad. We started off. Dad did most of the cooking while I was ’support staff’ – chopping veggies, helping with the mixes & so on. Aachi’s Masala helped in the making of the Seer fish & Lobster was done in Dad’s own recipe involving some turmeric, tomatoes, onions & egg. Mom cooked the rice. A couple of papads finished off the menu.
This was followed by a finger licking feast in which my cousin & I demolished the lobster & the fish and also a substantial amount of rice.

Dad had to leave on a trip & I dropped him off around 3PM. Guests were expected around 4 and I this poured cold water on my customary siesta. Mom had planned to serve Sabudhana Vada & she was busy preparing it. Sabudhana Vada is a Maharashtrian delicacy. It involves wrapping mashed potatoes in sago & frying it. A great delicacy if it is had hot.

The ketchup (Maggi Hot & Sour Tomato Sauce – Its different!) ran out sometime midway through the snack & this was repaired by some ‘on-the-fly’ maneuvers by me which involved adding some water to the bottle followed by some vigorous shaking. After the guests left, I sampled a few biscuits and had some Nannari juice (Sarsaparilla juice) mixed with lemon.

Dinner was typical Konkani fare with rice, dal (toi) ,some ghee, the previously mentioned papads,thambale puddi (chammandi podi to malayalees) which is a kind of spicy powder made from dried coconut, and one of my favourite dishes , the soppoor kookachi ukkari which is a curry made from a tuber, the English name of which I’m still hunting.
That was Saturday.

Sunday dawned bright & clear, though I wasn’t awake to watch it dawn. I woke up at a leisurely 10AM & dragged my cousin along to get some chicken & prawns. Breakfast was Phanna Polo.Those who have forgotten what this is can read this post.
With Mom still refusing to cook non-veg, I was forced to cook it myself. Though Mom helped with the veggie chopping & stuff. Eastern’s Chicken Masala helped prepare the chicken in no time (Well, actually, after half an hour). As an aside, this masala powder makes the tastiest chicken curry. No other masala I’ve tasted makes chicken quite so good. The blend of spices is just perfect.

The prawns, I handled with a recipe of my own, tossing in some onions, coconut shavings, ginger & garlic, green chillies & some egg with the prawns. With the absence of any colouring (Lobster & Seer fish the previous day had turmeric & Kashmiri mirch added to them), the prawns were preserved in their natural colour and looked pinkish, succulent & delicious. (They tasted delicious too).

This was accompanied by rice & papad and washed down with some curd. The meal was quite heavy & I opted to skip the evening snack. Dinner started with sweet corn vegetable soup – courtesy Ching’s which Mom had picked up from some supermarket. It tasted too spicy for my taste. Kind of goes against the “Sweet corn” idea. Dinner was rontos with dal (toi) and some leftover chicken. Now rontos are similar to puris execpt that they’re made with rice flour & hence appear white. They taste different too.

Dinner was followed by some more Nannari swigging. Then it was time to leave for my train. Thus came to an end two days of non-stop gorging. Waiting to go home again….
Till then..
Cheers!

P.S: This post was suggested by a close friend of Dad’s when he came home to gorge on Sabudhana Vadas