Better after taste

What Vodka is for Russians, Chai is for Indians. Chai can easily be termed as our National drink. I am sure there won’t be any upheaval on this front but it’s much more than a beverage for us Indians. I too am Chai enthusiast but I have to confess that I am a late bloomer. I didn’t even know how to make a good cup of Chai, though that is something that I have mastered now. Like how I was passed on this craze by my mother-in-law, I managed to pass it on to my husband too. 

Most days when hubby is back from work and Smera has retired for the day we usually sit down together have our cup of Chai. It is like a ritual for us and this is when I get to tell him all about the notorious things the little one has been up to and exchange notes on work.

Corbis.com

After a lot of experimentation I have finally landed with my own formula and I thought it was really good, until we went to a friend’s place recently. She made us the best Masala Chai that we have had in a long time and it was so good that even a week after, we were still talking about it. In fact the hubby asked me to check with the friend for her recipe. I left it at that, while he went to freshen up after a tiring day at work. Just as usual I put on a pot for ourselves and we sat down to discuss some work-related stuff. As he took first sip, he smiled and asked

Hubby: is this the new recipe for Chai from your friend?

Me: No, it is just the usual one

Hubby: But it tastes really different, quite nice!

So I take the cup from him and smell it, then I take a sip and I couldn’t spot any difference. “No it’s just the same! What is different?” I asked him. Hubby takes the cup the back and then says nothing, lost in his thoughts he goes back to his notes. Then suddenly he shouts, “I know it is not the tea, it is KP Namboodari toothpaste that I used now”.

For those who don’t know KP Namboordari is a herbal toothpaste. Essentially, a tube full of mashed up popular Indian spices like pepper, cloves, cardamom. According to my husband, it is an Ayurvedic concoction that has cavity protection and tooth cleansing properties. 

I can not vouch for those tall claims, but this product has left a better after taste in my hubby’s mouth.  Whoever said Ayurvedic products do not have side effects!

P.S.- We as a family are quite crazy, it's not just my husband, even my baby sister had come up with something equally ridiculous a while back. You can read here on her experiment with Chai. 

Can aromatic food can make you feel depressed?

I am feeling really homesick today. Usually when I feel homesick, it’s primarily either I am missing home or home-cooked food. And today it is home-cooked food that I am really craving for. Whether it is summer or winters, I am perpetually hungry and worst part is I do not like my own cooking even a bit! It is not that I am bad at cooking! Honestly my food is no match mum’s magic or Kaipunyam as we would say in Malayalam.

Image: corbis.com

To make matters worse, just this morning I was feeling miserable thinking how far I am from home, have been away from home for over a decade and just then I smell something really fragrant being cooked in my neighbour’s house. It looks like they have invited friends over and I am suspecting they are up to cooking and eating something scrumptious. My living room and kitchen is filled with aroma over-flowing from their kitchen into ours. I am sure you can imagine how it must be adding on to my grief.

All that aroma is making super-nostalgic and hungry simultaneously. I know I am sounding really absurd but that's how emotional I have got all thanks to my neighbour. Food makes me feel real good because it reminds me of my childhood. But when I am deprived of mum’s food it feels more like being tranquilised with misery, which have a powerful, mood-altering influence on me.

Such misery can stoop me to unbelievably low levels of irrationality, for instance I am currently wondering if I could just call the police and ask them to arrest my neighbours for enticing me. That’s a far-fetched idea and I know the law wouldn't even have a provision for such a thing. However I am sure of one thing, the constitution would have been much different if I were entrusted with the law making responsibilities. 

Good ideas gone bad

Every child loves their mother for the food she cooks! Food is an irreplaceable connection between the mother and child that starts right from the womb. I am not planning a philosophical post on motherhood. Rather this post is all about challenges that mums like me face everyday with our mediocre cooking skills. By the end of this post I will be able to unload the heaviness on my heart, which I have been carrying around for the last few days. Beware this is post is going to take a melodramatic twist, so prepare yourself!

To start with I am not a great cook but I like try new things for my little one. I want her to eat healthy and nourishing food. Not just for her, I believe every child deserves it. I try to incorporate all elements of balanced food into her meal everyday.  Most mornings and nights are spent thinking what to make for the little one. And on a recent afternoon I made some rice along with her favourite chicken curry and carrot pachadi, a bit of carbs, proteins and good old veggies all packed in one meal.

Now who in the right mind would like a spicy chicken curry with a sweet and sour carrot pachadi? Carrot pachadi is wonderful of combination of freshly grated carrot, gently mixed with beaten yogurt that is tempered with mustard, onions, curry leaves and green chilies. At least that is what I was thinking until Smera took one bite and declared it “YUCK”! I was heart broken. This was the first time ever in 4.5 years that the little one had called something that I made for her as – yuck. I mean there have things that she has not appreciated before, particularly when it involves veggies but her reaction had never been so harsh. So I chucked away the entire thing and spent the rest of the day brooding over it!

After a day or two, a great idea popped in my head. To make something yet again with carrot that would win her heart this time and heal my wounded heart. So it was going to be carrot and it had to be something sweet. So I decided to pull out the trump card – Carrot halwa also known as Gajar ka halwa! So I spent Thursday afternoon, preparing carrot halwa while she was at school. I put in all the best ingredients and an extra dose of love too. To be honest the halwa’s idea initially came up for hubby’s cousin but then it seemed perfect for the both of them.

So in the evening after dinner when I gave her carrot halwa, she took first bite and thankfully didn't say “yuck” however she did go on to make the dirtiest face ever.  If that wasn't enough the hubby gave her the permission to spit it out too. 

Me and my holiday confessions

Ah back from my wonderful vacation and suddenly everything is beginning to look lovelier. That’s what a good holiday is really meant to do, leave you with warm fuzzy memories and a smile isn't it? On my way back home, I spent most of my travel in thinking of this post. Pondering what is it about Paris and Rome that I could write that has not been written or said before.  Well everything has been pretty much said and written, but the memories we made were new, fresh and here to stay with us for the rest of our lives.

While I must admit the trip was far away from what I was anticipating and here's how it all happened:

1. Paris was really cold: the initial choice of destination was Hong Kong, which is what we should have stuck to considering it was really cold in Paris. The idea was to enjoy the Disney holiday in a pleasant weather, rather than in hot and humid one. However the weather in Paris towards the end of March is still far away from being pleasant. It was rainy and cold at 5 degree Celsius and the hubby left no stone upturned to make me feel guilty!

2. McDonalds was our saviour in this trip too! It’s not like we were in China but we had little Smera with us and nothing better could have come to our rescue! A dose of McDonalds happy meal made the little one extremely happy. Though I must confess the French desserts at the local patisseries too worked like wonders.

3. We had not taken a holiday in 2 years and had almost forgotten how naïve tourists frequently get taken for a ride. Case in point was our first day in Rome – our first stop was Vatican – to recharge our batteries before the long wait to get to San Peitro, we decided to get something light to eat. We asked the waiter for his recommendation and that is where we exactly went wrong. The lunch was neither light on the stomach nor on the wallet. A total rip off, but on a positive note I still got a very appetizing picture for keepsake!   

4. Even if you are not a history or an art enthusiast, the city of Rome will turn you into one for sure. Everyone knows that St. Basilica and Sistine Chapel are strikingly beautiful, but the spectacular work of art enchanted even our little Smera and the story behind the art and history made her appreciate the Easter celebration even more this year.

5. This was officially the first trip where we spent most of the time soaking ourselves in holiday fun rather than clicking picture! And now when friends and family ask us to share the holiday fun, I have no pictures to share! All I have is a few 

6. Also I must admit the French were nice, much nicer than my previous trip but the Italians stole my heart! I particularly thought that the Italians people were a happier bunch than any place I have ever been. Especially the random people we met walking on the streets, in fact I loved it so much that I could actually imagine myself living in Rome. 

And the holiday came to an end with little Smera singing “let it go” in full throttle, while watching the movie on our way back home in the middle of the night! Go bless all those passengers who were sitting around for having the courage to bear her through that night! 

Something Fishy !!

We Indians love to eat! Sweet, sour, savoury, spicy name we love it. To top it up we Malayalees along with our fellow Bengalis and Goans most certainly love our fish and rice. However I grew up in Delhi so my palate is a bit different, more towards the northern side of India. Rajma Chawal, parathe, dal-subzi-roti kind of palate, while I do like an occasional fish curry or grilled fish.

Hubby and me have very different likings when it comes too food, I love Rajma which he hates and he loves Unakka chemeen (dry prawns) which I just can’t stand. But we have a lot in common too. As a true Delhite I love chats and samosas and so does the hubby and we both hate tuna and salmons. But what really got me to right about this fishy post today is a humble paratha.

I decided to make parathas for the hubby, aloo gobhi parathas and just as I stepped into the kitchen, he followed me to set up his plate with obligatory accompaniments curd and pickle. Just as I was about to take off the first paratha, I asked him:

Me: You will have two na?

Hubby: Suddenly feeling all nervous, he asks “Tuna”?

Me: Yeah? And then suddenly realising, “Not Tuna, I meant two parathas”

Hubby: Feeling relieved said, “yes of course”. For a moment he had his heart in mouth thinking the wifey is going to serve Tuna parathas for dinner.

He was grateful that good sense prevailed and that I didn’t made him eat something exotic even for a fish lover. Now I know what to give him, in case I am feeling vindictive, ha ha !! 

Crazy May or Mee

I have been feeling de-motivated for the last few months. Blame on the weather, missing family, being unwell or having troublesome three year old toddler at home or even the fact this new place is yet to feel like home.  Every from 6am till 8pm feels like being on the the 9 o'clock newshour with Arnab Gosawmi adding a little diva twist getting bombarded with questions.  

Finally I have reached a stage, I feel desperate need for a break where there no sun, no extreme winters, beach, rain n NO FAMILY... does such place exist? Somebody suggested to go off to Utopia. Wonder where this place is?

Sometimes it feels, I am not good enough as a mum, wife and the career has gone for a complete toss. Laziness is slowly gripping me like a warm blanket. And the lets not forget about our peculiar gender problems PMSing. Apart from the normal womanly abnormalities, I also came down with UTI. The problem is not a big issue apart from the pain. But what is most irritating is everyone asking me to drink water and cranberry juice. If I seriously took everyone’s advice we might run short of drinking water in Muscat.

Leaving all that aside my parents we here for 10 days. Felt like a bliss! I have been away from home for little over 10 years now and I crave for them to stay with us. Credit really goes to my mother for making me fat, thanks to all moong dal halwa, namak paare, not to forget the other scrumptious food that I had been gobbling down. 

But then I thought to myself - we all have are fat days ... and  days like these I think about eating only salads.... There's another perspective on salad..

Eventually the moral of the story as my husband would conclude – “There are no solutions to my problems.” Actually there is Ice-cream but it goes straight to the BUM and then fat days will be back all over again.  

Silly Saturdays: Weighed down by veggie logic

Getting your child to eat right is a very tough task! Sigh! I try really hard to make sure she drinks milk, eat fruits and veggies along with chicken and fish. Good thing is she likes milk, lentils, fish and chicken and few fruits too. The problem is really to get her to eat veggies. I have constantly come up with new ways to get her to eat veggies. 

After good 3-4 days of eating veggies, she asked me to make chicken for her yesterday. And I couldn’t refuse her for obvious reasons, so I decided to make her favourite chappati and chicken curry. Just as I started prepping for the curry, I took out the chicken curry masala packet. It’s an fragrant blend of all the spices that are traditionally used in a authentic Kerala chicken curry. Looking at the pack my little curious diva had a sudden urge to interrogate me.

Smera: Mamma what is this on the chicken’s tail? Hmm! maybe some beans and carrots. Do chicken eat vegetable?

Mamma: Yes they do and that’s they are so yummy in your tummy. So even you should eat them.

Smera: But I don’t want to be yummy, I want to be Smera only!

Mamma: Looking stumped, continues with the work!!

The point is kids these days are so observant and will not settle down for answer that does not satiate their curiosity. The only way out I guess is to learn to tap these qualities – attention to detail and the ability to think creatively without feeling silly.

 I have been looking at this packet for quite a few years but never really bothered about the packaging so much, until this day and that happened to be green and orange chillies on the chicken’s tail.

This time score is:  Smera- 1, Mamma- 0

Sweet summerish cure !!

I finished up my last post discussing about a Desert, Dessert and Dubai, and so I have decided to continue further on the topic. On our expeditious trip back to Dubai and back we picked up an instant ice-lolly make, just perfect for this summer. Before I tell you anymore about Zoku ice-lolly make, let me enlighten you about another favourite store of ours – Tchibo.

Tchibo is German, value for money store and of course, we particularly love the place for the value it offers and fine products it houses. At 29 Dirhams I thought it was a great deal for an ice-cream maker. However, I was a little disappointed to open the pack and realise it was just a mould to make instant ice-lolly in 7-10 minutes.

As a matter of fact, it was it still a good deal. How can one freeze the lolly mixture in a jiffy at home unless we got ourselves chillers used at ice-cream factories? 7-10 minutes for two of lip-smacking lollies. The only catch is you have to keep the Zoku moulds in the freezer 24 hours prior to making the lollies.

What you really need to do it is blend a smoothie with milk or yogurt or even fresh juice would do the trick and then tick-tock tick-tock. Viola in 7 minutes this is what I made.

The pack comes with ultra easy and interesting recipes and best part you don’t need to go to a Tchibo store if you don’t have one in your city. Just get it from Amazon! 

For my eternal love - Peraty !

Everyone has some or the other fond memories of growing up.  I also have many and still living up some of them even though I am an adult now. It’s these memories that keep the child in you alive. In my real life research I have also noticed that it helps me connect better with friends.

I used to love Amma feeding me lunch and dinner. Now that I am mum, there’s a role-reversal and I miss Amma. Last night as I went to sleep I was thinking of days when I would spend time at home and Amma making my favourite food. Of course there are many more memories but today I plan to write about my love for Peraty!

Peraty is what we call it, but which I am sure most of us would relate to eating from the bottom of the pan. Especially on days when would have Amma made my favourite like Aloo gobhi or chicken fry. Peraty – literally means coating. Coating little rice into the lovely masala stuck at the bottom of the pan, rolling it into a ball and eating it. Eating Peraty used to be a pure bliss moment.

When I was younger I used wonder why Amma always ate from the pan and not in a plate, until one I realised the about the joy of eating Peraty. Once you've tried it, I am sure you would be hooked on to it for life. This is something that also has a special relevance in my hubby’s life.

He grew up in a hostel and once a week there would be meat served to them. At the end of the meal there would be kitchen in-charge walking with the big pan and rice and she would roll Peraty for whosoever was interested. Of course they all were and so they would call out raising, “Miss please Peraty” and so the poor ended up with a ridiculously but cute name Miss Peraty.

We still enjoy eating Peraty and just the thought of it makes our hearts go all mushy and take back in time when life was so simple.

Silly Saturdays: Toddler’s food for thought

Smera usually gets lecture from me when she says no to eating vegetables but last evening was a little different. The scenario was - Smera’s baby-sitter was giving her dinner when I overhear this conversation.

Smera: Aka you must eat lots of vegetables then you will become big and strong like me.

Aka: Ok Smera!

Mamma: (hearing her lecture) Smera would you like some more vegetables?

Smera: No mamma, you can give it to Aka, she needs to become big like me. I am already tall.

It’s not just Aka’s food she is concerned about. She also loves to talk to toys every now and then, telling about eating healthy, just as a mother would tell her kids.

That brings me to man-eating crocodiles, Smera has a crocodile and she love to feed him and this morning she brings the crocodile to her daddy and says, “Daddy, look what my crocodile ate?” and here’s a picture of that for you guys to see it for real.

Silly Saturday: Home delivery

Just like any other toddler Smera has a weakness when it comes to mobile phones. So as over-protective mobile lovers we got her a little toy phone almost a year ago. She didn't quite like it then, obviously was not as interesting as ours. But suddenly she has taken a liking to the toy. She loves to pretend having serious conversation over her toy phone.

Here is an excerpt from the conversation tapped by MBI. Yes you guessed it right Mommy Bureau of Investigation.

Smera: Hello Saravana? Do you have two illy (read idly)?

Smera: Daddy what do you want? Dosa?

Daddy: Yes angel!

Smera: Excuse me one dosa. No oil and coffee.

This is our regular order on Friday mornings at Sarvana but what made us laugh is the seriousness with which Smera efficiently ordered over the phone.

Lesson to learn: Never underestimate a two and half year old's ears! 

Image: gettyimages.ae

Very berrylicious

Smera has been grounded at home for the last few days. She fell down from a tricycle and injured her arm. At this stage more than injury, it’s boredom that is irritating her the most. So the dad and daughter duo decided to bake mixed berry cupcake and I have evidence to show that my daughter is refined assistant chef.

But there are always two sides to the coin, isn't it? Much as they look nice, they were under cooked. So we took the picture and popped them back in the oven. They came out slightly burnt, very dry and sour as the berries were not tossed well in sugar. The sour bit is my mistake to be honest, my diet-conscious self didn't allow me to put in enough sugar!

If that was not enough, I even went and shared a few mildly atrocious cupcakes to my lovely neighbour Beena Di. She actually did deserve it primarily for two reasons:

1. For her love for Smera
2. The eggs in the recipe came from her home. 

Living through the midweek crisis

I use the word crisis a moderate term to explain my frustration.  Dubai has been invaded by horrendous weather and the summers have just started. Yes they are here to stay and so is my irritable mood. Not just that, I have been having this harassing headache for more than a week.  Well it’s not as big as I am making it sound, but my sinus troubles are back.

Image: gettyimages

Well that’s not the end of it. Nope it was just the tip of the ice-berg! I have put on a kilo that I had lost with great difficulty. The best thing would be to do some extreme cardio – sprinting or brisk walking. That sounds easy right, not really when you have no stamina to do this any more than 10-15 mins.

That again is not end to my sob story. Sigh! I still had one more problem – uncontrollable hunger pangs. Whenever I fall sick or am depressed, I end up hogging on a lot of food. And so even in such a terrible state, I managed to visit Bikarnerwala and Puranmal to gorge on chaat and kachories.

I am sure I can go on cribbing for the rest of my life, but I have decided not to ponder over it too much as little Smera is ready to head out. With hubby away for a day, I have planned an exciting day out for today. Starting with - breakfast at Sarvana, hair-cut and painting toes at the parlour, afternoon siesta, evening swim and then finishing the night with our favourite movie – Lion King!

Once all this is done, I am going to cuddle her and sleep off this disastrous .  And if for some reason that too does not help, I will eventually sort to some retail therapy thanks to hubby’s credit card. 

Silly Saturday: An Australian mystery !!

Question: Why does Matt Preston have a neck scarf on, all the time?  

Image: randomhouse.com

Answer: I think he likes to be ready always. 

Image: savvydaddy.com

Piping HOat !!

It’s no secret that feeding toddlers and infants is the biggest task ever. Yet I feel, mine is a little ahead of other’s in her age group. If she decides not to eat a thing, then there is no way that you can convince her to open her mouth. She won’t even cry, knowing for a fact that food will be shoved into her mouth.

Look, no one told us parenthood would be easy. I know that. But then I didn't know, that making your child eat would be such a colossal task. There is no infant handbook that could give you solution to how make your child open her mouth. And then to top it up every child is different.

So when Smera out-grew her fruity and vegetable purée stage and Oats came to my rescue. I think, Oats are the best food invented ever in the short history of mankind and in my motherhood expedition. When I introduced Smera to this super easy and magical food, she was instantly hooked on to it. She likes her's with milk and a dash of sugar or even the soupy style.

Image courtesy:  eatwellnz.co.nz 

My motherly dilemma is that, I am trying to encourage to Smera to try different things but then she just cannot have enough of Oats. She might soon reach a stage, where she would get fed up of it and then life won’t as easy as it is now. For now I am thrilled that I don’t have think really hard on what to make the next morning. Not to mention they also double-up as absolute life-saver when we are travelling.

It’s also, in surprising ways a healthy comfort food (now that’s an oxymoron) – try a bowl with a pinch of salt when you’re down with flu or cold. And lastly I have mastered the art of cooking them in the microwave, isn’t that the best part to cook and serve all in the same bowl.

To feed my curiosity I searched the net for the origin of oats, and it seems it has been around for eternity. But what was surprising to read, it was only at the fag end of 90’s Oats started gaining its popularity after FDA in US published a report confirming - Oats help in reducing heart-related problems. That’s the problem, what starts in US soon rolls over the rest of the world-wide.

What is amazing is that even in smaller towns back in India have been adopted as Oats as a healthier breakfast option. I occasionally allow myself to get into the conspiracy theory mode. What if the health benefits of Oats is all propaganda? Would the next generation know what it is to have our own local breakfast dishes? Will oats and corn flakes annihilate Dosa and Idli from the breakfast table?

Only time will tell and maybe our palettes will get used to the tastes of Oats chappati, Oats cutlet, Oats dosa, Oats idli, Oats upma, Oats uttapam or even Oats dhokla. Maybe be soon you will see it being served at the desi food joints – HOat Idlis from Saravana Bhawan, I can’t wait J

Silly Saturdays: A secret recipe

Kuku, my little cousin sister is a kindly, helpful child. Even after all the pressures of being a full-time engineering student, she still finds time to help her mom, who in turn, skillfully juggles her day job and bringing up two kids on her own.

Okay, back to Kuku now. On my recent trip home, she told me about her newly invented recipe, Arabic Tea. I was not surprised. I knew she always had the scientific inclination and with her spending time in the kitchen helping mom, the invention could have only been a pleasant side-effect.  

On a shivering wintery morning, Kukku was busy studying for her exams at home. That’s when Rani didi, the part-time-help, came home to help out with the chores.  Seeing Rani-di doing the dishes with a splitting head-ache, Kuku offered to make her a cup of hot tea.

As you would expect from a person with a big heart, Kuku decided to make the concoction, a little special. She took out some ginger from the fridge and started to peel of the skin but was unsure of how much of it to be used to make the tea, special. Now, Kuku may be an engineer-in-the-making and a bit weak in the tea-making department – she isn’t however ashamed of asking for some advice and sought Rani-di’s help.

What happened next is straight out of a Tamil movie. Rani-di stormed out of the kitchen calling “Aiyo Kadavale!” (Oh my god). The next line was even more melodramatic “Are you trying to kill me!!”

It did not take long for Kuku to figure out something was wrong. She took another look at the irregular-shaped rootstock – Aiyo Kadavale indeed; it was not ginger but a piece of Arbi (Colocasia in English) though with a striking resemblance to the former. The trouble with Colocasia is that it can cause severe itch (just like a Yam) when it is uncooked and exposed to skin. Far from the tangy taste that was meant to be infused from the freshly shaved pieces of ginger root.

With the timely intervention and a bit of Kadavul grace, Rani escaped the itchy throat on top of a splitting headache. With a good laugh and a strong tea (no ginger this time), she was cured of that nasty headache. 

For the curious, here is the recipe (world-wide patent pending: Kuku )

2 cup                          water

2 tablespoons            Indian black tea

1 cup                          milk

2 tablespoons           sugar

1 inch                        Arbi or Colocasia , freshly shaved

Warning: Try this at your own risk – neither author nor the inventor takes any responsibility for the severe itching in the throat that it is bound to last for a couple of hours. Text book remedies for the itching induced by this special recipe include coconut oil or butter milk……or simply avoid it in the first place! 

Oh! for Orange

If there is an award for world’s biggest Orange fan then it has to be my hubby. Now I am not exaggerating! He can happily eat orange after his breakfast, lunch, dinner or replace all the meals listed above with Citrus. And that’s not all; if they are sour then it’s even better. Ok why is that a problem, you may ask?

Bored of peeling and eating them the old-fashioned way, he decided to get himself an orange squeezer. And one day he got himself an ordinary manual squeezer, where you would place orange and physically rotate the fruit to get the juice. He was very happy with it, which gave him fresh orange juice with pulp and no sugar. What more could he have asked for?

As the days passed his arms started aching and enthusiasm was also slowly diminishing. This would be the right place to apply the Law of Diminishing Mandarin Utility.

He then wanted to upgrade himself from a squeezer to a citrus press. So the search began with every weekend spent at every home furnishing store in the city. He found a few but the quality didn’t impress him much. Finally he founded just the perfect piece at one of the swankiest places in town. So with a heavy heart (read expensive) I let him buy that as an anniversary gift to himself.

Delighted with his newly acquired and improved juicer technology, orange juice became yet again a regular at our home.  While I have to admit I do enjoy it particularly if the oranges are sweet. And with that I thought it was a happily ever after story for me.

Then a couple of weeks back, our neighbour bought a top of the range juicer which did all kinds of stuff. When I told him the story he was still smug because even that juicer could not do what his citrus press did.  But I think that made him re-think that there could be better options available out there to get the juice out with-out making it half a work-out.

As things turned out, he got the perfect excuse when our vegetable chopper broke.  He tricks me buying an orange juice extractor with additional chopping functionality. It does not end there he now pressurises me not to use it for onion and garlic. Maybe all he really needs is to go to an orange rehabilitation centre.

I am sure reading this post his face will surely turn red or maybe even orange.

P.S. – Our expensive citrus press continues to unwind on my kitchen counter, waiting for a day when the electricity goes off here in Dubai for it come back in use.  

Image: google.com

Chapatti-nomics

I am an expert at making chapattis. And my husband loves to tuck in freshly made hot chapattis with curry by the dozen. It is however, a lot of hard work to produce the version that our in-house-aficionado devours – one that virtually melts in your mouth.

It starts with choosing the right flour, the right proportion of water, at the right temperature and a fair amount of time spent kneading the dough. Then making the dough balls is easy, but rolling the pin to flatten the bread and baking it to get the balloon-effect requires some skill.

Overtime, my husband and I have developed a neat division-of-labour arrangement when it comes to chapatti production. I would choose the flour, oversee the mixing, he would then make a mini-workout of the whole kneading process and finally I would come back to roll the pin and make it hot.

By way of what I call the muscular-arm and skillful-hand partnership, all was well in our tiny bakery. Okay, that was only until our little one popped-out. With lesser time on hand and frequent interruptions, we were now using Smera’s sleep-time to carry on our family tradition.

One evening when we were both tired, hungry and on the ritual, Saju asked a very profound question. “What is the economic cost of making chapattis yourself?”  Before I could utter a word, he sputtered out an impressive mathematical equation.

I do not remember the exact numbers but it included the cost of the flour, water, salt, wear and tear of the rolling pin and kilo watts of electricity used. He then paused for a bit and asked me for an estimate of the most valuable ingredient, our time.

While I was trying to make sense on where the whole conversation is headed, he said “Let’s use the time cost of our part-time help” After a moment of what appeared to be an exercise in mental mathematics, he came up with a number of two-dirham and fifty-fills.

“Two-dirham and fifty-fills, that’s how much each of our chapattis cost” he said with a stoic-face. Faced with the prospect of heavy-duty-math standing between me and my dinner, I said that it made sense hoping he’ll forget about it after a good nights rest.

Alas, we were soon researching our in-house chapatti replacement options. Those who made it to the short-list were the ones from the open-food counter at Lulu, the wafer thin kind from Saravana, heat-and-eat version from Chiotrams and the tawa-parata from Bombay Tadka.

Of all the options, Tawa-parata from Bombay Tadka (BT) stood out for couple of reasons. It was made of whole wheat flour (atta) and it was at least twice as big as what we would normally make. It costed us three dirhams a piece and it was right next to the place where we would do our weekly grocery shopping.

Now, even I can figure out that is a good deal. And thus we started another family tradition – weekly shopping of chapattis by the dozen. It straight goes into our freezer and gets a microwave treatment just before dinner. It sure doesn’t taste nearly as good as our in-house version but all things considered, it is a steal.

The reason why I started writing this post is because of a recent development in our chapatti strategy. Last weekend when we called BT to place our regular take-away order, no one answered the call. Thinking they must be super busy serving the hungry, we walked in there, only to find out that they have shut the shop.

Looks like someone got their math wrong.

Happiness, now comes as a roll !

What is the one that one food that unites most of us here in the Middle-East, it is found in most cities of the world but sold under different names and varieties? I am talking of Shawarma – a generous helping of chicken or meat, spicy or regular with bit of salad, garlic dip, pickles and fries – all rolled together into a wrap – just ideal for anytime of the day.

The reason I am talking of Shawarma is that I recently visited Shawarmaji’s in Al Barsha that opened a few months back. It is one of those places that caught my attention by it’s peculiar name and I was keen to check it out.

Being in the Middle East for about five years, we have tasted this ubiquitous any-time snack in a number of varieties. The gourmet-version from a sit-down restaurant, platter-version from the food courts, the spicy-version from the road-side café and the cheap and cheerful version from the IKEA cafeteria are just to name a few. As you can see, it is very easy to become a Shawarma aficionado, if you are living by this neck of the woods – and hence my expectations were very high.

Sorry to kill the suspense this soon - the experience at Shawarmaji’s was phenomenal! Every delicious bite of that Mexican Shawarma roll constituted the ideal model of what a true shawarma should be – chicken cooked and spiced up to perfection with a few crispy bits inside, juicy and extremely tender. The meat Shawarma was the first time for me and it surely did impress me – seasoned so well that I couldn’t stop at one. And surprisingly for a comfort food, it tasted healthy - I am sure the generous layering of herbs and mild coat of olive oil did the trick.

With a menu of different variety of the Shawarmas, I can wait to go back there again.

You can contact them for delivery at - 04 4521717 

Location - Shawarmaji is near Lulu Al Barsha, opposite Dubai American Academy.

Image courtesy - google.com