After living on and off a suitcase for close to 6 years, I decided I'd write about some food habits that have stood me in good stead when the going got tough. As you'd realise the going never really gets tough ...
1. Corn Flakes goes better with yogurt than milk. Ranjith introduced this to me when he came over to London for a weekend and I didn't have milk in my fridge. As a Telugu I usually tend to have yogurt for my regular cravings of
Perugu-Annam with
Aavakayi Pacchadi (curd rice with mango pickle). I haven't moved back to milk ever since ... except in rare occasions when I've had milk but no yogurt in my fridge.
2.
Poha tastes amazing when prepared with a little white wine in it. I was making breakfast/brunch for Ranj and Chandra and I decided it would be
Poha day. Mid way through this
Ghati preparation I found something amiss. I added a dash of white wine and everything fell into place. Both of them were unable to place where the additional zing to the
Poha had come from and when I did tell them they found it pretty interesting. (Even if they didn't show it they must have found it freaky to find a place other than church where they could have something made of wine at 10:00 A.M on a Sunday morning).
3.In general, if I thought my guests would find the food too spicy, I'd add a dash of lime. If I thought that's not going to work I'd add tomatoes and I'd continue with yogurt and wine and end by removing the green chillies from the food (I call it the placebo effect). If this still don't work, just order from a take away. (Don't forget to ask for spicy food else I'd bet you a silk pajama that your guest is going to find the food bland)
4. I have decided to call my sandwich invention as yogurt and pickle spread sandwiches after realising how simple it was to make them and how much better they tasted compared to those vegetable and cheese sandwiches that I had grown tired of. This tastes best with Priya's garlic pickle (though taking this to work means you need to carry some mouth wash along as well). The preparation is simple:
a. Toast the bread (Optional). For best results try brown bread
b. Spread pickle on a slice of bread
c. Glaze it with some yogurt.
5. At any point of time if you started cooking and realised you've run out of spices Don't Panic (Yes, I know, even the Hitchhikers Guide tells you the same). Just pick up a pickle and add two tablespoons of pickle into your curry. It works like a charm. I tired this in Potato Korma, Brinjal Curry and even with Chicken.
