Soft Gulab Jamun fresh out of the cardamom flavoured sugar syrup and teamed with vanilla ice cream. What would you call this combination? I call it love, pure divine love, when this combination of hot and cold melts into my mouth. Then what would you call lust? Hot samosas just out of the oil pan, dipped in tangy green chutney and sugary red chutney, would be my pick for being call as the ultimate example of lust.
Before I take you through this journey of ultimate calorie driven sin, let me introduce myself. I belong to the category of sinners who live to eat. Food, is what I call the ultimate description of love, lust and every form of extreme emotion at its best. I have come across people with varied school of thoughts when it comes to Food. Some call it the ultimate nirvana, some call it the sin that accumulates in the belly and some call it a therapy for depression. Though I agree with these Ideas in bits and pieces but my conclusion tends to remain simple. I live to eat and I love to eat. Food is drug and the high it gives cannot be compared to any other high.
And as part 2 to of my introduction, I am slightly on the plumper side of the weighing scale and as much as I aspire to achieve that perfect BMI, thanks to my “live to eat and love to eat” theory of life, I tend to always stay a few kilos more than any average Human being of my age. From the crisp dosas with butter and gunpowder spread on it to the super soft Idlies and tangy Sambhar, I am raised in a family of amazing home cooks who can cook the most tastiest south Indian delicacies. Let me tell you the secret to ingredient to crispier dosas and softer Idlies. Its dollops of oil my dear! And yeah please do not use olive oil as you might end up having idlies smelling like some half-baked pasta. So more oil is equal to tastier food is the first mantra for tastier eating and unhealthy living, but who cares!! We love our food with that perfect taste and extra oil and so the ultimate mantra for cooking a tasty South Indian Meal is “anything healthy is not right”!!
I would not put the entire blame of my food and life theory on me being a south Indian. The blame is to be shared equally by the fact that of all the cities in the world my parents chose to settle down in the food capital of the world, Delhi. Ever since I started developing my taste senses, food at its varied best has been an integral part of my growing up journey. Which other place in the world would start its day with hot Kachoris straight out the frying pan, served with the most deliciously prepared Potato curry famously known as aloo ki sabzi, and yeah before I forget, these are not normal plain kachoris, they are filled with spiciest of the stuffing to make one feel guilty throughout the day for having a breakfast whose calorie count can put the total calorie intake of lunch and dinner together to shame. But we are Delhiites and we love our food filled with kilo calories of love, oil and Ghee in it. These Kachoris are just a trailer, the actual culinary list of Delhi includes a wide range of street food starting with Tikkis fried in ghee topped with creamy curd and tangy green chutney to Crispy Gol gappas filled with Tangy and spicy chutney. Even the regular home cooked food for Delhiites is a calorie extravaganza in the form of buttery Dal Makhni and creamy Paneer Makhni. How can I forget the increasing momos culture of Delhi!! You have baked momos, fried momos, steamed momos and what not and the sauce!! I call the momos sauce as the devil’s own recipe. Oh god have mercy on us Delhiites, you give us so much delicacies to munch on and then have fun at our sakes by giving us the most dreaded Delhi Belly. (Pun Intended)
Introduction part 3, I belong to a generation that pretends to love Subway salads and ends up eating the extra cheesy Paneer Tikka and aloo patty subway Sandwich (not to be missed- topped with extra mayonnaise and mint mayonnaise). But my sincere thanks to subway for having opened its outlets at almost every corporate food court as I think we are judged the least when we are standing in front of subway counter and yeah the guilt free extra cheesy delicacies they market and promote makes us feel healthier and happier. How can any talk about food be complete without a special mention of Italy’s greatest gift to the world at large in the form of Pizza and Pasta. Record has it that we Indians consume more Pasta and Pizza then the whole world put together.( I cannot seem to agree more on this and the proof of this can be witnessed in our cute little belly fat that seem to be ever increasing.) I call Pasta and Pizza as the two most repeated sins of my life. I know for sure now that my body would have more amount of red sauce and white sauce as compared to blood and water and of course the burgers and French fries have a special place in my heart. (Cant help it, as I said, I live to eat!!)
Every time I stand on the weighing scale, I blame God for his weird sense of humour, first he created Human beings, then he created stomach and hunger and gave a free hand to Human beings to invent and innovate Food. And to add fuel to fire, he gave Man with both sugar and salt. The result is all the above mentioned lustful sins teamed with some deadlier sins created to satisfy the so called “sweet tooth”. As if chocolates were not enough to make one crazy, we Indians have our range of innumerable sweets for every season and for every reason. We celebrate every alternate day of the year as some festival and festivals in India cannot be celebrated without that extra pinch of sugar added to the already sweet delicacies including barfi, laddoo, gulab Jamun or Ros Gulla etc. etc. etc. And yeah Ghee (or as I call it the ultimate sin) is the key ingredient to every deadly devil mentioned above. The most hilarious part of this whole sugar sweet theory is we justify our act of munching on these yummy yet unhealthy inventions by calling them as stress busters and mood uplifters.
“Cheesy, sugary, spicy, crispy, munchy, crunchy yummy and last but not the least Chocolaty” These are the ultimate words that stand between flab and fab story of every person like me, who wakes up every morning with a rock solid motivation to start a healthier living but succumbs to the sarcastic intention of God and evil invention of Man called “Food” (as soon as I smell the fragrance of that Aloo Parantha being cooked with mom’s extra love and extra ghee). So “Live to eat and Love to eat” that’s how I sum up my theory of life (That has guilt, some extra kilos, some add on kilo calories, lots of unhealthy munching and yeah how can I forget!! Dollops of Ghee and those mid night snacking bars of Chocolates and ice creams stored in that ice cold corner of the fridge). Then I guess, the wiser I grow, the lesser I care about calories and more about experimenting with my first, second, third and probably my ultimate love “Food”