I'm six or seven years old and I go to our next door neighbors for dinner. All by myself like a big girl. At this point, my mother makes mainly Indian food - dal and roti and curried vegetables. She makes American food too - homemade pizza and casseroles. Not tuna casserole though. Oh no.
I sit at the table. The dining table chairs have seats that are covered with a felt like material - yellow and green flowers on them. The meal is served. What is this exotic fare? I pick up my fork. The house does not smell of fried onions or spices or that dry, sharp smell of basmati rice. Not like home. The dinner sits on the plate. Pale. Noodles wide and fat of the eggy variety. Little peas sprinked throughout. Flecks. White flecks of fishy smelling stuff. I sniff my plate. Funny. Odd. Like a deep sea explorer I pick through the white mass. What is this? Cream of mushroom soup? And tuna? And egg noodles and peas? Get out. Get out of town you people with your haute American cuisine. I nibble and twist and slurp. I feel as if I have discovered an exotic, strange new world. As the years pass I continue to explore this novel and creative food. Grilled peanut and butter jelly sandwiches and fried bologna. Rhubarb pie with home made ice cream and ho-hos and casseroles with fried onions on top or crushed potato chips. After all. It is good not to be too provincial.
Madhu, Ah yes the delights of fried bologna - I've forgotten all about it. Ugh. Indian food is fab. We Brits love Indian food. I always use Basmati and never thought of it having the scent you describe...but now I think about it, you're absolutely right! I have a great Indian vegetarian recipe that's made with fresh spinach, tomoatoes, chick peas - some great spices - the whole thing ends with four eggs poached on top. Sounds messy but tastes real good. i look forward to reading any easy to do (in the sense of not needing a lot of physical energy, standing around etc) Indian recipes you have, using fresh produce. btw I've just written a post about something I've remembered when I was six and it was about food too!
Posted by: Ingrid | March 19, 2004 at 04:18 PM
Yes, I do have some recipes. We should trade Indian recipes blog style :)
Posted by: MD | March 19, 2004 at 05:58 PM
Hey, great idea. Watch this space :)
Posted by: Ingrid | March 20, 2004 at 02:26 PM
Ha! Grilled PB&J? That I've never seen. Sounds like a real Elvis recipe (he apparently liked deep fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, ecch!)
Here's a recipe for a favorite yet aggressively plebian dish of my youth, which I still make all the time: Food of the Gods!
Posted by: Lisa Williams | March 20, 2004 at 08:36 PM
oops, embedded hyperlinks don't work here:
http://www.cadence90.com/blogs/2003_02_01_nixon_archives.html#90294025
Posted by: Lisa Williams | March 20, 2004 at 08:39 PM
Lisa, if I tried that recipe, I wouldn't be able to resist adding 3 finely chopped onions, plus 3 cloves of garlic crushed, basil, much more than a pinch of salt and pepper, a bay leaf and beef stock cube with a little water. Plus I'd top the final serving with a heap of grated parmesan or cheddar cheese...
We have a similar dish in England, except instead of pasta the cooked meat (tomatoes are optional) is put into an oven casserole dish, topped with creamed (mashed) potoatoes, sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese and baked in oven until crunchy light brown. It's called Shepherds Pie or Cottage pie, depending on if you are using minced beef or lamb.
Posted by: Ingrid | March 22, 2004 at 02:35 PM
These recipe suggestions are great. No wonder food blogs are so popular.
Posted by: MD | March 23, 2004 at 01:35 PM