Of food and meal choices

I'm not really a fan of yellow dal (moong dal). So, whenever it finds place in our pressure cooker, I have to cater to my hunger needs myself. I prepare some alternative that I would be having as a full meal, which was red sauce pasta this time. Whilst others ate their dal and roti, they tasted my pasta too, but dad wasn't even tasting it. Upon my insistence, he took full spatula of pasta and poured it into his bowl full of dal. 

This shook me to my core. I mean what taste would he have gotten of either pasta or the dal. Leave alone individual tastes of both, I couldn't even think of eating such a mixture. (While searching images, I found Moong dal pasta recipe. Where's the world going?) But I guess this lack of choosiness in meals is a blessing.

Imagine how easy life is when you can eat about just anything eatable. Even I myself get tired of my picky nature. I often complain to my family that at least you have the choice to corner me out and eat your pumpkins, chana dal and what not. Where should I go? My tastes will go along wherever I go. 

Perhaps tastes phase down with age. As a kid I didn't like saag (popular green leafy vegetable of Punjab) or even 'karhi' (I'll have to search for it's english name) as if I've international readers which I like now. For the time being, I've very limited options on my platter.

For instance, I don't eat ginger at all, unless it's in dried powdered form. But I crave for it's taste in tea and buttermilk (spiced lassi). This surprised my friend for the first time when we were having some snack. When the seller was about to garnish that snack with ginger slices, I stopped him on an impulse. My friend was surprised as I  keep on asking for ginger tea, (the one that burns the throat) and now I was.....

I always feel that I'm going to have a difficult time in old age since I neither eat moong dal, except as a roasted snack, nor ginger. These two are the pillars of older people's diet I believe, for health's sake if not anything else.

I'm not only one in my family to have rules when it comes to food habits. My dad eats curd first, then the pulses or the vegetables because hot and cold eaten in that order makes you sick he believes and might as well be true. Remember the childhood advice given by your elders when you came panting after playing for long? Soaked in sweat and all you wanted was to sit under full-power-fan blowing air - "Let the sweat dry down first or you'll get summer cold." For him the same logic applies in meals too.

My mom too is a tinniest bit of choosy in food which aggravated way too much in my genes, I guess. Let me show how: I used to make tasty aloo ki sabzi (Masala Dosa filling flavoured). Everyone ate it merrily, or at least I thought so. When it was the time for our next meal, my mom said to herself, "I feel like eating something tasty."

"Yeah, the sabzi, right?" I said.

She hid her face in her blanket. I was quick to pick the clue. She didn't feel like eating it for the second time. If only she pointed it out right then, just like me. No points for guessing that I never made that dish again. 

My mom often says that it is very difficult to get good remarks from me in case of food.  This is the reason I'm pampered in 'what to eat'. There are certain ingredients like mustard seeds, salted porridge, dry mango powder, asafoetida (Hing), jackfruit (Kathal) used to be one among them, but it's stickiness has made me shun it etc that mainly I've started to use in recipes.

I'm sure my people are going to have gala time in case I stop residing with them. They won't have to take the hassle of making vegetables, pulses are going to dominate without question. Easy to make and serve more meals. 

Writer's note: I hope years down the line, I'll be happily trashing this post and laughing over the passage of so-called difficult phase. Being content in whatever is offered to eat is one-tension-less life.