To eat is heaven

Phone rings.
Me: Hello…
Home: Did you eat? We had $%&)!#$^&%*^)_+...
(It’s called, food lover’s style of saying ‘Hello’) :-)

My family ….They talk about lunch at breakfast, dinner at lunch and breakfast at dinner again. My family spends more on good food then on diamonds; my mother can cook 85 items from the discarded fruit stones and peeled skin of the vegetables and fruits. That too with half of the choices available, being vegetarians…I wonder What if we were non-vegetarians?!?!
A thief can look into fridge than in locker for a better bet…in our fridge there will be rarest herbs, expensive fruits, precious nuts and diligently made uncommon seasonal dishes. People in my house can tell the drinkable smell in the milk, required viscousness in oil, Amount of kneading for Roti to melt in your mouth, Degree of the boiling water to retain the flavor in Basmati….and the size of each diameter with number of layers in ‘layered Puris’. My mother’s mother used to call me on the carpet, if I had misplaced an item in the plate, there is a precise location for Srikhand, pickle, Puran-poli or Sabzi on the serving plate. DAMN!! After his meals, my cousin says, “Refrain from the Lion who is hungry and a Brahmin who has just eaten”… :-D
Sometimes it sweeps me over …being myself, and being surrounded by the intense food lovers. For many of us…Food binds, Food combines, Food has the history, Food has the future, Food has the stories, Food is emotion, Food is mood, Food reminds, Food has a size, shape, smell and sense… Food attracts, Food distracts. Food satisfies, Food is comfort, Food is discomfort, Food is creative, Food is reactive, Food is secretive, Morale Equals the Food, Good taste in society defines the personality, there is a Good luck food and a bad luck Food too, food can substitute, Food is fun, Food is life, and Food is death…Huh.

Me, a complete contrary, I have my own lazy versions of my mother’s elaborate preparations, and eat only when hungry, cook only when someone else is to eat…But I always want to have the enthusiasm for cooking and feeding and the excitement to eat and to explore.