Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The blog post I never saw myself writing when I created this blog

On Sunday evening, I made masala dosas. My flatmates really liked them. They asked for more, that's how I know it. I don't know about other flatmates but it needs to be said that my flatmates do not belong to your average I'll-say-whatever-it-takes-to-make-you-cook-for-me strain. They are both brilliant cooks and are never too tired or lazy to cook a wholesome meal. So when they pay me a compliment for my culinary (ahem) skills, I usually blush and take a bow.

This evening (today's Tuesday), when I went into the kitchen to make myself dinner, I decided to use up what was remaining of the filling I had made for the masala dosa. Then, it struck me, out of nowhere, that I could make aloo parathas with that same filling. This meant that I had met with two incredible successes in three days in front of that same electric hob : 1) The incident of the crisp masala dosas 2) Discovering one smart cooking related idea. I finally let the happy sigh that was inflating inside me escape and decided that this must surely be the point where life starts to take a turn back towards the ordinary in the way I've known it to happen ever so often. But that was only until I tasted the parathas.

They tasted unmistakably like the parathas that were served for breakfast at my hostel in Mumbai on Tuesday mornings. Why that is so significant is because our entire weekly schedules revolved around those parathas back then. I know people who will still be able to write tearful odes to those pieces of savory bread. It was a few seconds before finishing up the mint chutney with the last crumb of the paratha that it dawned on me - we were served masala dosas on Sundays in the hostel! And here I was thinking I would generously pass my idea on to future generations as my original cooking tip. Clearly, I won't be able to call this idea my own even though I don't know for a fact if Mr.J and Co. beat me to discovering it.

I don't think it is at all likely that anyone still studying in my institute in Mumbai reads this blog. But I'm sure those parathas are still to die for and I certainly don't mean any offence to Mr.J. This was just plain idle hypothesis- he knows what that is. I already resent that I won't be in Mumbai on a Tuesday when I visit this time around in February.