02/02/24

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

I got into cooking very late in life. And I cook only to get from one meal time to the next. So really, cooking is for appeasing an urge and is emotional driven. For instance, if I’m feeling jolly good, then sweets and cakes work really well. Otherwise if I’m cooking for the family, it’s a typical South Indian meal, and this includes a carb, a protein, and a veggie. Apart from these reasons, I don’t really enjoy cooking so much. It’s a means to an end and I’m ok with that.

I do occasionally like to cook some dishes, and these are dictated by a lot of extraneous factors and situations that if you delve into will not really count as being a favourite. But these dishes include: potato fry & brinjal /aubergine veggie- the way my dad used to make it. More Kuzhambu & Mysore Rasam the way my mum used to make it, chicken the way I like to eat it, followed by a sweet dish!

One of the biggest reasons why cooking isn’t a favourite activity is possibly got to do with the fact that I can’t stand around the stove long enough to get things done. I’m more of a ‘wham , bam..’ you get the drift.. in and out in an hour – including carbs and veggies and proteins and desserts. The only dish I’ve been trying to perfect that is my favourite to eat .. and now, after several attempts at trying to make it, still remains a favourite to eat and something I hate to make is Mysore pak.

It’s basically a sugar syrup mixed with chickpea flour until it becomes hard like a barfi. The dish can’t be left on its own, it’s one of those dishes that you have to stand at the stove and keep stirring. Not recommended for anyone with a frozen shoulder. But, that sugar syrup candy is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted. Or maybe it’s just one of those things that triggers memories – at least for me.