August 15, 2008

Happy Independence Day!!


A rain drenched scene from Kerala.



Happy Independence Day to all my readers. With a thousand fish fries and chicken fries from the hometown(it seemed like a thousand!!) snugly settled in my belly and the ones left over tucked away in my consciousness, I am back.

Well, to be precise, my mind and body still thinks it's in Calicut... still groggy from the time difference, waking up with high energy just before the sun rises and then waning down to uselessness by evening. And like an conversation left unfinished, the mind continues to take me back to the midst of the family and chaos each time I close my eyes!! To be living as a nuclear family here and then to go there into our parental families..there's a lot of conversations there that can be replayed endlessly.

Our minds are attuned to the time of the day in our choice of foods. So when the time zones are reversed, the food preferences also are reversed. Why else would I feel like eating Naan and curry at 7am and cereal at 9 pm?:)Should be able to eat the yummy non-veg nadan breakfasts now..

Anyway, now that I am finally sitting in front of a computer after a month of detoxification from the Internet, don't know where to begin writing. It was a month where I just observed the masters at work and ate instead of cooking. For a welcome change, I was relegated to the role of chopper and stirrer with the mothers doing the master planning. So I had more fun in the kitchen chatting without worrying about the end result of the cooking.

So what did we do on our vacation..nothing much..just eating, then napping to work off the heavy food and then wriggling our tummies to make space for the next meal!! I thought I was food obsessed but I was not alone there.."what's the next meal" is the thought running through every mind irrespective of what was just eaten. There was so much enthusiasm to do the next round of cooking. No recipe is too long winded or daunting for them, no meal is a slap-dash effort..(no pasta salads there!!)All made in the traditional labor intensive way. Hats off to the real cooks.

At the risk of offending some,we had so little time and so much to try out.. home food, hotel food, salkarams, weddings....wish there was a way to rent a stomach for just the vacation.:(

Now that I am back in my kitchen, I am slowly shaking off my laziness and getting back to the cooking mode. But when I am cooking, there are some voices stronger than others.... coconut oil, shallots and curry leaves are subtly murmuring in my imagination, asking me not to forget them...And my better half is pointing out that I am reliving my food experiences in my attempt to recreate the nadan food. Well, what better way to learn new recipes?

No recipes as yet, but I will give you a glimpses of Calicut soon. Let me catch up on the photos and I shall post them soon. Thought I should say hi first!!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shaheen, the rain-drenched pic took me right back home to India..i know the feeling of geeting back to this orderly, (sterilized) world from the unorderly but familiar India. It takes a long time for me to get used to the change of pace...
Asha

Anonymous said...

Welcome back. Your observations reminded me of my own trips back home when my mother was alive and scenes as you describe were acted out daily in her kitchen to stuff us to the utmost...

sra said...

Welcome back! Loved the photos! Enjoyed reading about some voices being louder than others too!

Jayashree said...

Welcome back. Looks like you had lots of fun and good food. Look forward to the new recipes that you learnt.

Anonymous said...

Happy Independence Day to you too! How wonderful that you were in Kerala this monsoon - the rain drenched pictures are beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Feeling Nostalgic..Shaheen,but am glad you are back.Just like one member of the family returns !! Hope you will come up with so many yummy notes this time..(just see what all I have tried from you at my place)
By the way,Your pictures Talk !! (I miss and am envious)

Sig said...

Welcome back! :)

indosungod said...

Welcome back! Shaheen.

it takes a good week to get in the mode and start cooking again.

bee said...

you are one lucky gal.

Zerin said...

helloooooo,

really missed you.. i used to wait for you topost something. i think you had a great vaccation by the look of the post. great to have you back.

Revathi said...

welcome back welcome back.. waiting to see the fotos !!

Mrs. K said...

Welcome back!
...wish there was a way to rent a stomach for just the vacation.:(
Let me know next time..you can rent mine. :D

Anonymous said...

Nice post :) It took me right back to my native in Calicut. Do post some pics of Calicut soon. Waiting for your recipies... :)

Shah cooks said...

Asha, well said. It does get a little sterilized here. The first thing that hits me when i go there is the crowd.:)

Shah cooks said...

Geeta, Thanks! I hope I didn't sadden u. Stuffing us is a parental pasttime.:)

Sra, Thanks.. how is your summer going? have to catch up with you.

Jayshree,I had a ton of fun and have to start writing down the new recipes soon before i forget.

Anita, made bonda in ur honour on independence day. will i post it? i dunno..:)

Shah cooks said...

Ann, u have been busy cooking!! I feel so humbled to see them in ur blog!Thanks for all the kind words.It is good to be back in the blog world!

Anonymous said...

Hi shaheen ,

I have been reading n trying out ur recipes for quiet some time. Especially when I have a guest on board from nade. I think it would be very unfair of me if I didn't acknowledge this. Thanks a lot Shaheen ! Hats off to the meticulous work.

Cheers
Uma.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back,Shaheen..Hoping to see more malabar dishes soon...Loved the pictures

Shah cooks said...

Uma, thanks!!u made my day!

Seena said...

Welcome back Shaheen.. !

Arabic Bites said...

Good to see you back :)

you have an award waiting for you on our blog ;)

Rem said...

hats off to you shaheen..my husband is a loyal follower of this blog.and its a great inspiration to cook ...