My father usually tells this to me, "Son, you don't live to eat, you eat to live..". And my mother echoes the same sentiments, "You are going to burst some day considering the amount of food that you eat !!!". Well, here I am, "Mr. Keep hogging till the plate's wiped clean".
Ha Ha Ha... Yes people, I am a foodie, a big one. My mom tells me I have been like this since I was an infant. It was "Lactogen" then. It's everything now.
I remember, as a kid I would eat all my lunch, scheduled to have been eaten during the lunch break, in the first two periods of the day. And this continued till I passed ninth grade. Complains would inevitably accompany me home but the little Satan inside me always managed to brush away such allegations, and more royally so. Mission "finish lunch before the lunch break" accomplished.
As I grew up, it was very difficult keeping under control those urges, of course, to check out the refrigerator, yes, we'd just bought a brand new sky blue Godrej ColdGold. It was how I bragged about it to my friends. And the activities continued. I would keep prowling the corridors and keep waiting till everyone wrapped up for the afternoon nap. And what used to follow ? Just check these out... Fruit crushes, soft drinks, jellies, ice creams, custards, leftover gravy, tomato sauce, yoghurt, sweetmeat, and pardon my greed, baby food, from my newborn brother's stock.
I used to have solutions to every attempt by mom to keep these under lock and key. A tongue cleaner to open the refrigerator. A stick to open those old fashioned latches used to keep doors shut. Add to that my growing height... "HA HA HA", my laughter echoed every successful operation. This finally led my mom to keeping absolutely nothing tasteful in the fridge. She used to keep a bottle of fruit squash for guests, somewhere beyond my reach. Otherwise it always was, "Go get something from the market, quick !!!", whenever a guest arrived, till the day I left home for higher studies... What a pity !!!
As I grew up, my activities shifted. No more "steal from the refrigerator" stuff. I learned making tea. Tea was a big attraction, considering the fact that it was given only once a week, on Saturdays. I would usually sneak into the kitchen whenever I got an opportunity and would make tea, very sweet tea and then drink it, with full satisfaction. Tea gave way to lemonade, and gradually, lassi. By the time I was in my tenth grade, I knew how to cook.
I shifted base to Kolkata. With only dad being there and free from mom's and grandpa's discipline, I had ample time to experiment, cook and eat to my heart's content. I would watch cookery shows on Doordarshan every Saturday, yes my dad had disconnected cable television on account of my negligence in studies. And I would try to make my own version of whatever was shown on TV. Dad not being back from work till seven everyday only made my job easier. Apart from this, I had lots of potato chips, something which, well, I had not ventured into till then. Two years of hogging had turned a 48 Kg skinny something into an 84 Kg plump pumpkin. Believe me, the figures are true.
I spent the first two years of my undergraduate life as a hostelite. Luckily for me, contrary to general belief and practice, the food at the hostel was good. The only disadvantage was that there wasn't going to be any breakfast service from the mess and the hostelites were supposed to have their own breakfast. No problem for me... I had shifted from butter to margarine, and I had a small immersion heater with me with which i used to make tea, using tea bags of course. I used to have my breakfast of bread and margarine, some sweet, and tea (I preferred Taj Mahal) in my room itself, quite to the envy of my roommates... Wink Wink...
Post-graduation took me to Vellore where I got an opportunity to savour authentic South Indian cuisine. Dosas, upma, vadai, idlys, poli, rasam and filter coffee!!! Yes, I only knew Nescafe before this stint. As I graduated from Vellore, I returned home a South Indian. I brought home a coffee filter along with me. Filter coffee is way beyond instant coffee in taste and aroma. Now when I prepare my daily stock of decoction, I feel really lucky to have got an opportunity of studying at Vellore. This stint helped me add the word "variety" to my "palate dictionary". Absolutely. Apart from the traditional cuisine I also tried continental food and some other varieties, something which I had not indulged in, till then.
I may have graduated from refrigerated food to tea to experimental food to potato chips to filter coffee, but I still remain the quintessential foodie, I am not bragging this time, my friends at VIT would vouch for me.
Ha Ha Ha... Yes people, I am a foodie, a big one. My mom tells me I have been like this since I was an infant. It was "Lactogen" then. It's everything now.
I remember, as a kid I would eat all my lunch, scheduled to have been eaten during the lunch break, in the first two periods of the day. And this continued till I passed ninth grade. Complains would inevitably accompany me home but the little Satan inside me always managed to brush away such allegations, and more royally so. Mission "finish lunch before the lunch break" accomplished.
As I grew up, it was very difficult keeping under control those urges, of course, to check out the refrigerator, yes, we'd just bought a brand new sky blue Godrej ColdGold. It was how I bragged about it to my friends. And the activities continued. I would keep prowling the corridors and keep waiting till everyone wrapped up for the afternoon nap. And what used to follow ? Just check these out... Fruit crushes, soft drinks, jellies, ice creams, custards, leftover gravy, tomato sauce, yoghurt, sweetmeat, and pardon my greed, baby food, from my newborn brother's stock.
I used to have solutions to every attempt by mom to keep these under lock and key. A tongue cleaner to open the refrigerator. A stick to open those old fashioned latches used to keep doors shut. Add to that my growing height... "HA HA HA", my laughter echoed every successful operation. This finally led my mom to keeping absolutely nothing tasteful in the fridge. She used to keep a bottle of fruit squash for guests, somewhere beyond my reach. Otherwise it always was, "Go get something from the market, quick !!!", whenever a guest arrived, till the day I left home for higher studies... What a pity !!!
As I grew up, my activities shifted. No more "steal from the refrigerator" stuff. I learned making tea. Tea was a big attraction, considering the fact that it was given only once a week, on Saturdays. I would usually sneak into the kitchen whenever I got an opportunity and would make tea, very sweet tea and then drink it, with full satisfaction. Tea gave way to lemonade, and gradually, lassi. By the time I was in my tenth grade, I knew how to cook.
I shifted base to Kolkata. With only dad being there and free from mom's and grandpa's discipline, I had ample time to experiment, cook and eat to my heart's content. I would watch cookery shows on Doordarshan every Saturday, yes my dad had disconnected cable television on account of my negligence in studies. And I would try to make my own version of whatever was shown on TV. Dad not being back from work till seven everyday only made my job easier. Apart from this, I had lots of potato chips, something which, well, I had not ventured into till then. Two years of hogging had turned a 48 Kg skinny something into an 84 Kg plump pumpkin. Believe me, the figures are true.
I spent the first two years of my undergraduate life as a hostelite. Luckily for me, contrary to general belief and practice, the food at the hostel was good. The only disadvantage was that there wasn't going to be any breakfast service from the mess and the hostelites were supposed to have their own breakfast. No problem for me... I had shifted from butter to margarine, and I had a small immersion heater with me with which i used to make tea, using tea bags of course. I used to have my breakfast of bread and margarine, some sweet, and tea (I preferred Taj Mahal) in my room itself, quite to the envy of my roommates... Wink Wink...
Post-graduation took me to Vellore where I got an opportunity to savour authentic South Indian cuisine. Dosas, upma, vadai, idlys, poli, rasam and filter coffee!!! Yes, I only knew Nescafe before this stint. As I graduated from Vellore, I returned home a South Indian. I brought home a coffee filter along with me. Filter coffee is way beyond instant coffee in taste and aroma. Now when I prepare my daily stock of decoction, I feel really lucky to have got an opportunity of studying at Vellore. This stint helped me add the word "variety" to my "palate dictionary". Absolutely. Apart from the traditional cuisine I also tried continental food and some other varieties, something which I had not indulged in, till then.
I may have graduated from refrigerated food to tea to experimental food to potato chips to filter coffee, but I still remain the quintessential foodie, I am not bragging this time, my friends at VIT would vouch for me.
As George Bernard Shaw aptly puts it,
"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."
"The Revolutionist's Handbook", Man and Superman
