Since she had a bit of time off after her practice, Amma used rush home to experiment with new recipes that she came across in magazines and the likes. Infact, she still has a huge collection of recipes that she has tried and refined to perfection over the years. But in those early days her experiments were far from perfect and generally ended up burning a hole in the vessel used for the cooking. Her kitchen was akin to a high-school chemistry lab complete with everything from blasts to fumes to pungent smells to charcoaled faces!
The Guinea Pig for her cooking experiments was obviously my poor dad. But he generally put on a bold face and took all the torture in its stride. After all, he had to eat that or go to bed hungry. And there is a limit to how hungry you can stay! Besides, all the stray dogs in the area had already fled to nearby villages.
It was in this context that he was confronted one evening by one of Amma's latest experiments. It looked like some exotic soup, like some chinese preparation. It had chicken pieces and bean stalk and carrots and rice all mixed in a spicy gooey liquid. Though it dint look like much, Appa took a sip to taste it. And it tasted good. So he finished the entire soup and when Amma came back from the kitchen, he handed over the plate for a refill saying...
"Great Soup! What is it called?"
"Biriyani!!!" came Amma's irritated reply...
:-)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment