Celebrating Passion for Food
Cheese Chili Toast is a brunch recipe. You know one of those days when you miss your breakfast, and would want to have something heavy that would compensate for breakfast and lunch. We make these on some Sunday’s when we get up late, miss our breakfast, and have an afternoon movie show to catch up. So we squeeze in this recipe in between which keeps us full till the movie gets over.
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Lassi is a yogurt based drink that is more popular in north India and more specifically in Punjab. However, my first encounter with this drink happened in Mumbai, city where I was born. The street food in Mumbai reflects the cultural ethos of the city. The inhabitants of this city practice different faith, religion, have different food practices and often speak in different language that separates them in many ways but at the same time there are many common threads that keeps the city together and it reflects in its attitude and spirit also popularly known as Mumbaikar spirit. This feeling of oneness keeps the city together during times of peace and turbulence.
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He would come pretty early in morning, cycling laboriously, with his paraphernalia that would add to the weight on his bicycle. He carried a big kadhai (pan), no not just big, a gigantic one, a large iron ladle, a fuel stove and enough fuel to last him the day. He would start with simmering the milk in that pan. I would mostly be in my slumber and would wake up to the pleasant aroma of milk, the milk that would had simmered for some time and filled up the streets with the aroma emanating from the pan.
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Day 2:
A light melodious symphony of alarm woke me up from my slumber. I silenced the alarm sliding my index finger over the mobile screen. I have detested all my life waking up to regular buzzer or any screaming, loud alarms. It would wake me up with a jolt but would leave me in a grumpy mood for couple of hours. So I decided to switch to lighter music to wake me up. I pulled the mobile close to my eyes, peered at it to inspect the time. The digital clock ticked along and it was six o clock in the morning.
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As our bus arrived in Lalbag, our destination in Mangalore city, it had begun to drizzle. We were greeted by mild showers and gentle breeze and it convinced me that our food excursion in Mangalore would be a pleasing experience.
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We all have grown up, listening to stories. There would be that one storyteller in the family, who would enthrall you with stories every night. I remember my Badi Maa (Father’s elder brother’s wife) was an avid story teller. We kids would play throughout the evening and when it would get darker, some elder would drag us back to home. At home, we would get restless and urge Badi Maa to finish off her chores, so she could spend more with us. More time would mean more stories.
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Cuisine is a testament to our evolution. It has gone through a continuous churning process wherein a new dish becomes part of a culture, an alteration has been made to some traditional recipes and some old recipes fade away from our memories. This fundamental point also applies to cuisines in India. If you must have observed, I have referred to “cuisines in India” and not “Indian cuisine”. Cuisine in India is a perfect example of the basic fabric that describes our country “unity in diversity”.
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At the onset let me admit that neither am I sure about the origins of this recipe, nor do I know much about the evolution of this recipe. What struck me, however, was the fact that I read in an article about Bhindi (Okra) and Rajasthan. Okra is one of the most famous and popular vegetable crop that is cultivated in Rajasthan. This article piqued my interest and I started reading more about the topic.
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Last year, I had an opportunity of visiting Kerala twice. Before taking this vacation, I had checked with my Malayali friends about the food items that I must not miss having during my trip to Kerala. I had a list of must-try dishes ready in my possession and Nadan-Egg Roast was one recipe that was on top of that list. During my first trip, I tried several restaurants but they did not have this recipe on their menu. On fourth day of my trip, when I was in Alleppey, enjoying my every moment of stay on the houseboat, we were in company of a very warm and courteous crew.
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Let me be honest, we decided to make this tomato chutney last week as a stop gap arrangement. Let me narrate my complete story. I had sensed, looking at my past week schedule and by the scale of work left at office that this week is not going to be any different, which meant going pretty early to office and by the time I would come back home, I would be so tired that I would have no time nor energy to do any prep work for my next day breakfast.
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