The gift of good food

God has blessed most of us with a mouth, teeth to chew the food, a nose to savour the various smells and a tongue to relish various tastes. HE has created various tastes like sweet, sour, pungent, bitter and salty. Truly, the pleasures of relishing a well-cooked meal, however simple, are nothing short of heaven.

God has created various foods in abundance. To name a few...

Food grains like rice, wheat, oats, lentils, mower, bare, ragi, chickpeas, gram, maize, barley.

Vegetables like leafy vegetables, root vegetables, cabbage, cauliflower, gourds, squashes, peas, tomatoes and brinjal

Fruits like citrus fruits, apple, mangoes, strawberries, cherries, melons and berries

At least a thousand spices like cumin, curry leaves, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, asafoetida, chilies and pepper, sugar and salt

Various seeds yielding a variety of oils like sesame, groundnut, sunflower, olive, rice bran, and so on.

Milk, and its by-products like cream, paneer, cheese, butter, curd and ghee given by animals like cow, buffalo, goat and camel.

By HIS grace, man (or woman?? ) has perfected various cooking techniques like baking, boiling, broiling, grilling, steaming, frying, sautéing, stir-frying, roasting.

While we are reading this and relishing our cuppa aromatic coffee / chai / health drink, let us take a simple example of the humble wheat. It can be consumed in so many ways...
Cooking it in water
Ground into coarse powder and used as lapsi for upma, sheera, etc.
Milling into fine powder, and consuming in the following manner:-
Eating the powder
Mixing it in milk as a porridge
Making a halwa with ghee and sugar
Making a batter and creating pancakes
Making a dough and using it for roti
Deep frying the dough into puris
Just steaming the dough balls
Baking into bread and cakes
Making into pasta and noodles

Thanks to various advances in science and technology, we have been fortunate to enjoy various gadgets like the humble knife, grater, mixer, grinder, food processor, gas stove, microwave and oven that make the task of food preparation and cooking easier.

Rapid strides in food preservation and storage, like preservatives and the ubiquitous refrigerator, have made it possible for us to enjoy exotic vegetables and fruits, squashes, pickles, biscuits, cakes and ice-creams.

Different cuisines like North Indian, South Indian, Chettinad, Goan, Italian, Mexican, French and Chinese, besides fast-food like burgers and fries, chaat, pani puri, pav bhaji, frankies forever make our mouths water.

We also have to acknowledge the various restaurants with various star ratings (starting from 0), Udupi hotels, eateries and dhabas large and small, clean and dirty, for a wide spectrum of wallet power, serving these delicacies. And remember with eternal gratitude the mass feeding of prasadam to thousands of devout and not-so-devout in religious places.

The various chefs, cooks, bawarchis and bakers have to be remembered before savouring every morsel. And those loving individuals who can beat the 7-star chefs hollow with their love, creativity in transforming the dullest of pantry ingredients into and tasty food - our mothers, MILs, DILs and others who lovingly cook for us, must be worshipped.

The effort of typing all this has made my mouth water. Before I go for lunch, let me sign off, saying that the power of Internet, and forums such as IL, have granted easy access to a treasure trove of recipes. I thank the super-stars, contributing those recipes.

Especially Goddess Annapurna in human form...our beloved Chitvish Aunty, who not only takes pains to type in the recipes so that complete strangers will be benefitted free of charge, but also takes the time to answer our silly doubts.

So next time, before you wonder what to cook for the next meal, please be sure to read this post.:thumbsup

 

Thanks a lot, Vidhya. I wanted to cover as much as possible.

 

Thanks, Ashmita. Yes, many people just cannot get good food.

 

Thanks, Bunny. I am a foodie!

 

Thanks Kottravai. You are a bit wrong. I have a craving to talk of food even when I am not hungry!