Wednesday, August 26, 2009

I have shared a love hate relationship with...

the Art of Cooking :-)

I LOVE food and hubby dear is an even bigger foodie than I am. But over the years, though my relationship with food has been a constant...that of pure love (and my genes make sure that the love for food shows on me in the form of extra girth and a yo yoing weight:-)), my tryst with cooking has been rather fascinating and has seen it’s fair share of ups and downs…

As a 14 year old, the spoilt brat that I was, while a lot of my peers were beginning to nurture their cooking talents, I don’t think I was even aware of where in the kitchen, the spice rack was located (Yes…I was that obnoxious !!). That was a stage in life when I was mighty happy being fed on delicious food made by mom, my adorable grand moms, aunts and all the brilliant cooks we had as household helpers…and yes, every once in a while, on a Sunday afternoon, dad would take over the kitchen to make that delicious Spanish omelette that only he could make, albeit leaving the kitchen in the state of a ‘hurricane aftermath’…

As a 17 year old, let’s just say this, while some of my peers were busy trying to woo their way into the hearts of prospective boyfriends, by cooking and feeding them home made meals, the seeds of feminism, already sown in my mind, made me glare disdainfully at anyone who dared to say anything that had the slightest hint of endorsing “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” paradigm …I was determined to find a guy who would love me the way I am and would be prepared to live eating canned food, for the rest of his life, if the need arose …can you believe that !!

During my undergrad years, I was happy falling in love with D, the ultimate personification of a foodie on earth :-)... but let’s just say this, cooking was the last thing on my mind during those four years…At the slightest opportunity, D and I would make our way to whatever few good restaurants we had in Trichy,and revel in the great food that they served (trust me, all food tasted great after what we had to deal with in the hostel dining halls)…

As far as my tryst with cooking, during the couple of years I was working in Bangalore, is concerned, my dear brother sums it up pretty well...he says that the 'daal', 'egg curry', 'paneer' ,essentially everything I cooked, ‘tasted the same’…and when he says ‘tasted the same’ with that smirk on his face, it means you are supposed to read ‘tasted the same’ as ‘tasted terrible’…

But then something changed...after moving in with D in the US, I realized that the person I had fallen in love with, was not just a big foodie but was a great cook as well…I reveled in the delicious food that he cooked while he barely managed to tolerate the tasteless food that I made…but the sweetheart that he is, he did that with a smile on his face …and then one fine day, he ‘officially’ asked me to marry him. Given the kind of food I was cooking and feeding him (specially given the fact that he was a foodie, a great cook himself and the very typical perfectionist Virgo), I was absolutely convinced that I had found the guy in D , who loved me for what I was and was prepared to live eating canned food, for the rest of his life, if the need arose:-)

Over the past 4-5 years, I take the liberty of patting myself on the back for evolving into a rather decent cook (my ever critical brother and perfectionist Virgo husband vouch for that,having been at the receiving end of my cooking over the years ;-))…I have developed a love for cooking dishes of different cuisines….I love to improvise on dishes, blending exotic regional spices and herbs…I have discovered and developed that skill of being able to bring out the taste of key ingredients in a dish...so now, all the dishes that I cook definitely don’t “taste the same” anymore….however I would still not claim to be extremely passionate about cooking…I do love cooking at leisure, as a hobby, and I definitely love entertaining people with home cooked food…but my dislike for cooking, on weekdays after a hard days' work, persists, and I crib about it every time it’s my turn to cook (D and I take alternate turns cooking on weekdays)…

But there is one day in the year when I cook with my heart and soul and hope to be able to do so for the rest of of my life…and that’s on my foodie hubby’s birthday….yes, yes D’s birthday…how I love that contented look and smile on his face when he’s fed a well cooked meal…I cook a variety of his favorite dishes on his birthday, just the way he loves them…

Well let’s just say this, though I didn’t woo my way into D’s heart through his stomach, his birthday dinner with friends is my way of saying thank you to my foodie hubby for loving me for what I am ,as much as he does, and for having been prepared to live off canned food, for the rest of his life , if the need arose…

Happy Birthday D !

15 comments:

Garima said...

Awww! So cute... Am sure you guys enjoyed the D's special day!
I have tasted your food..a nd you do cook really well!
I had a similar conversation with MIL... Sumit and I are foodies (am sure you vouch for that!) but also over busy and over lazy... we both love to cook food.. but anything that can be completed at most in 60 min. Period.. Anything more than that in the kitchen and not with V or outdoors.. aint worth it. ;-)

Rush said...

Happy Birthday to D! You are a fabulous cook Priyanka!

I can relate to the teenage years you were talking about where all I knew was eating and never once thought how everything got to the table! :)

Chandru said...

A good read priyanka! :)

Anonymous said...

Very well written :)

D is one royally pampered hubby!

R2

Suku said...

aww..that a was nice post ....how did the birthday go?
and we loved your shrimp when we were over the other day.
i completely identify with this post cuz i too share a love hate relationship with cooking.

Anonymous said...

Cute...am sure the food must have been amazing as usual on D's bday...I missed it:-((

Priyanka Rajkhowa said...

@Gary,Rush,Chandru,R2:
Thanks folks...your support will keep inspiring me to keep cooking and writing :-)!!

@Rhimjhim ba: Thanks again...glad that you loved the shrimp the other day...D's bday went off well...he seemed happy :-)...being a weekday, was not a big bday bash...had a couple of friends over for a quiet dinner and cake cutting...

Usha said...

Nice post.
Today it is easier to manage without learning to cook. Many men cook, recipes are simplified, pre mixed masala is available everywhere and take out food is available and affordable.And if you decide to tie the apron on a special day, it isnt difficult either. Print out the step by step recipe, buy the ingredients and follow the steps and voila!

Priyanka Rajkhowa said...

@Usha: Thanks so much for checking in...absolutely agree with you on the fact that there are a lot of options available these days to keep one's taste buds satisfied and the body going...and definietly the whole process of cooking itself has been simplified from what it was a couple of decades back ...

Sujatha Bagal said...

Hi Priyanka, lovely, heartwarming post!

Thanks for reading my blog and for your comment. Always good to know there are other people who feel the same way about things. :)

Priyanka Rajkhowa said...

@Sujatha: Thanks so much for checking in...your blog posts are always interesting reads and thought provoking and hence always a pleasure to read...

Arun Anand said...

pretty interesting. Reminded of, re-lived in, those trichy days with your blog. Beethi bathein..

Priyanka Rajkhowa said...

@APA: Thanks for dropping by dude..REC memories always make me nostalgic...though we would mostly crib while we were studying there,in hindsight...those were some of the best days of our lives...

Arun Anand said...

happened to read it again. I had no idea that i had read it 4 years ago (until i saw my own comment).

It was still a fresh read. Nice one.

Please convey my BDAY wishes to D.

Arun Anand

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Sukanya Bora:

He is a fellow leo???

August 6 at 2:07pm via mobile ·
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Priyanka Rajkhowa:

Nope Rims (Sukanya Bora), he's a very typical Virgo

August 6 at 4:36pm
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Arun Anand:

Read it again. I had no idea that i had read it 4 years ago (until i saw my own comment in ur blog).

It was still a fresh read. Nice one.

Please convey my B'DAY wishes to D....See More

August 7 at 1:14am
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Vanitha Sankar:

Nice
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