Being a pampered child, I never had any association with cooking till I was 20. I wasn’t interested in eating as well. My life turned upside down when I stayed in a PG in Bangalore for my internship. Those 5 brutal months were the longest time when I had to starve mostly. Bangalore was just Bangalore; everything there was wonderful but I wasn’t paid enough during the internship to gain the luxury of eating out at will. Thus I had to resort to the PG cooking which wasn’t very friendly with my stomach. I started craving and yearning for good food; I started hunting down good places to eat but found that Home Food is the best.
Even though I love the idea of eating out once in a while, I kind of found that eating out always isn’t really my thing. Later on when I got married and had to move to Dubai, I had to understand the importance of having good home-cooked food. It wasn’t easy to get arachuvitta sambar in any restaurants in Dubai. At least where I lived, I got all kinds of Punjabi, Malayali, Arabic, and continental food but I missed a good bisibelabath, paruppu usuli and karuvaatu kolambu in Dubai. I am talking about food that retains its authenticity and flavor. It’s true that bisibelabath was available in many restaurants but unfortunately they were filled with unnecessary vegetables and I would rate only 2 for flavour.
When my cravings for tasty food became unbearable, I watched many renowned chefs’ cooking videos on YouTube. I became completely obsessed with those videos. My obsession has stages and it always follows the same pattern. First phase – I am super bored and irritable about what has happened and what hasn’t happened over the years. Second phase- realization that my unnecessary brooding was because of my hunger to eat something really yum. Third phase – checking out restaurants that I can eat or order, but realizing nothing actually excited me. Fourth phase – thinking what to do and waiting for the bulb in my head to glow. Final phase – check out the recipes and start trying them out.
I am sure many of us go through these phases once in a while. Most of us settle with whatever we get from restaurants. But some like me, are extremely foodie. Like I have explained before in my previous blogs, foodie doesn’t mean hogging food. That’s just gross 🤢 Foodie in my dictionary means trying different types of food and developing a taste for it. Being a Muslim, I have certain restrictions regarding the consumption of certain kinds of food but that has never stopped me from trying the permissible kind of food. Anything which is halal is good enough for me! So back to the topic, I am not that “let’s settle with whatever kind of food from restaurant” kind of person. I became a “let me cook a better version of food so I can eat well” kind of person.
The first dish which I completely loved about my cooking was pepper chicken masala, not the biriyani. It’s a common misconception that all Muslims make great biriyanis. As a muslim, I have had the worst kind and the best kind of biriyanis from various Muslim houses. So believe me when I tell you, there are mostly worse versions. It took me years to understand and curate a biriyani recipe which would have a perfect balance of spices, rice and meat. In addition, I completely hate eating plain biriyani. A good biriyani is always accompanied by a good side dish. Then finally comes the part where I had to understand the intricacies of cooking in huge quantities.
Thus cooking has always been a learning process from then on. It had and still has its own ups and downs. But every time I cook, I take it up as a challenge not to ruin the taste. We run around making money, at the end to fill ours and our family’s bellies. Therefore after a long run, when we eat, I believe it should be really worth the effort.
There is a last point I want to make here before signing off. Cooking has been the therapy of my problems. I believe it should be learnt by everyone – a boy or a girl. It’s a means of survival so I don’t understand the silliest logic behind men not learning cooking. I would advise everyone to learn how to cook and make a good hearty meal for you and your family. Enjoy your food and forget the worry.
Ciao
Naz
Nazia’s Expedition 