25 November 2015

What was he* thinking?!?!


Some of the most enjoyable conversations I've had are those which start somewhere, twist, turn, flash, burn and go through winding lanes, across trees, meadows and finally land up in a place that has absolutely nothing to do with how that conversation begun.

At the end of such a conversation I often wonder, "How did we get here?" and then go on to retrace the dialogue back to the original topic of discussion.

Similarly, when I come across a delicacy or a novel idea, I often wonder how this came to be? What was the thought process... chain of thought... spark of imagination. At times it makes sense, for example, Fire. One can imagine the first fire must have been the result of a lightning or a spontaneous forest fire and that gave out heat (a desirable thing for early man). Rubbing hands for warmth is intuitive so someone must have made the connection, did some experimentation an voila FIRE!... but this is an example that makes sense, an origin story one can imagine, but that's not what this post is about. This is about the random things that I am unable to fathom.

Milk - The first person who saw the udder of a cow and went like you know what would be really cool... let me squeeze that and drink whatever comes out ... What was he thinking?!?!?

Sausages - For those who don't know... sausages are basically cheap parts of a pig ground and stuffed into the small intestine of what is usually the same pig. Now while they are really tasty, if you think about it, whoever came up with the idea to push meat down the pigs piping before it goes down yours... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

Cheese (Mature) - I can imagine curdling of milk to get cheese must have been an accidental discovery, but who was the smart Alec who decided that it would be a good idea let this thing spoil to the point where it begins to smell and then eat it... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

Birds nest - I'm not wondering what was a bird thinking when it decided to build itself a nest. I'm talking about using birds nest in deserts and soup. Whoever came up with this idea must have really had something against these birds. He would have thought to himself, "I will show that bird, I'll eat its family, and its eggs and you know what ...for good measure I'll eat up its nest also"...Seriously... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

And then there are the weirder delicacies in the world which I cant even begin to imagine what was going on in the persons head when they came up with the dish. For example century egg or urine brine eggs ... I'm not going to try and explain what these are (feel free to google them (Not Safe For Work)) but seriously... WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!?!?!?!?

If you have had similar thoughts please leave your ideas in the comments.



*For the purpose of this post he= he/she. 

10 November 2015

I killed the vegetables

For all those who know me probably know that I enjoy cooking every now and then and most often I cook some form of meat or the other. Primarily because that's what I enjoy the most. Now this is not going to be some post about the ancient never ending veg vs non-veg debate.

Most of my vegetarian friends always complain that I never cook anything they can eat so this time when I tried my hand at making some Paneer tikka I figured it was time to put the complaints to rest and documented the whole process as evidence that I do (as rarely as it might be ) cook some veg food as well.

















Oh and wish you all a very happy Diwali (the connection is that this Paneer was for a Diwali BBQ)