The other day, it was a Saturday, but I got up as usual at 5:00 am, took one peek outside and promptly crawled back into bed. It looked yucky and miserable outside, cold, dewy, foggy, and a coating of white frost covering everything. After an hour of futile attempts to go back to sleep, I got up, picked up the newspaper outside the front door, turned my new Cuisinart Espresso machine on (men and their toys!) and settled down on the sofa in the living room with a tall cup of Café Americano.
We had nothing planned for the week-end, no shopping, no trips, no visitors, and no dinner invitations (either from or to us). It was going to be one of those damn lazy, do nothing, and lay around week-ends. Laying in the sofa, I slowly started drifting away, and for no reason at all started thinking about my high school and college days in Guntur, especially the almost daily ritual of breakfast or an evening snack of “Moodu Mukkala Pesarattu” (Moong dosa stuffed with hot green chillis, grated ginger and onions), and chasing it down with piping hot south Indian coffee. The combination of hot chilli taste on your tongue and hot coffee invariably used to bring happy tears. It was so good that sometime we felt sorry for the people of rest of India and for the rest of the World that they go through their whole lives without ever tasting one of these MMPs. I swear I almost drooled just thinking about it on the sofa. I decided I needed some comfort food right now.
Comfort food is food that is simply prepared and gives a sense of wellbeing; food that one eats to feel comfort or alleviate stress rather than to receive nutrition. Considering the diversity of regional cuisines in India, most of us Indian-Americans have our own comfort foods, but for south Indians like me, it could be: Idly, dosa, upma. Or how about the greatest comfort food of all time: steaming rice with Aavakai (hot green mango pickle). I bet Chilli Bajjis could stand on their own too (I must admit some of the greatest Chilli Bajjis ever ate were in Sydney, Australia, where Suresh got some from an Indian Andhra restaurant.)
For most Americans that would be typically food with a high sugar or carbohydrate content that is associated with childhood or with home cooking. People sometimes do associate comfort food to relieve stress; I mean I have seen people eat through a whole box of chocolates / cookies, or a whole 1 ½ quart container of ice-cream before feeling comforted.
Anyway, at this point I got up and decided to do something about it. What do I feel like having now? Right now. In all these years of living in the U.S., life has changed so much for all of us, and a positive development has been on the food front. And I don’t mean the restaurants. Ready mix packages to make practically anything you want for in the veritable Indian Cuisine. I guess this falls under the category of Comfort Food. I opened the pantry and there they are: ready mixes for plain idly, Rava Idly, Upma, Rava dosa, Pesarattu, and half-a-dozen varieties of Podi. All you do is mix with water as recommended on the package, and you are ready to go. Even simple coconut chutney could be made with fried dal and grated coconut out of a package. I make my choice and in about half-an-hour, I am feeling greatly comforted. Of course, I invited my wife and son to join in my comfort. On a gloomy late afternoon, especially after a tiring day at work, I now have the luxury of calling the South Indian restaurant, and have VJ prepare a special order if their extra-hot Chilli Bajjis, take them home and wash them down with some cold beer. You can’t get any more comforted than that!, especially if there is a football game on.
I am sure you all have your own comfort foods, no matter how crazy it may be. But I do take comfort in the fact that no matter what it is, I bet you can’t out do me!!!!
Have a good one. -------------drtutu
