DELICIOUS - Loving Food and Living [ Part- 1 ]

          We can feel delicious  by many things. Mainly we refer delicious to eating ,  but we can refer to many others  - a story book, love, a kiss, a piece of music, a scenic journey and so on.  Here I pertain to the main delicious thing only - the food.

            Food is not just the fuel, but also a pleasure.  Right from foragers period upto now all living beings seek and crave for the fuel and the pleasure called food.  This will continue infinitely.  As far as human beings are concerned , the food ( both the solids and the liquids )  is changing  and changing continuously  from the foragers's period to ongoing period. Food- the fuel  had grown and still growing from an essential thing to tasty and more tasty varieties of ingredients and preparations. This writing is not  quintessentially a scientific one, but  also   about  the happiness of it.  Every one loves to eat foods of different varieties and of different tastes. 

              Since we are used to Indian food - to say correctly  South Indian food, it is better to start with the beverage which starts our days for a longtime and continuing till now. That day starting beverage is the coffee and the coffee only. 

 

                                   

                            We grew up in Nilgiri Hills.  Our daily routine was to have coffee in the morning immediately after brushing teeth. When we were small , we used to prepare coffee with coffee powder ( mixed with chicory at times - or maybe many or all times , not sure about that ). There would be advertisements for certain brands as  ' coffee powder mixed with chicory '.   And pure coffee powders were also available. Even now it holds true. For example, the powder brand  ' Bru ' is  coffee - chicory mix, whereas  ' Bru gold ' is  only coffee beans powder.

          I remember buying coffee powder in  'Ubaidh Coffee ' shop in Coonoor market. Even while entering into that section of the market itself, the aroma will fill your nostrils. In that shop, one machine will roast the coffee seeds and one other (another) machine will be grinding the roasted seeds. The shop man will give coffee powder in a white butter paper bag when asked for  - usually  buying 1/4  kg coffee powder.  Another one coffee brand we were well aware was Narasus coffee.  

               ( Side story - One other place which has nice coffee smell similarly was in Coimbatore  { Coimbatore is a city in Tamil Nadu state of India } Brooke bond road, where there was a coffee factory. While travelling in the road we would savour the smell. But, I do not know why and I don't want to know why , the aroma emanating from the Ubaidh coffee shop in Coonoor market was stronger and more fulfilling to the mind . )

              Even though the usual coffee time is mornings and evenings will be tea time, occasionally the coffee time falls in the evenings and other times of the day. When we would go to Sim's Park in the evenings, used to prepare coffee in the house , carry it a flaskful  ( eagle flask ) and also carry some snacks. Would start walking from home , usually accompanied by Anandapadmanaban uncle's ( Sekaramma or Sekar mami ) family .  [ Once with Sekaramma, Ammu and family. Once with Viji. ]  On reaching the garden ( Sims park ) -

             (  Side story -  People of  Nilgiris  usually refer garden to Botanical Gardens of  Ooty only eventhough Sim's park is also a garden and  there do exist other gardens . )

           So, on reaching , we used to roam around for sometime and then come down to a seating area in a circular shape made of concrete, with rectangular cement benches for sitting. We children used to run also.  On those days- 1970-s, the people visiting will be very less and we could enjoy the whole garden as it was ours .  At the seating area, we would relish the snacks - varkey etc  & coffee .Once my mom prepared  well fried puries with maidha ( refined wheat ) flour for taking to Sim's park. We enjoyed that crispy poori in that cool evening.  After finishing, we would start back and walk to our area. As mentioned previously, when going with Sekar's family especially , used to carry  coffee in the flask ,which will serve around 8- 10 persons. I remember the two  cup like plastic caps of the flask - of which  the outer  cap would be of  brown colour and it would have a handle for catching .  And in those cup like caps only we would drink coffee. We never carried any eversilver or glass tumblers. Would drink coffee one by one - no, two by two.

                      Had a beautiful experience of coffee at around 3 pm.  Narayanan uncles wife Nachiar mami of the first house of our line asked whether we would have coffee in the afternoon around 3 pm when we were in their house. She prepared filter coffee and we drank.  Now - a- days when we go to jewellery showrooms and textile marts, they offer coffee or tea , at any time of the day.

                And as mentioned in  ' Malairaniyin Madiyil ' series part-3, the Nescafe of Ooty boat house was wonderful, when I was practically a baby.  In that I mentioned that my father bought and brought it in a beautiful ceramic cup , in which over the pre-mixed coffee , sprinkled coffee powder was floating flamboyantly. 

               In my two grand parents houses (maternal and paternal - at Pollachi ), coffee drinking was the routine morning starter, but occasionally we used to miss it because of having something else to drink or  eating straightaway the morning food, might be because of getting up late.  In my maternal grandmother's village,  there used to be coffee powder as well as coffee powder in condensed tablet form.  The tablet form of coffee would be of not upto standard.

               While working in Saudi Arabia, an ENT doctor friend, named Karthikeyan told that coffee in different houses tastes differently. 

               See, a cup of coffee travels from Ooty to Coonoor to Coimbatore to Pollachi to Saudi Arabia ,   like the habit of drinking coffee travelled around the world.

              Post- script  [ PS ] -  Coffee contains caffeine which is a central nervous system stimulant and for people like me the day starts with coffee only. In the past I used to add white sugar (called as aska  sakkarai in olden days ) to the coffee.  -  Aska is known as the sugar city of Odisha or Orissa state of India  . Here only the first sugar factory of Asia established.    But, now -a-days, after started following low carb (low carbohydrate ) diet, using butter instead of sugar. Not the bullet coffee, where coffee powder is added to hot water & butter  ( the quantity recommended is 50 grams  of butter),  but preparing coffee as usual with milk and adding a block of butter to it ( 10 grams ). After started drinking this coffee, what I feel is the taste of the sugar coffee is not  much.  Since the butter melts slowly in the  moderately hot coffee,  once you finish it, you are sure to lick your lips, since the melting butter sticks to your lips while drinking hot coffee. And sometimes you feel the melting block of butter with the tongue as you feel the ice cubes with the tongue , while drinking  cold juices .Similarly butter can be added to tea and other beverages also. 

         And eating low carbohydrate  diet does not mean you have to avoid sweets altogether. Sweets can be relished in moderate quantity. Only thing is the meal taken at each time must contain a little more protein and fat.