Category Archives: Food

3am Food

I return from work quite late these days. When I walk into my apartment, I usually find one florescent bulb glowing in the living room, to greet me into the silence. My early mornings and late nights have become a blur now. I spend a little time with my laptop after returning, browse the net, check emails, and lose myself into a deep slumber. 
But not all nights are as easy. And, 3am hunger is the hardest to get by. Last night, I experienced it as strongly as I can imagine for the first time. I walked in and out of the kitchen several times before finally deciding on what (all) I wanted to conjure up for myself at such an unGodly hour. 
My room-mate brought some yum-looking Mumbai’s special chocolate doughnuts from Calcutta. Yes, that is possible to do. So, I picked out two from the box and heated them in the oven for the chocolate inside the doughnut to flow out like lava. I sat with them on my bed with a big grin and lost myself in the dripping chocolate that flowed from the doughnut into my mouth. It felt heavenly, for a few moments. But as I neared the end of my chocolate downing, I felt shamelessly hungrier. I went back to my kitchen and spent a great deal of time staring into my fridge. Then, I decided to have a green-and-red sandwich. I have heard it is not good manners to say yumm while having food, but yumm it turned out to be. And, so sumptuous was my 3am meal!
I thought I will share the recipe of green-and-red sandwich with you all. Simple as it is!
Recipe: (for one person)
One medium-sized tomato
One small capsicum
Amul butter
Chat Masala
Two slices of brown bread
Chop the tomato and capsicum into small pieces. Spread Amul butter on the toast; you could alternately use flavoured cheese spreads also. Sprinkle a layer of Chat Masala on one of the slices. Mix the tomato-capsicum pieces together and spread them on the other slice, spinkle some Chat Masala on these chopped vegetables. Put the slice on top and your sandwich is ready. 
This is the first time I am writing a recipe on my blog. Hope to share some more interesting ones in the future. And of course, this is the first time I prepared a full-course 3am meal for myself in the reverse order of desserts first and sandwich later,  and for the first time I felt good about bloating myself with guilty calories!
When was the last time you did something for the first time? 

the Minakshi’s – in the making!

It was a sunny afternoon in B’lore; and we were going to Marathali in a noise-making auto with hot winds blowing all over our faces. Sonali and I had already got late for our luncheon invitation. At Minakshi’s place. Thanks to our “lachha” sessions running late into the night, we both were running late now! As per the plan, we had decided to help Minakshi (Minu as lovingly called by some of her friends) with the menu and then the cooking; but that wasn’t to be.

The menu was simple but if one considered the guests invited that day, the menu was nothing short that of a lavish lunch I say! It included: Matar Paneer, JackFruit Curry, Palak Dal, Rice, Pickle, and Curd.

For a 23year old, who has recently started to cook, this was no mean task! Cooking for 8 of us; most of them being in BITSian words “hoggers” – these are the types who don’t eat food; they hog!, Minakshi had indeed taken a tough challenge on herself on an otherwise cool and lazy Saturday afternoon.

And what a delight the lunch was. I have not enjoyed a better meal than that in a long time; It had the flavor of all worlds – be it Bengali, be it Continental, be it South Indian, Minu had done it all! Every dish tasted so perfect to its cuisine that we couldn’t have had a better Milan.

Kudos to you Minakshi! And btw, I see a bright future of a restaurant as a side-business for you; I’m sure you would know quite a number of MBA’s by then to help you open one… And am sure you would remember this post better too! 😉 How about simply putting it as “The Minakshi’s”.