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March 13th, 2010

Cooking simple

Filed under: Food & Recipes, Relations 13

My dad has slowly developed an intolerance to spicy food. After years of living alone and eating simple, it’s almost no wonder that his stomach burns acid at the slightest touch of a spice or condiment (cinnamon, cardamom, etc.)

Unfortunately, we’re all great eaters of spicy food and it doesn’t help that most Indian food are deliciously spicy. But even cooking bland for him isn’t working, because really… how many people would voluntarily choose tasteless food? See, he wants to eat food that tastes good but doesn’t cause unwanted acid reflux. It’s a challenge for us because we’re so used to being creative with spices.

Like this pasta salad. Very simple, very low on ingredients: boiled pasta, fresh vegetables, a little bit of Italian seasoning and lemon.

It’s a simple light salad that I make from time to time, but it’s too bland for his taste. It’s also mostly dry since I don’t add mayo or salad dressing to it.

So my question is, what else can I add to this to make this more appetizing?

December 12th, 2009

The memory of a flan, a note

Filed under: Relations, Walk of life 50

Flan I knew something was up that day, I kept smelling lovely things and hushed whisperings between mom and her kitchen help.

At lunch, I had my suspicions confirmed when she came bounding into my room with her arms wide open saying “Happy Birthday” with a voice she’d use for a toddler. After a bit of mushy, and barely decipherable mumblings about her baby growing up too fast to keep track, she pulls away to let me breathe.

Almost immediately, she launches into a detailed account of all the fancy food she’s got prepared for the day: traditional Hyderabadi chicken biryani, raita, chapatti and sheek kebab. The flan was for dessert. ♥

Even by her standards, she really did go all out. Chicken biryani, by itself is a lavish meal, and she made enough to last till the next day. So you can imagine why I didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t my birthday and since birthdays aren’t celebrated at home, it didn’t really matter. I’m actually certain that no one else knew what the occasion was either.

Birthday NoteA couple days later, my sister gave me Twilight. Twilight! Can you imagine? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, she’s usually spot-on about the things I like and I wondered briefly if she got it for the wrong sister.

What made it special was that she accompanied it with an adorable note with little run-on sentences that spilled on to the next side, and vague mentions of how she feels the need to bonk my head with thick books and the like.

But that’s just how she shows her love, you see. I have since read the book, including two more in the series, which was as far as I could take it. Consider it one of those things you must do to understand why it’s so popular…