First cooking post !

My mom started teaching me to cook gradually since I was about 12-13 , since thats the thing a 'good girl' should know and I could very well cook a whole Indian meal soon...it was all traditional marwari food, with not much experimentation as we didnt even have onion and garlic in our homes..and many other restrictions..so I was what you could call a functional cook ..

My brother got married, bhabhi was around to help mom in the kitchen and I got busy with studies..I wanted to make sure food and kitchen wasnt going to be my life..we eat to live and not vice-versa..my 18 year old feminist self would say...

I finished my studies and arrived in the busy city Bombay to start a job and first time in my life I stayed in a hostel..gujarati kitchen..which wasnt so bad except for everything was a bit sweetish and I learnt to eat rice..cos its easy and could camouflage every bland taste with some help from yogurt...Also everything had potatoes in it presumably cos its cheap and filling..a common usage in communal and frugal eating Ive learnt..

So , busy with work, youth and all its possibilities food was still something to enjoy, fill and not thought about that much...
Even after moving to a shared apartment with some friends and a cousin nearby the culinary effort would extend to some comforting khichadi or lentil -rice with a nice potato gravy...those were good days...I didnt have much care in the world and Bombay is a great place to feed varied kind of food and at every budget...ohh...those satyam sandwiches with cheese oozing out and the strawberry thickshake !!

Neway, I got married and moved to Pune, bought a house and developed some consciousness towards outside food every day and since we both were working didnt have much time to cook but was lucky enough to hire a maid who could do it for us (I realize how lucky I was now)...she wasnt such a great cook but came early in the morning and made chapati and sabji for me and cut some salad too....we still had lot of options to eat outside at every corner ...and we had some good regular places we went to...designated for hungry-and-no-time-to-fuss and we-know-what-to-order right now Madhuban ..to the weekend brunch at Bombay Brasserie or Mayur thali..to midnight buffet at Le Meridien or Holiday Inn...aahh...those days !!

I realise that this has turned into a food history of my life and I still have to reach the point where I have a food blog and writing about what Im cooking these days...maybe next post...Au Revoir for now !