69.0 Cooking Is All About People. Love Is One Of Grannies' Spices!

Hey! What's going on? I hope you are enjoying your time by staying at home. I think we won't get another similar time to this period during this life. I saw a Facebook post, and it says that such pandemic situations happen every 100 years. So, guys, don’t worry. This is the only crisis we have to face during our lifetime. It is our wish. Though I wanted to write something else, this was the start. I hope you like it.

Today, we will talk about cooking memories. I think it is the best topic, and you all can enjoy it. Because all of us have fun and horrible cooking experience. I hope most of you all are having homemade stuff these days as nobody has any other choices. So, cooking is one of our main jobs. These days it is one of my main jobs due to the absence of home supporters.

I'm pointing out this view according to my knowledge. So, please correct me if I'm wrong. I think we Sri Lankans have a lengthy process for meal preparation. Most of us prepare two meals to cover the daily consumption. Some of them prepare breakfast and lunch at once and prepare a separate meal for dinner. We don't prepare food for a few days or a week. So, I think "cooking" is a job that requires considerable time per day. If we take our meals, then it consists of two to three curries. Most of the time it goes with two vegetables, and dhal, fish, or meat curry.

I hope if I describe to you the tasks we are doing, then you will identify that it has a procedure or process. So, when you are having Sri Lankan food, then you will remember the effort and may give more value to it. Just a thought... Lol...

So, selecting suitable vegetables to cook is the first thing. Though it seems nothing, it is a big thing that every mother/wife/daughter/sister, etc... has to think about by thinking of family members' preferences. Sometimes, it is impossible to select. Sometimes, you may have to give priority to specific family members by ignoring others. You may have to tell them "eat if you can and starve if you cannot". But you cannot ignore the same person every time. Lol... So, you should have something like a priority list for a week. Then you can consider the food preference of each family member at least once per week. Therefore, it is the first important decision.

When moving to the next, then our chef should think about the spices and oil portion that needs to be put into the curries. Though it also seems an easy task, believe me. It is NOT. If you think like that, then it is wrong. As an example, if I consider the situation of my family, my father does not like oily and salty curries. He wants chilies. But my preference is the opposite choice. When it comes to my sister's family, they don't put salt and chilly at all. So, we cannot eat their meals, and they cannot eat our meals. It is impossible. So, both parties stopped sharing food.
 

When my granny was living with us, the problem was in "Red" status. Lol... Because of her age, she could not feel the taste of food. According to my knowledge, we cannot feel the full taste of food after 70 years. It reduces to 50%. At that time, she was in her 90. So, she never satisfied with the combinations of spices we put into the curries. Those days she lived in my father's elder brother's home. As she made food complaints, one day our uncle asked her to put salt, chilies, spices, tamarind, turmeric, and all according to her wish. The funniest thing was, on that day she ate very little. But she was very silent. 

Earlier we fed up with her complaints, and we worried about our cooking skills. But one day, one of our aunts arranged lunch for all family members. She was a cookery expert, and nobody can point out mistakes. So, on that day also our granny came up with many complaints and suggestions. On that day I decided to stop worrying about her complaints. Lol... Those days she used to say "cook well, and serve tasty food to others to gain merits". Apart from the spices, the time we spent in the kitchen was another measuring factor she used for her decisions. If we take a little time, then she said that the curries have not steamed well. There is a famous chef in Sri Lanka called "Pabilis Silva". So, we told her that even Pabilis Silva's skills are not enough to prepare food for her. Lol...

There are many memories of my granny and cookery. Those two have linked to each other as a needle and thread. As she did not like our meal preparations, our uncle asked her to use spices, salt, and all as per her wish. Along with that permission, she wanted to prepare her tea too. She said that she can do it well without other's support. One day when I was coming from the office, I saw that she was in the kitchen by preparing tea. As she spent more time, I wanted to see her and went to the kitchen. 

When I was going there, I saw a cup of Tea with pink color. It amazed me and at that moment I thought that my cousin sister had brought a strawberry flavor powder for tea. It was my thought. So, I checked over there to find it, and then I saw the chilly bottle on the table. My thought was correct. She had put chilly to her tea. It was a mistake. Those days her eyesight was not good.  When I was telling it to her, she said that it is a coffee bottle. If I did not come on time, then she could nicely have a cup of chili flavored tea. 

So, this is all about one step of that food preparation process. You may feel wonderful when I'm telling you the rest. I'm sure even you never thought about it before. We can discuss the cookery wars in the next articles. Stay safe... Take care, buddies. 

  

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