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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35.0 Hows Food At Your Boarding Place? This Is All About Tea I Had.

We had to drink milk tea with less milk powder and, it was a watery tea. The owner of the boarding place was an aunt and, she used to keep enough tea for all of us in a flask. 

She kept in on the dining table and, she served tea in the mornings and evenings. On some evenings, she was kind to give a snack with tea. So, after starting advance level studies, all of us had evening classes after school. Therefore, we used to have a small thing after school and, had lunch at the boarding place after the classes. Then we had lunch in the evenings and, it was tea time. 

Therefore, we had tea also after lunch. One day our aunty said 'You all don't need evening tea when you have evening classes as you had lunch in the evening right?. But we did not agree with her and, we said that it's not a problem to have a tea even just after lunch. We knew that it did not give an additional supplement due to the quality of the tea and other meals. However, she thought about us as a greedy gang. 

One day she called her daughter and, said that 'these gals are having tea just after lunch. They can have heavy meals anytime'. She said the same thing to one of my boarding mate's mother also and, she embarrassed a lot. 

So, that aunty talked to my friend and, asked not to have tea just after lunch. But my friend did not agree with her and, she said that it's required for all of us. However, we did not care about those talks even though, it embarrassed others. We had our tea as usual. Aunty did not keep tea in the flask for a couple of hours and, she cleaned it as soon as tea time was over. So, sometimes we missed it once we had to spend more time in the evening tuition classes.

Though it was not a good quality tea to enjoy, we expected it in the mornings and evenings. So, one day, one of my boarding mates asked her evening tea from aunty in such a situation. At that time, she said that she could not make tea time to time for each of us separately as per the schedules we had and, she asked her to work according to the rules of the boarding. After that, my friend did not make the same request again. However, she prepared tea for me in such a situation as I did not eat meat or eggs. In those days, that green color flask was one of our little hope and, all of us expected to see it in every morning and evening. Hah hah haa...

Time went tightly at the boarding place with exam pressure. However, the boarding gang was close friends like sisters and, they were a crazy gang. One day we got to know about a series of stars which can be seen in the very early morning and it was a rare scene. So, we decided to watch and, we informed aunty on the previous night. 

She also interested and, on the following day all of us went out with her. It was around four or clocks in the morning and, we went to the main road to watch it clearly. There was a restaurant and, one of the boarding mates liked its young manager. So, she visualized a romantic moment also with him and, she wished he could be there to watch the stars. Lol... So, we talked such nonsense and, observed the sky for a couple of minutes to find out that group of stars. We were lucky to see that rare moment. We thought that our effort was not waste by looking at the amazing stars in the clear sky. Anyway, I do not remember the specialty of those stars. On that day, aunty made tea for all of us once we returned to the boarding place.

As well as she gave usual morning tea before going to school. So, we glad about the additional bonus tea we had in the early morning. Therefore, one day-night we lied to her and, we said that we could see another amazing star series in the sky if we could go out in the morning. So, we got up early in the morning and, went out to watch the stars with aunty. But she did not suspend us though, all of us could see the ordinary stars which can be seen in the early mornings. However, it was not a problem because one day had succeeded out of two days. As we expected, she served tea for all of us once we returned to the boarding place back. It was a pleasure for all of us as we could win our plan.

However, I did not admit it today as an adult though we did it for our fun. I don't know why all of us did not think about it as the wrong thing. At that time our thoughts were different and, we tried to have fun out of every little thing. So, at that time also we discussed that aunty could donate something because of us. That was the idea of our hooligan sisters. According to our mindsets those days, we thought that we helped her to gain merits. Though I did not breach the rules of school and parents, I contributed to some kind of such silly things with the companion of my friends. 

After a very long time, I met aunty in Colombo. She was weak and grew old. Though I stopped and talked to her, she could not remember me. Annually there was a different gang of school girls in her boarding place. Or else she did not care about the crazy things we did. Sometimes our behavior was normal for her. 

So, once I asked for some more details from her, she said that she went to the hospital to check the blood. I felt sad about her and, I asked her not to go out without somebody. Then she looked at the sky and, said that the gods protect her. She had a decent family background and, those days all of her children were in some other countries. None of them stayed in Sri Lanka. She also planned to go abroad and live with her youngest son. 

It was her dream, and she was waiting for her son's message. But I realized that nothing had happened, by looking at her eyes. Once I asked her not to go out without somebody, her eyes filled with tears. After that, the whole day was a gloomy day for me and, my mind filled with her memories and sorrow. Meantime, I remembered the incidents and memories we had in the boarding place, and I worried about aunty. Today society is not kind enough to take care of their parents. If they could not bring them to their countries, at least they could look after them with the support of adult helpers.

As soon as I came back home, I had a habit of drinking milk tea. Therefore, I bothered my mother to get a cup of tea as soon as possible. 

Sometimes she got angry with me when she was working on something else which eager than my need. One day she asked me to tell her before getting down from the bus and, she said that then I could have it as soon as I came home. Though she asked me to make tea for myself, I always loved to drink a cup of tea prepared by my mother.

However, in Sri Lanka, milk tea is not a good beverage because of certain low-quality milk powder. Milk powder is the cause of most of the diseases in our society. However, I think it's our responsibility to aware of these things and, change our food habits.  

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18.0 Enjoy Your Own Cup Of Tea In A Huge Cup (And Vomit, My Tea Buddies...).

There are a lot of stories about Milk Tea. I could say that those have been adding one by one to my life stories because of the favor I had for Milk Tea. Milk tea is one of my favorite beverages since childhood. However, my parents said to me that, I did not like to drink milk powder when my mother was feeding me. I vomited it. Though I was a kid, I think, I could select the most precious thing. Lol... So, I drank my mother's milk for three years. Those days, I used to drink milk tea only if it has prepared by my mother or 'Renuka.

Later on, I did not drink plain tea for a long time. I thought it as a useless beverage, which does not have any taste or nutrition. I began drinking plain tea when I was studying a three-months computer course after advanced level exams. That institute gave plain tea around 10.30 a.m. for all the students and, I also used to have plain tea with my friends. That was the start and, plain tea added to my beverage list. 

However, I believe it gave additional energy and power. Especially when you sit in front of a computer for a long time. Sometimes it might apply to all professionals. As I just started my writing stuff, now also I can drink a cup of tea to energize today startup. A few hours back, I had a cup of tea and, it was the second one for today. However, drink sugarless tea if you would like to have many. 

Though our country is very famous for Tea, it is not an easy thing to buy quality Tea for us and, it's price also very high. So, the majority of our people are drinking low-quality tea by exporting high-quality tea to other countries. I cannot figure out the exact reason for that situation, though I am a tea lover. 

A cup of milk tea prepared by mother in the morning was the energy drink in the school days. My mother always gave me a full cup of milk tea upon my request. I used a big teacup. Actually, it was a big tea mug. 

Those days, I was shy to show my tea mug to others as it was a big one. I thought that it would show my greediness to food. However, it was correct regarding milk tea. Therefore, I always made sure of the capacity of the cup I want. The main concern I had was the capacity of the mug when buying a new one. There are certain factors to consider before switching to the new teacup. However, I did not forget to compare the new one with the previous one as well. It is like a process. Though I received many teacups as gifts for the new year, acceptance has done after a thorough checkup. Therefore, every time I had an outdated, not alluring huge tea mug because of my selection criteria. 

In school days, I did not like to prepare and have my cup of tea because of the quality of the taste. However, I had to work on it when my mother was not at home. In such a situation only, I prepared tea for me. This incident happened when I was studying for my advanced level exam.

My mother used to give me a milk tea flask when I was doing studies at night. She asked me to drink it once I feel sleepy. But I thought at what time I should have the first cup of tea when starting night studies. So, it was one motivation fact for me apart from one radio channel I listened to when studying.  Then time to time I checked whether the time has arrived to drink tea in the flask. Once tea finished in the bottle, then I stopped studying as well and, went to sleep. The entire energy for studies depends on that tea flask. Lol... 

So, one day I had to make tea for myself when my mother was not at home. I prepared my night tea with all the skills and, put it into the flask to drink when studying. So, as usual, I started drinking my own tea on planned time after a few minutes. As usual, I filled the entire mug. But I could not drink all because of the taste and, it was not nice.

However, I did not want to throw away my effort.  Therefore, I poured back the rest of the tea into the flask and, kept for next turn. As usual, I had a few cups of tea though it was not nice because I did not want to waste the effort that I put for the preparation. That was the feeling I had to finish it, and nothing else. 

As usual, after a couple of hours, I went to sleep, and I felt damn lethargic like faintish when I was going to bed. Though I thought that I could have a deep sleep, it was a dream and, I woke up as my stomach was annoying me. I could not sleep for more than three hours. I felt like somebody was walking in the stomach and, trying to come out through my mouth. Then again, I tried to sleep and, see. However, it did not work and, I frightened once I felt some salty in my mouth. I realized that was a clue of vomiting and, I did not want to bear up that torment. So, again, I went to bed to avoid vomiting and, tried to sleep. 

However, it did not work at all and, I vomited three to four times till morning. I lost all the energy and, walked to the bathroom like a dummy. In the morning, my father asked 'Shall I prepare a cup of tea for you with coffee?.  At that time, I wanted to vomit again when hearing the name of 'Milk Tea. So, I asked for a coffee without milk. This was fun for my school friends once I told 'Tea and Vomit' story to them. They asked me not to prepare beverages for them once they visit our home.

My Mug...

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