Everyone has been taught about the five sense organs in their elementary schools. Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste and Touch. Each of which has it’s own importance. It’s so difficult to picture oneself without them. Food is something that has to do with all of them. When you look at a cake with a colorful icing on top, it calls you. When you Bite into a crunchy cookie and start chewing, it sounds like music. When you just open the lid of a Dum Biryani, feels like you’re in heaven. When you tear a piece of warm soft Naan, you can already sense how comforting would get once it lands in your mouth and of course the taste… well, I’m confused about which dish to quote this time! Because anything cooked to perfection with love, ought to taste good!!
So what does it take to cook something nice? I believe having a good taste for food is what you need. That’s how I learnt how to cook. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, me being a Mangalorean and married to a Punjabi family….of course is a boon…but it gave me shivers when I entered the kitchen. I was so confused about which cuisine to cook. Punjabi or Mangalorean. ‘To be or not to be’. So I started cooking Chinese!! I still remember, the first meal I cooked once I was married was Chinese Fried Rice!! Didn’t taste good at all. But everyone succeeded in telling me it was quite good. Well that’s the support you need when you hold a spatula for the first time, no matter how bad you cook.
My husband and I kept going on lunch and dinner dates very often. We still do. That’s when I started developing love for good food. Anything that tasted good made me happy. So confused with cuisines, I decided to stick on to taste. My target was not deciding what to cook but trying to make what ever I cook, taste good. Knowledge about how good something should taste is essential because, you then can decide how much of each ingredient to get into your pan. Food is designed to please to whom it is served.
Take for example the so called ‘Chinese Food’ we get in India. Every Street has a Chinese Laari and it’s available all year round, every single day. Every Indian College student mark their favorite Chinese Laari. It’s Cheap and tastes super good!! Back in 2006-2007 when I was in college I remember paying just Rs.15 and getting a bowl full of Hakka Noodles and that bowl of noodles was good enough to satisfy a group of 3-4 people. Manchurian and Chili used to be awesome!! But the strange thing is it tastes and looks nothing like Chinese food. Of course there’s the noodles, but it’s seasoned to suit Indians who like everything ‘Chatpata’. But what matters is how good it tastes. So the lesson is plan your food according to whom you serve it to. And only your tongue or your taste can help you through cooking. That’s the reason why every recipe says ‘Salt to Taste’. So, trust your taste and Keep Cooking!
The Saffron Chronicles 