Non-Recipe – Food conversations between me and vaandu

As a sincere sigamani(err local slang for sincere person, not sure about the exact english word), I have been posting only recipes. So for a change here is a non recipe post :-)

I am foodie and I love to cook and love talk about it too. That’s all. I am not a cooking expert; I do have lot of disasters in my kitchen. My hubby (he has no choice), MIL, FIL never complained about my food. In fact my FIL likes my cooking very much and he requests me to do some recipes again. Coming to Vaandu, his eating habits fluctuates a lot. He will be picky eater for some time and at times he will be really good. Even though he eats what I cook, he has some set standards for certain dishes. Like,

Incident 1

Vaandu: Amma, what’s for dinner?

Me: Semiya upma.

Vaandu: Ok, can you make it like how appa makes. (thinks a bit and tells)Err amma wait I will ask appa itself to make it.

Me: ????!!! (Nosecut) In a way I am happy, I don’t need to cook. So from that point on, whenever its upma and be it whatever upma, hubby will be the chef.He does the cleaning too. (So whats so special in his upma, he adds coconut, cashews, groundnuts but no onion. Man, I need to agree, it comes out really well. Will post the recipe soon)

Incident 2:

Me: Kanna, do you want egg?

Vaandu: Oh yeah, but make it like N mumma. (N mumma was his day care taker, Amma is me and mumma is N. Thats how he calls till date. I literally learnt it from her how to make sunnyside up)

Incident 3:

Me: I am going to keep oranges for your snack today.

Vaandu: Ok amma, but please peel it like how S athai(aunt) does. (This S athai is my BFF, who peels the orange skin without any fibre. I will never get her patience)

Incident 4:

Me: It’s your favorite dinner tonight, poori and chole.

Vaandu: yayyy.. but amma did you make the chole like P aunty? (This P aunty, is my BFF too, and knowing vaandu’s liking she gave me her homemade chole masala)

Incident 5:

Vaandu: What’s for dinner amma?

Me: Dosa and chutney?

Vaandu : Red (tomato/onion) chutney or white chutney (coconut)

Me: White

Vaandu: Can you make like how J avva (MIL) makes?

Incident 6:

Me: Let me make some sweet today.

Vaandu: Are you going to make that sweet that R avva (my mom) made?

Me: (pausing a moment) No, sorry I am not making anything. (Becoz my amma had made mysore pahu and I still haven’t got the guts to try it by myself)

Can you see his set standards?Even though I don’t get their recipes exactly, he still eats what I cook and tells “amma I love you”. But these talks happens everytime when I make these dishes.  When I was about to give up, this incident happened in India this feb.

At my mom’s place:

My mom was feeding him rasam rice. (Grandma spoils him to the core) After couple of bites he is telling, amma can you please make “your” saaru (rasam). I like your saaru the best. I was like what??????I was in cloud nine, because of two reasons,

1)      Finally my kiddo has set my recipe as a standard.

2)      Second, the most important, he likes what I like too. (I love my rasam the best ;-) ;-) ). Why this is important, because the kiddo is exact Xerox copy of my husband. 99% ditto copy, not only in facial gestures but also in mannerisms, food habits and what not? He is liking what I like is something to be happy about (comes in that 1%) and here I am recording that.