A near perfect match!!!!!

Before Spouse and I were married...
An astrologer pronounced our horoscopes a near perfect fit!!!
We had an 80% match!!!

I wondered then..
What this 20% mismatch could consist of!!
I only had to wait..
Until we sat together at table!!!
Which is where it usually begins!!!

Perhaps it's because...
My heritage in terms of food is soooo different from his...

As a child...
Every meal at Grandmother's table...
Was an assertion...
That we were at the very top of the food chain!!!!

Meals...meals??..
Nay!... those were really feasts!!!
Slow cooked over wood fires...
We were served...at least two of the following at every meal....
Kari kuzhambu made of mutton and potatoes, kari urundais (minced meat balls for the Tamil challenged), sura puttu, nandu kulambu, brain fry, liver fry, mutton chops, fried fish of many sorts, including my favourite mathi, prawn fry, muttai attu, biriyani...
Even the veggies like avarakkai had a fistful of tiny shrimp added to tempt us along!!!
The very best of Mudaliar cooking was ours to eat!!!
At every meal...

On Sundays...
Breakfast began with dosas...
Washed down with a korma of minced meat..
And a fried egg or two...
By 10 AM....
My siblings and I ...
Felt like happy anacondas that had just nibbled on a herd of succulent goat!!!
As they waited for more to appear!!!!!
At lunch and thereafter...

Those animals that escaped being served up at Grandmother's table..
Like venison, pork, wild boar, rabbits, partridge and other such fowl...
Were caught and quickly cooked up...
To be served up at my Father's table!!!!

Here..
The style of cooking varied depending on Father's geographic location in terms of posting..
Or the region to which their friends at that point belonged!!

So..
We had Hyderabadi biriyani, kormas, paaya....,
And then drove down to the little stalls on Tank Bund ...
For boti kababs and sheekh kababs...
Goan friends served us fiery pork vindaloo !!
In Hyderabad!!

Mutton rogan josh, chicken makkhani, palak gosh, moghlai chicken, gurde kapure...
Delighted our taste buds in Delhi...
And while in Kashmir...
We feasted on gushtaba, rishta and yakhni biriyani...
In Trivandrum..
The charms of meen moilee, karimeen, monster prawns bought off the Chinese fishing nets in Cochin and covered in batter and deep fried, stews, cutlets et al...
Held us in thrall!!!

My recipe books contained....
ONLY non-vegetarian dishes...
And who can blame me for thinking that good food = non-vegetarian food ONLY!!!!
It was in this condition that I entered my marital home....
Only to find that I had been married off...alas!!..
To a sheep in wolf's clothing!!!!

In my new home...
There was shock..
When I tried to serve eggs for breakfast (minus the bacon and ham and sausages that I would have loved to add!!)....
The reaction was: Non-veg??? At breakfast?? Cheee chee!!!
Then I was told that it was allowed only on certain days...
We settled on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sundays....
Only to find that minor monthly festivals...
Like sashti, kirthigai, pradotcham, amavasai et al...
Invariably occurred on these days!!!!
Very unfair!!!!

I fought on valiantly!!!
Winner by my side...
I managed to sup on New England clam chowder in Boston...
Devoured Thai hawker food in Bangkok...
Tried reindeer meat in Finnish Lapland and Chicken a la Kiev in Helsinki...

We hit our all-time low in Singapore...
When Winner and I wanted to try their famous fish head curry...
And Singapore chilli crab...
And found ourselves instead...
Eating ela sappadu in one of those eateries off Serangoon Road!!

Then I turned vegetarian....
To the delight of Spouse and his clan!!!

Have the food wars ended???
Not a chance..

I invariably head for paneer butter masala, rajma, cholae, Gobi Manchurian, baked dishes...
He wants authentic South Indian ...preferably brahmin saapadu!!

OK...Enough said..
I am off to make...uppuma...
I like mine tempered with patta, with tomatoes added..
He likes his tempered with large quantities of urad and channa dal...runny...with no tomatoes!!!
Hmmm...what to do???

Ciao!!!!