Dear Avantika,
This blog is especially for you because I want you to know that you are my inspiration for whatever little cooking I do. I want you to be happy and healthy and know that food is fun and there is no such thing as unhealthy food. All that is edible is good so long as you like what you eat, it won't harm you. Trust your body. I was never lucky enough to have someone tell me this when I was growing so I grew up with a lot of funny ideas about food.
George Bernard Shaw once said 'There is no love sincere than the love of food'.
And rightly so, ofcourse I loved food as a child (who wouldn't?) but I never learned cooking from my mother standing in the kitchen (like girls traditionally are expected to) nor from anyone else (never had the desire to learn because of many reasons which are beyond the purpose of this conversation) but I'll share with you my favorite quote on cooking:
Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements. -Marcel Boulestin
I think its a little bit of both and I say so because I am mostly a self taught cook, partly from the foodie conversations I had with your 'Naani' and my aunts and your dad or through seeking for what I like in the written words of many (recipe books and food blogs and books and magazines and sites where I read about food).
I used to find cooking stressful at one point in time because I never had the time to think about it but nowadays I can toil in the kitchen for hours as if this is what I was born to do (yeah! that's funny because people around me still don't trust my cooking). I do this for you (and for myself) and mostly because we live in a strange world where people have all sorts of funny ideas about food and it's importance and sometimes it can seem impossible to listen to your body and trust it but if you trust your mama just read along and you will realize how maintaining your good health while still satisfying all your cravings is not rocket science... I mean you don't need to be bound by what elders or nutritionists believe nor read a lot of books on health/nutrition nor know the science and history of food (though they are all interesting subjects worth knowing) to be confident about your food choices and know you are eating healthy.
Having said that I must not forget to mention that a lot of the right ideas I have about food, I learnt from you. Right from that first time when you were only 5 months old and watching me eat and that day you first held a slice of avocado trying to suck on it. I'm sorry I didn't let you finish it because I was scared you'd choke but you were a pro and handled it better than I could imagine. And today for instance when you expected me to feed you at lunch because getting the dal and veggies in the small piece of Roti that could fit in your mouth seemed like a complex task and even when we were having dinner tonight and you insisted on feeding me and putting a portion of your food in my plate when I finish mine (yup! I need to remember to eat slowly) I learn from you everyday and I want you to know that you are allready a pro where food is concerned. So, learn what you have to, listen to all, but don't believe everything and do what you consider the best for yourself.
This is my first post and I'm going to end it with an interesting quote if you care to think about this conversation...
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. -Voltaire
This blog is especially for you because I want you to know that you are my inspiration for whatever little cooking I do. I want you to be happy and healthy and know that food is fun and there is no such thing as unhealthy food. All that is edible is good so long as you like what you eat, it won't harm you. Trust your body. I was never lucky enough to have someone tell me this when I was growing so I grew up with a lot of funny ideas about food.
George Bernard Shaw once said 'There is no love sincere than the love of food'.
And rightly so, ofcourse I loved food as a child (who wouldn't?) but I never learned cooking from my mother standing in the kitchen (like girls traditionally are expected to) nor from anyone else (never had the desire to learn because of many reasons which are beyond the purpose of this conversation) but I'll share with you my favorite quote on cooking:
Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements. -Marcel Boulestin
I think its a little bit of both and I say so because I am mostly a self taught cook, partly from the foodie conversations I had with your 'Naani' and my aunts and your dad or through seeking for what I like in the written words of many (recipe books and food blogs and books and magazines and sites where I read about food).
I used to find cooking stressful at one point in time because I never had the time to think about it but nowadays I can toil in the kitchen for hours as if this is what I was born to do (yeah! that's funny because people around me still don't trust my cooking). I do this for you (and for myself) and mostly because we live in a strange world where people have all sorts of funny ideas about food and it's importance and sometimes it can seem impossible to listen to your body and trust it but if you trust your mama just read along and you will realize how maintaining your good health while still satisfying all your cravings is not rocket science... I mean you don't need to be bound by what elders or nutritionists believe nor read a lot of books on health/nutrition nor know the science and history of food (though they are all interesting subjects worth knowing) to be confident about your food choices and know you are eating healthy.
Having said that I must not forget to mention that a lot of the right ideas I have about food, I learnt from you. Right from that first time when you were only 5 months old and watching me eat and that day you first held a slice of avocado trying to suck on it. I'm sorry I didn't let you finish it because I was scared you'd choke but you were a pro and handled it better than I could imagine. And today for instance when you expected me to feed you at lunch because getting the dal and veggies in the small piece of Roti that could fit in your mouth seemed like a complex task and even when we were having dinner tonight and you insisted on feeding me and putting a portion of your food in my plate when I finish mine (yup! I need to remember to eat slowly) I learn from you everyday and I want you to know that you are allready a pro where food is concerned. So, learn what you have to, listen to all, but don't believe everything and do what you consider the best for yourself.
This is my first post and I'm going to end it with an interesting quote if you care to think about this conversation...
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. -Voltaire
Comments
Post a Comment