Gone are those days (foodie memories alert)!

BC (Before Corona):

We used to go to work (into the office), meet people on office hallways, elevators, restrooms and kitchen and have conversations there. It was fun to catch up with different folks. These are folks we would not otherwise meet in our social circle, but there is always something to learn from/relate to their experiences in life. I miss all those random conversations with the colleagues.

 There were two kinds of days: one where you had packed lunch and one where you did not.

The packed lunch days meant that we get to eat lunch in the picnic bench in front of our office building if the weather was good. Outside air can do magic to you. We would share our food and taste what each person brought. We would share recipes and stories of our home and kids. We would then go out for a walk in the trail near by. We will aim for some miles in our Smart Watch or sometimes rush back for a conference call. In winter, we missed the walks outside, but still enjoyed having lunch together at a table.

The second kind of days was more fun too. When I don't have packed lunch, I would reach out to others at work - hey, who wants to go out for lunch? It was unplanned, many times, but it let us get out of the office building, enjoy some different food, chat and share what is going on in life and then come back to work world refreshed. I would catch up with ex-colleagues or old friends and I thoroughly enjoyed those times. I am very particular about staying in touch with old friends, reconnect with them from time to time. 

This takes me to the exact point I was going to make. What do I miss the most in those lunch times - don't laugh at me or judge me, but it is the truth! I miss the Indian buffets - especially the South Indian ones! 

Before you judge me and say - oh my God, that is a lot of food, you overeat and gain weight etc, hold on! I am a vegetarian, and over these recent years, I have started appreciating quality more than quantity. Yes, we tend to overeat in a buffet - but the variety it offers is amazing. 

Let me try to describe the spread of my favorite South Indian buffet!

It begins with a nice appetizer - uzhunnu vada, Gobi manchurian, veg spring rolls, chilli idly, bajji - any of these could bring a smile to my face. They better have a complementing chutney in the condiments section.

Then comes oothappam or appam with vegetable stew or kurma. Or pongal laden with ghee. Poori or Semiya upma would be welcome always. I am not a fan of naan in South Indian restaurants, so I would prefer these other tiffin items anyday. I save my naan cravings for North Indian restaurants.

Again, people laugh at me if I say I like to try an upma in a buffet. I want to taste an upma that I did not make, how hard is it to understand that logic :-)

This restaurant brings dosas and chapathis to the table. In the initial days, they brought kerala parotha instead of chapathi! Even better! So we can relish 1 chapathi with the yummy paneer butter masala and enjoy the mini dosa with sambar/chutney!

Oh! I forgot to mention that the small cup of hot steaming- spicy and sour rasam - was grabbed on the first round itself and placed in my table. It gives a heavenly solace to the soul.

Time to enter the world of rice. They typically have Vegetable Biriyani and a mixed rice (curry leaf rice, tomato rice or something of that sort). A spoon of each is good enough to determine which one of them is better today and have it with raita and pickle. The fryums or oil fried appalam on the front end of the table comes in handy now. 

A small steep cup half filled with curd rice and topped with some sambar or pickle lets me taste the curd rice.  Curd rice better be without the pomegranate seeds - just regular seasonings for me, please! A spoon of any poriyal or vegetable would be appreciated.

At this point, I cannot eat anymore. So I go grab a small steel cup and get the dessert - nothing to beat the kesari which is orange or yellow in color. I love the cashew nuts, avoid the raisin and don't like the pineapple or mango they put in it. Any South Indian dessert would make me happy. So tired of gulab jamuns that come in north Indian buffets.

Finally, just half a cup of masala chai to call it a day!

With this corona, this is the ONLY thing that one cannot dream of today. Resturants reopened for take outs and dine-ins even, but I have not heard of the Indian buffets resuming! Take out does not cut it, after all and it can never replace the satisfaction of sampling each item in a buffet to enjoy it with its complementing side dishes!

Sigh! Until AC (After Corona)! Waiting to relish a quality Indian spread without worrying about 'spread' ! Who is with me :-)

Week 12 of Quarantine - The Illusion

When you are in the cold claws of winter, it almost seems hard to believe that warmer days will be here. You keep waiting and waiting for the freedom from the jackets and sweaters. The slightest bit of warmth or sunlight is like a boon and I would adjust my work schedule to step out for my daily walk to catch a little bit of the sunshine.

Now, we are officially in summer. What a relief from the suffocation of quarantine added to the winter agony! It almost is misleading. It created an illusion that corona virus does not exist anymore. As we walk in our neighborhood, initial signs of driveway get-togethers was a shock. How are these people able to do this? Are they not afraid of the consequences? I used to wonder. 

I guess people are tired of waiting for months for the freedom to breathe outside and starving to have some human conversations and meet-ups with friends. 

We are slowly becoming comfortable with breaking the lockdown restrictions we religiously followed in the first few weeks of quarantine. Going out to a park and hanging out with some friends sitting far apart became ok. It was nice to finally meet folks and talk. A part of me was still worried, but I hear that if you are outside, we should be ok.

The excitement phase of trying to cook new dishes has faded now. It was a cooking marathon of dishes we never would make - now it has come to the normal routine with occasional desire for new trials. 

The restricted feeling of making-do with the grocery you had is not there anymore. I can just wear a mask and go to a store to get an ingredient, if I want it badly.

Today our county moves to 'yellow' phase. We are all afraid of increased number of cases in the coming weeks. Hope things stay in control and we can be relieved of this menace soon!

Week 6 of Quarantine

Quarantine Week 6 is rolling. Will we get used to this as a permanent thing?

Other moms are complaining about how they are overwhelmed by school work help they have to provide their kids. From what I hear, the struggle is more for parents of elementary school. They never had a online learning concept or system in place. So it is a major struggle to devise such methods now.

My boys are thankfully older and more independent. I cannot complain much about them troubling me with help for zoom calls or  school assignments. I wonder if what I am doing is good enough as a good mom.

I start off the day with breakfast and shower and the morning office calls. In between hours of work, if I were in the office, I would have stopped by a colleague's desk for a chit-chat. On the way to the restroom or back, I would have exchanged some small talk with someone, complimented them for their outfit or shoes and or made some ad-hoc lunch plans. Not any more.

Tired of sitting at my desk and typing, I walk around craving for a chat. I enter the room of my 8th grader teenager and he says - "mom, can you go out, I am in a zone with my home work. Don't distract me".

I open the door of freshman-in-college room and he is obviously in a zoom call. I flee from there hoping to chat a little with my husband if he is not on an office call. He too seems to be on a call and I wave at him and walk away,

Before it is too late in the night for my dad in India, I call him. These talks give me the confidence that he is doing good and can comment about movies, whatsapp jokes that are relevant to current situation. This gives me peace that I can go about my rest of the day and night. There is always a fear and worry in the back of the mind still.

It is all about food prep and food to make. When there is time at hand, we head to the kitchen to make something. It has been a good opportunity to try out dishes we never had the time to make. Lot more time at hand for preparing ingredients that will come in handy for cooking,

Here too, I cannot complain that I am the sole chef at home. There is a partnership in place, my husband cooks too,  and the boys have all been very co-operative.

• Apart from emptying dishwasher which they used to after we nag, now we have them help us furthermore in the kitchen. Like cleanup after dinner or lunch. Putting dirty dishes away (yuck...) and loading dishwasher or wiping clean dishes. 

• They like to jump in to the kitchen and bake occasionally. Both boys worked together (argued and fought too in the process) and made their first ever pound cake from scratch and converted it to a pineapple upside down cake. I am impressed.

• Boy 2 helped peel  a whole stalk of garlic in exchange for a fast food meal he has been craving for 5 weeks. And I caved ..!

• We have been playing carroms and it is a series of tournaments going on. We all have improved the skills a lot. First time in my life, I impressed my Boy2 with any kid of game/sports skills. I am so happy for that.

Still, there is a certain thing about routine that needs to be broken. It makes us stick to the same things every day - and there are areas of focus needed around cleaning/organizing closets etc which don't fall into this routine.

So far so good.

Week 4 of Quarantine

Today is Apr 8, 2020. We are living in an era where somethings never imagined are happening. Like me blogging again :-)

Three and a half weeks of quarantine period have passed by. 

Only thing that can guarantee to put a smile on our faces is nature. Sunshine during the day as opposed to gloomy clouds are THE ONLY thing that will make me happy. That means, I can step out for a walk. Gone are the days when I would ask to go out for a dinner with the family or dream of going on a long drive. All I ask for is a sunny day so I can walk. Even while walking, I think of those friends who have not stepped outside home to avoid the risk of contacting the virus from the air. I wonder if I am safe by doing this.

This walk is so very needed after the hours of sitting on the desk and typing. The stiff neck longs for some movement and what is better than a nice walk outside.

We have been blessed with some better weather days. Morning times, the bird sounds come as a realization that some other system is going on as usual even though human lives have come to a standstill. Added to the sunny surprise, is the view of the spring blooms on the trees. Some are waiting to bloom and these buds promise a better tomorrow. It is good to see nature going on its planned course as we transition from winter into spring. This gives us hope for some day soon, summer will be here. There is also the hope that summer temperatures may help curbing the spread of COVID-19. 

P.S. After typing this positive post, later in the evening, I heard about the 21 year old Malayali boy who passed away suddenly due to COVID-19 and I was terribly moved and affected. At this point, I could not smile even with the sunshine and spring blooms.