Until I moved to Kochi in January 2010, my attempts at cooking have failed miserably. I was always happy just to taste the dishes and even write on them as I did in The Hindu MetroPlus.
At best I could cook rice, uppuma, good tea and maybe a potato curry. I love yam and cooks something that is edible but not very tasty.
When it came to my turn to cook when I was living in New Delhi’s Mayur Vihar with a paragraph of journalists and software engineers it was always green gram and rice porridge – easy to cook, anyone can do it.
Even in Chennai and later in Bangalore my culinary skills were not something I was proud of. My wife refused to even taste the stuff I would cook whenever it fancies me.
In Kochi, from March when I moved to stay in a two-roomed flat close to my office at Kaloor, I made sure that I learnt to cook at least, one tasty dish.
My first attempt at cooking non-vegetarian food was beef curry, which my wife was surprised to find was tasty. In fact, she reached the city hungry and dreading to cook as she was tired from the six-hour journey after a morning duty at Doordarshan for which she had to get up at 5 am.
After her ‘good’ marks for the dish, I have dared to cook fish curry and fish fry.
This week I even tried cooking ‘cheera,’ my favourite vegetarian dish, successfully. Last Saturday, on my way back from Trivandrum, I bought one of those Rs10 cook books they sell in the train hoping to learn a thing or two. I am yet to try out any of the dishes described in it.
Smitha Sad, I can see you smiling, thinking it can never be that good. Well, next time you are here I am going to serve you something I cooked.
