Hey , I am back , I thought I’d do it some other day , but didn’t want to procrastinate what I started on the first weekend itself should I, I promised to myself I would write and talk about the experience so here I am .
It was a really wet weekend with heavy showers, hence I was in the mood for some mutton/lamb, I had been reading and working around some recipes and figuring out what should I go with … A rack of lamb with apple sauce sounded tempting, so did a barbecued leg of lamb, but the flavour in my mouth was more for some spicy food, more so as the people I had planned to eat with were for the spicy bit, so I chose to do up some “Mutton Barra”( its barbecued mutton pieces) and a spicy soupy dish called “Kunna”.
I started about preparing on a Saturday (it was a Sunday lunch plan) since the mutton for the Barra had to be marinated a day in advance. I was in the process of doing that when I got a call that a very dear friend whose cat was ill wasn’t going to recover and will have to be put to sleep. Incidentally this was the same person coming over for the lunch the next day. I just had to be there then, so, I left everything the way it was and rushed.
It was a rainy night when this small little thing, a stray, walked up to my friend while he was on his way up home and looked at him with those take me home eyes, he couldn’t resist and brought her home looking to nurse and feed her and let her go the next day, his sister and also a friend who wasn’t really a cat person freaked out and didn’t know what to do for the next twenty four hours, but as the story goes , she couldn’t do without her for the next three years. The pretty little thing gradually grew into a bundle of joy and mischief not only in their lives but the lives of people who met her. I met her two years back and not being a cat person myself, didn’t know how to react but over a period of time it was just a pleasure to see her turn into a Diva that she was. It was absolutely hilarious at times when you would see her sitting at the weirdest of places , imagine, when the bar arrived at home she was figuring out a way to get into the space made to hold wine bottles, unsuccessfully of course. The house help was so fond of her that there would be days when she would just eat out some chicken from his plate and he would feel she shares his dinner and consider himself honoured. And believe you me I can go on and on. Anyways this little large actually enormous bundle of “bratness” and mischief was a little ill and was being treated for it for a while , but this jerk of a vet gave her the wrong medication which affected her kidneys beyond repair. Saturday it was when she had to be put to sleep rather than let her suffer any further, somewhere our selfish self never wants to let go of what we love, but she had selflessly given everyone around a reason to be happy and smile and it was by no means she deserved what she was going through. She was a happy, proud and extremely (lovingly) arrogant Cat and it was best that she remains that in all our memories even after her. . The poor child had to live it up for almost close to a week and even when she finally was really weak and just couldn’t fight any further, a day before she left us all, she got up one last time and demanded her food letting everyone know that this is how I would like to be remembered. Saturday it was.
One of the toughest things in life to do is hold fort for people you love, after they have lost someone so dear, believe me I have lived it. We hadn’t let go as yet though, and sadly our city does not have a pet cemetery, and we wanted her to have a farewell she righty deserved. Once again it was a rainy day just like the one when she had come home and the sky poured its heart out as she bid her final good bye. Her ashes today adorns the church , the ocean , my car and every place she every lived and was her highness of. I have by God’s grace never lost someone really dear to me to the extent of taking the ashes to the river or the ocean, either I was too small or later truly blessed. But I will never forget the ashes being washed of my hands by the waves , and the waves engulfing her forever actually I wouldn’t be surprised if she engulfed the waves instead, believe me she still is very capable of that . R.I.P Bugsy (that’s her name), everyone around you, loved you in some way or the other, but if every one of them look back, ‘you’ without saying a word made each one of them smile through happy, sad, weak, strong actually any situation cause that’s what you were, a bundle of Joy, and you gave it without asking for anything in return other than attacking the food, OFCOURSE.
One of the toughest things in life to do is hold fort for people you love, after they have lost someone so dear, believe me I have lived it. We hadn’t let go as yet though, and sadly our city does not have a pet cemetery, and we wanted her to have a farewell she righty deserved. Once again it was a rainy day just like the one when she had come home and the sky poured its heart out as she bid her final good bye. Her ashes today adorns the church , the ocean , my car and every place she every lived and was her highness of. I have by God’s grace never lost someone really dear to me to the extent of taking the ashes to the river or the ocean, either I was too small or later truly blessed. But I will never forget the ashes being washed of my hands by the waves , and the waves engulfing her forever actually I wouldn’t be surprised if she engulfed the waves instead, believe me she still is very capable of that . R.I.P Bugsy (that’s her name), everyone around you, loved you in some way or the other, but if every one of them look back, ‘you’ without saying a word made each one of them smile through happy, sad, weak, strong actually any situation cause that’s what you were, a bundle of Joy, and you gave it without asking for anything in return other than attacking the food, OFCOURSE.
Has a Tornado ever made you smile? I have had the privilege to see, live, know and experience one.
Ok, getting back to where we left, I did manage to convince both of them to come out of the house and spend some time at my place, have some food which they agreed to. It was as it is, just going from one home to another. And how did the food turn out? Well, way beyond what I expected it to, it was bad for my liking. The chops weren’t marinated well enough; I have made it in the past and have done way better. I wonder at time why do I experiment with a recipe that’s already worked for me , I mean marinating in ginger, garlic, vinegar, raw papaya and curd worked brilliantly for me, but no I had to experiment and go absolutely wrong. In simple words it just wasn’t good enough to get any further mention here. The Kunna was still ok, the meat was really well cooked and the spices were coming out just right, you could taste the different choice of spices so yes I would say, I liked the taste to an extent, but the garnish of lemon slices, julienne ginger and chillies was a bad bad bad choice, they should be there, but, served separately for people to use the garnish as per their choice. I guess the food you make reflects the state of mind as well, and as good a stress buster as cooking may be it reflected the sombre mood. I hope to do better next time, and since I had promised I would write after I have cooked, well I already have and I did keep my promise of doing better. But that, in a bit …………..
No comments:
Post a Comment