Digging Food Corners

Reading my nostalgic article, in which I revealed my emotional ties with the past city, where I lived for a few years till bidding farewell to it four months back, Rek the Blogger had given me a curious tip on how to make same bonds with the new city. She suggested that exploring food corners will help in making emotional ties with the new place. Already a semi-foodie, I decided to follow her advises and dig food corners as much as possible.

But due to eating regularly those food items prepared in harmful oils and junk foods with no nutritious values, I lost taste in everything. But still my hunt for places which would give health compliant food continued with no end.

That day, when I reached my settling place after a one and half hour long heavy workout at the gymnasium in the evening, I saw my room-mate X-EN-Tric immersed in some melancholic professional thoughts.  To cheer him up, I suggested him an outing so that on return we could have tasted something delicious from nearby eateries. Thoughtfully, he said,

“What’s the use of going to eateries buddy; everyone serves the same oily, fatty and non-nutritious junk items,”

“Don’t worry, today I will take you to a new place, you just get ready; this is not like any previous hotels, I assure you, you will feel really comfortable there,” I said trying to make my voice maximum dramatic.

Unwilling to believe what I said, he looked at me curiously.

‘’Which place is that?” he asked.

I said, “Ok, if you really want to know, I will tell you some clues. Take the case of Chapati, one of our common food items.” Watching his speculative eyes, I asked, “did you find any difference between our home-made chapattis and the ones that we get from hotels?,” 

“They both look absolutely different. Comparing to the home made ones, what we get from hotels is hell,” without a second thought, he said.

Triumphantly I said, “then today I will take you to a place where we get the real taste of the homemade ones.”

X-EN-Tric’s eyes brightened.

Driving my ‘sincere bike’, we explored the busy evening city. Taking so many twists, curves and turns and by escaping from many collisions miraculously, we finally reached the destination located at a comparatively less crowded place.

I took him to a Natural Food Centre, which I had found during my Sunday jaunts. While sitting on the cane-made chairs, I commented,

“See, even the chairs here are nature made.”

He agreed.

Some quotes written on the walls of the food centre went like this,

“Does your stomach have a grinding stone?”

“Drink your food after chewing it thoroughly”

“Don’t drink water with food”

Though I have some personal disagreements regarding these quotes, I appreciated their attempts silently. Even tourists were also visiting that place for healthy food. 

We both had a steam cake (puttu) each, prepared using the coconut shells, in accompaniment of a local variety of Spinach curry; that means completely natural. We had already ordered a fruits combo each, which was a mixture of water melon, banana, papaya, and some other fruits. The person who served us food, who lacked the common appearance of a supplier, apologized us as if we were his guests at his home, by saying he could not prepare all usual fruits, since that day they could not collect some of them.

In the end, there came a Jappi, and what’s a Jappi? Well! Jappi is a drink prepared using coriander, cumin seed, fenugreek, cardamom and some two more items. However, it tasted superb! They claim that Jappi is the best energizing drink comparing to coffee and tea. Both coffee and tea consist of a kind of sedatives (caffeine, you know?)

Surprisingly, they didn’t charge much. But, when we left that place, my stomach was almost full. So, I said X-EN-Tric, 

“Buddy, tomorrow also I plan to dine from here, but not as much as I consumed today. Because, you know the proverb? Even Nectar is poison, if taken to excess!”

X-EN-Tric laughed heartily.

My special thanks go to Rek the Blogger for giving such a valuable suggestion. Even though she meant it for making emotional ties with the place you dwell in, it helped me in a different way.

But, from this article, did you get something informative?