My "complaisant digestion" allows me to enjoy a wide variety of food, from the showy, ingenious, cream-besotted exotic dishes to a simple porridge. I am not a gourmand who eats so ravenously so as to bite the fingers in my frenzy for food. Nor a gourmet who would fly from New York to Nebraska simply to check out a steakhouse rumored to serve beef in the rough shape and size of a softball. But when you have an invitation from our very own 'Meenakshi Ammal', Mrs. Chithra Viswanathan, to her home to catch up, you'll have to be an imbecile to say no. We, Rajesh Ramasamy and I were the invitees.
We reached her home 20 minutes late. I knocked the door. RR preferred the bell. We were thrown off our feet when it was answered by the Goddess herself. I went there half expecting bland food fit for the 'senior citizens' - that loathsome word the elders themselves despise. I couldn't have been more wrong because her palatial house gave off all the assurances of an olfactory El Dorado. Once inside we made ourselves comfortable and within a few minutes were chatting up like we were a bunch of old college buddies until she whacked us off our senses when she told her age. She is 73! Man, I'll have to tell you she is a down to Earth person who radiates that calm and warmth only the truly enlightened can. She can calm a rabid dog I say! (It is another matter that she is no dog aficionado). After a good deal of yakking we were eagerly waiting for when she would come up with: "Guys, it is time to hit the table." Thankfully it wasn't before long.
The spread on the table was one fit for Louis XIV. Dry fruit squares, banana-walnut bread, idiyappam and veg kurma, rajma-corn kebabs, paneer stuffed kharabuns, thayir idlis, apple bundt cake and gulab jamoons. *panting here* I was up to my usual mumbo jumbo while RR was completely silenced, coming up occasionally with intelligent words like: "I love the use of ginger in this." Why hold back when the Creator ordered us to eat in order to live, gave us the inducement of appetite, the encouragement of savour, and the reward of pleasure. When you have the privilege of dining with RR his brilliant eccentricity shows. Suddenly he says: "Cut the kharabuns, place the rajma-corn kebab inside, garnish with a coriander leaf and a little butter. And thus was born 'La Petit Chith Burger.'
This is not a review. You don't review Heaven, right? When kitchens are perceived as the laboratories of the laws of nutrition, it is then that cooking turns out to be a mundane chore, but when seen as an art form it is nothing short of ecstasy. As brilliant as a painter would use his palette to mix the colours she artfully juggled the same ingredients which you and I use but with the finesse of a Zen master to conjure up miracles for the tongue. The joy of seeing us relish our gastronomic fare with gusto sent waves of joy in her. It fed her soul.
Thank you for your warmth Mrs. Chithra Viswanathan. You are an amazing person. God Bless!
PS: She has to her credit Android and iOS apps which store at least 3000 recipes which are tried and tested by her! Please search the Play Store or Apple iTunes Store for: AskChitvish Premium. Her site is: AskChitvish.com
We reached her home 20 minutes late. I knocked the door. RR preferred the bell. We were thrown off our feet when it was answered by the Goddess herself. I went there half expecting bland food fit for the 'senior citizens' - that loathsome word the elders themselves despise. I couldn't have been more wrong because her palatial house gave off all the assurances of an olfactory El Dorado. Once inside we made ourselves comfortable and within a few minutes were chatting up like we were a bunch of old college buddies until she whacked us off our senses when she told her age. She is 73! Man, I'll have to tell you she is a down to Earth person who radiates that calm and warmth only the truly enlightened can. She can calm a rabid dog I say! (It is another matter that she is no dog aficionado). After a good deal of yakking we were eagerly waiting for when she would come up with: "Guys, it is time to hit the table." Thankfully it wasn't before long.
The spread on the table was one fit for Louis XIV. Dry fruit squares, banana-walnut bread, idiyappam and veg kurma, rajma-corn kebabs, paneer stuffed kharabuns, thayir idlis, apple bundt cake and gulab jamoons. *panting here* I was up to my usual mumbo jumbo while RR was completely silenced, coming up occasionally with intelligent words like: "I love the use of ginger in this." Why hold back when the Creator ordered us to eat in order to live, gave us the inducement of appetite, the encouragement of savour, and the reward of pleasure. When you have the privilege of dining with RR his brilliant eccentricity shows. Suddenly he says: "Cut the kharabuns, place the rajma-corn kebab inside, garnish with a coriander leaf and a little butter. And thus was born 'La Petit Chith Burger.'
This is not a review. You don't review Heaven, right? When kitchens are perceived as the laboratories of the laws of nutrition, it is then that cooking turns out to be a mundane chore, but when seen as an art form it is nothing short of ecstasy. As brilliant as a painter would use his palette to mix the colours she artfully juggled the same ingredients which you and I use but with the finesse of a Zen master to conjure up miracles for the tongue. The joy of seeing us relish our gastronomic fare with gusto sent waves of joy in her. It fed her soul.
Thank you for your warmth Mrs. Chithra Viswanathan. You are an amazing person. God Bless!
PS: She has to her credit Android and iOS apps which store at least 3000 recipes which are tried and tested by her! Please search the Play Store or Apple iTunes Store for: AskChitvish Premium. Her site is: AskChitvish.com
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Jeez, I knew u could write well doc, but not this well...guess we'll have to keep u lubricated with heaven's offerings!
ReplyDeleteOh, and btw, u captured the setting bootiphully... if it wasn't that mythical 7th heaven, it was pretty close:-)))