M for Monkey, Mmmmmmm for?

3 things...

1. Maggi

Yeah the good old Masala Maggi in the yellow packet. Had it for lunch after a really long time. Waited till the water came to a boil and broke the Maggi just like they do it in the advertisements. Cooked the soupy yellow noodles (the soupy part is actually my favourite).

Brought back memories of my school days. This was our after school, pre dinner meal. Amma would give us a plate of Maggi served with sweet Modern Bread. I'd watch Small Wonder or some Wrestle mania while still wearing my blue pinafore. Or "Unifong" as I used to call it when I was younger.

Cut to the present. So when I was just about to serve the Maggi into my bowl, I remembered that cheese went really went with this particular hot bowl. That there would be sticky strings with each fork. Or better, lumps of gooey cheese.

But all I saw was the yellow liquid and the noodles (the taste of which had been dulled by the cheese now). The cheesy effect was only there in taste. Couldn't see it.

I finished the noodles nevertheless, slurped on that soupy liquid and then came the best part.

All that cheese I'd added? Was sitting at the bottom of the bowl. It'd had all melted and needless to say, I scraped and licked my platter clean.


2. Masala Dosai

Not Dosa, but Dosai.

Made the traditional way. The warm, mildly spiced mashed potato of sorts. Yellow lumps with specks of mustard here and there, brown, crisp kadalai parppu... it was, to say the least, perfect.

The dosais were good too. Thanks to my Secret Santa from Sammamish, the batter was just right. Just a little thinning down and it came out nice. Brown and crisp. Infact it cooked through so well, I didn't even need to flip it over.

Now a good part of all my masala dosais were from the Shanti/Sukh/Megh Sagars of Bangalore. All these come with a smear of a red or "kemp" chutney as they call it. It's spicy, garlicy and kind of takes away from the taste of the plain dosais. It also almost kills the masala. I admit though, I do like it sometimes. On a cold rainy day in Bangalore, with nice coconut chutney.

But now, for once, I could have more than one teaspoon of masala. So I dumped a good heaping of the dosai. Tri-folded it perfectly. Smeared some ghee on top, right before serving so the steam would carry the flavours all over my one bedroom apartment. More importantly, right up my boy's nose.


3. Mango

More specifically, Alphonso Mangoes. Boy got them shipped from India. They were a golden yellow colour. Typically the colour of the Mambazham colour pattu podavais. Whipped it up with some milk and ealakkai, and served it with some fruit bits on my beautiful martini glasses.

It was the perfect dessert.

What can I say? I baked gooey, chewey chocolate chip cookies today. The whole place was smelling like I've walked in to cookie factory. And towards the evening I cooked us a nice meal. Chinna aloo curry, melagu kuzhambu, Parppu podi chaadam, thair chadam, and then dessert in my martini glasses.