I remember my High school days when we used to travel from one small town (Prodhutur -Cuddapah dist Andhra ,India) to another (Yerraguntla ) by a mini Van to get to our school passing by all the lush green fields of sugarcane,groundnuts and corn .By evening with our stomachs growling and battered by the heat outside all we would look forward was to go back home and gobble up mom's delicious food.But enduring this one and half hour journey every day became tough and boring . The only way to get food on the way was to target the fields;).We used to make the driver somehow concede to our requests with please and thank yous and stop the van near the best grown groundnut fields.As we saw " The better the fruit, the more wasps to eat it.." we used to run into the fields uproot 5 or 6 of the plants each and run back to the van. I know it is very ethically ,morally wrong .But it was fun when I think of it now.We dusted the fresh mud and broke the nuts to eat the raw nuts fresh and pristine.I can still sense the smell of the wet soil ,and the freshness of the ground nuts in it. No gourmet food till date has lasted so long in my memory.
My love for the aromas and fragrances of food were planted in me then and I failed to recognise it till the day came when the dinner for 2 was left in my hands to prepare far far from home with just a few hand written recipes from Mom.
Today I Love cooking ..and I enjoy the flavours emerging from them as I cook. Thanks to my encouraging husband who calls himself the guinea pig of all my experiments the enthu to cook new dishes still lingers in me.
