A new movement urging people to enjoy local cuisine, home-made food and the pleasures of a sit-down meal is slowly gaining popularity. Introduced in Europe, this movement is called “slow food” as opposed to the “fast-food” culture that has come to symbolise America.

That brings me to some of my own delightful gastronomic experiences which were of the “slow food” category. Years ago, during an outing we children had feasted on chapatis and brinjal currry that our neighbour had packed for us. The humble chapati curry combo has never tasted that good.

Come to think of it, the humbler rice-sambar also tasted heavenly when we came home ravenously hungry. We carried no snacks for the break and our stomachs would growl at the smell of freshly cooked food on most school days. On summer vacations we children would get to stay in different relatives’ houses and each lady of the house was a specialist in one or the other dish and we would be treated to it. No instant chakli like now.

If we wanted the savouries we had to get the mixture ground from the flour mill. At the end of all the frying, sometimes mother would even fry out alphabet shapes that we managed to preserve for a few days till temptation took over. At nights we would sit around an elder who would mix the food in a vessel and dole out a morsel to each of us. Not having to wash the plates made this form of eating very appealing.

Chocolates perhaps cannot be called “slow food” in the strictest sense of the term. Despite not being unduly fond of them, I do recall the taste of a particular chocolate. That one was delicious and melted in my mouth. I must have eaten hundreds of chocolates since then, but that melting moment has lingered on.

These "slow food" items come attached with a lot of fond memories and perhaps that’s why I’m trying to get my children, for whom the ultimate gastronomic experience is a bowl of Maggie noodles, to enjoy “slow food”!