When the palate says no to prudence...

There's great unalloyed joy in living to eat

Most of my intellectual friends hold quality books in great esteem. They designate them to be food for the soul. But mere reading of literature or cookery books don’t delight the big foodie in me. I won’t mind at all if you choose to call me a glutton even. I make no bones about confessing that I am a foodie of the first water. They say prudence and palate seldom agree. That is exactly the case with me.

My hygiene-obsessed mother often cautions me about the health hazards associated with the street food I love gobbling up. But really, who cares for quality? It is after all the taste of the street food that my tongue lolls out for. My saner friends have their own reservations about the ‘Gol Guppa’ seller. They often try to dissuade me from bingeing on my favourite ‘Radie Wala Gol Guppas’ by deploying some frivolous and baseless arguments.

Most the owners of our city food corners know me thickly and if I miss a day or so, they enquire after my well- being with concern.They are very sure of the loyalties of their regular customers now. The aroma from the fast food joints attracts me like the pull of some magnet. Or you can compare me to a lover who cannot afford to live without her beloved even for a day. The other day, when my doting mother found me cooking Maggi noodles, she admonished me with anxious concern and warned me against the flab I was accumulating around my belly.

Though I am not a brand ambassador of this food brand, I really had to go through an ordeal when Maggi was chucked out of the shelves for several months. No other substitute could satiate my craving for my beloved Maggi. I am really not aware of the health perils Maggi supposedly causes, but it definitely acts as a cohesive device and binds people together from varied cultural backgrounds. You visit any place in India, you will find the ubiquitous Maggi. In addition to Punjabi foods, I have predilection for delicacies of other states and countries too. Like other Chinese goods and chattels, Chinese food is all pervasive in India now. Thus Momos make the best part of my evening menu and serve the purpose of sumptuous snacks with tea.

Though I am not very religious, I love to visit the holy city of Amritsar. Paying obeisance at the Golden Temple is just an ostensible reason I offer to my devout parents. Actually, the city beckons me due to its famous food joints. ‘Kesar ka Dhaba’ is a destination where I never forget to pay my obeisance whenever I get a chance to go to Amritsar. Your trip to the city is not complete unless you savour the stuffy Amritsari Kulcha. Some of you would find no sanity in travelling to Amritsar for its Kulcha, as Punjabi food is omnipresent now. But only a true food connoisseur can understand the difference between an Amitsari Kulcha and its widespread imitations that are now available everywhere. A copy can never be as good as the original.

So the mere reading of my piece is not going to give you the real taste of the various street foods I live on. Get up and go to grab your own share as the taste of the pudding only lies in its eating. Happy Eating!