Eating with awareness

I spent a good part of Saturday afternoon at the DMV office here. Was there to get the address changed on my driver’s license card. A Chinese couple was seated next to me. Within a span of five to ten minutes, they polished off a bag of Doritos, a packet of M-Ms and a bottle of Coke. The scene was familiar – hand dips into the packet, goes straight to the mouth, drops the contents in, hand goes back to the packet. Eyes dart all around but never on the hand or the bag of chips or even the chips/chocolates for that matter.

Everyone knows this simple fact – your food becomes you. If you eat food that is stale, peppered with preservatives and chemicals and cooked in a hurry, you don’t really get such a great you. Also, if you don’t give the food the attention that it deserves, rest assured it’s not going to give you the attention that you deserve! Since a few months now, we have been cooking and eating mostly at home and I have to say, there is nothing like fresh, home-cooked food. In fact, my tongue is so sensitive now – I can discern the difference between home-cooked food and outside food. There is such flavour, such fragrance to the food we cook at home. Hindi films talk about ‘Maa ke haath ka khaana (food cooked by the mother) and though I couldn’t fathom the difference earlier, I can do so now. When someone cooks food for you with love and affection, the food takes on a different quality. One of the best compliments Pinch has ever given me is, “I can feel the love in your cooking!”