Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Très exotique. But no, thank you.

[I am coming back to you]

Celery sticks dipped in low fat sour cream dip with blueberry flavoured soy milk on the side? No thank you. Though it features on my list of phrases I would like to ban, I absolutely have to use it here... been there and done that. And hating it.

I have tried every (whatever my swish departmental store offers, or my visiting New Yorker friend brings me) exotic ingredients, antioxidant rich drinks, gluten free grains, flavourful sauces, foreign veges, etcetera. Once into a departmental store, I turn into this biggest sucker ever. Sucker for all things of foreign origin. As fellow buyers look at me, admiringly, I keep piling my basket with a rare finesse. Almost as if I grew up on a diet of artichokes and hummus. Heee heee :D.

Fish sauce, chilly oil, tofu, celery, olive oil, kiwis, rosemary, oregano, chilly flakes, cream cheese I have tried them all. While tofu tastes like stale eraser, fish sauce is too pungent in a very nasty way, and celery tastes like nothing. Olive oil nourishes the skin (I agree) but makes food tasty, it does not. And cream cheese, tastes so much like paneer (cottage cheese). Oregano, thyme and rosemary do nothing to steamed veges. Neither do Schezwan peppercorns. And no, I cannot imagine tulsi on my pizza.

Quite like the tofu stir fry, my exotic sojurn has been pretty bland so far. And I am in no mood to take this any further.

Pass me the pudina lassi, will ya?

11 comments:

  1. Perhaps what would help the image of these oh-so-hep veges are a couple of thelawallahs, shouting at the top of their voice - eiiiiiiiiii zucchini-ahhhhh, lelo eiiiiiiii avocado ei-aahhhh. Biryani and lassi rocks. You said it.

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  2. i am quite sure a lot of things that are common place now started with our love for the exotic - alu was probably an import from somewhere, cheeku was an import from south america

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  3. i googled for alu and cheeku and found out both are indian products, and was homegrown and bred by the masses here.

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  4. rytes, what about teriyaki sauce. is it any good ? :D

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  5. And you try this exotica in the land of spices....!!!!

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  6. not so mediocre, yupe you are right, perhaps the thelawalas could get the much needed and the much lacking excitement.

    UIOW, how art thou so knowledgeable? :D

    ab, thank u abt the finds, UIOW, take that. haven't tried teriyaki sauce though. :D

    Prashant, yupe told ya, am a sucker.

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  7. Its not that people have started liking refrigerated ginger-garlic paste more than fresh adaa-roshuner bata; not that spring-onions have suddenly started tasting better than methi-aloo; not that Smith&Jones has a better flavor than Mahashay di Hatti (MDH); not that Laughing Cow tastes any different from Britannia cheese; not that the aftertaste of Mars lasts any longer than that of a 5-Star; we've all been sucked into the trance of the neo-global order of despotic consumerism. We have stopped relating to words that come any where close to rational,economical, patriotic, healthy, or even... likeable. At this rate, contracting swine-flu can be considered to be "hep" as it would automatically connect an individual to something phoren, something international. Alas!

    P.S. Havent tasted maacher-dimer bora in a long long time :(

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  8. Your a lot braver then me. I won't try anything new. I am a very picky eatier.

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  9. lethargicus cerebratix, just my thoughts.. and why must you remind me of macher dimer bora :( i so miss 'em.

    cheery girl, that's a good thing. most of my adventures were pretty rough though. :)

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  10. MACHER DIM-ER BORA!!!

    shit, havent had that for ages :( :( :(

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  11. You are absolutely correct healthy food sucks...

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