living to eat.

Out of the many things that are bursting out of me that i really have to want to write about, one is food. For those who know me, they know this was just a matter of time before i wrote about food. It’s the one and only true love of my life. There is nothing better, nothing more, nothing as satisfying that the thought of food. The fact that when you put a cake of noodles in hot water, they will become soft and edible and you can put almost anything in hot water and it will do the trick. Of course you need to do a little more than boil it for it to be yummy.

The love of food comes in two parts, one is to cook good food and the other is to appreciate good food. I don’t think it’s necessary to have both to be fully in love, but they complement each other. And it’s also one of those things that you can never tell, what came first, did people eat good food and then get inspired to cook better, or did they cook well and then fall in love with eating. In my head at least, it’s really confusing. I’m going to be completely honest, i dream about food sometimes, there was a cake, one of my roommates made at one point and i still fantasize about it. Every bite of that cake was a piece of heaven in my mouth. She was the best at baking, (to our delight). She is responsible for instilling the experimenting quality in me. Before that i loved it too, but i just didn't try a lot of new things.

I love eating (ok i know you know that already but just putting it out there anyways). I also have the capacity to eat a LOT. And yes looking at me, i don’t look like i am a hogger. But I’m a pig when it comes to eating. Ask my sister if you don't believe me. I have had my share of food bets, though there is one that i still haven't attempted and it’s pending for almost a year now, but i see it happening very soon. That you have asked now, it is a bet between me and my friend about me eating 2 foot longs at subway. The only thing is, i haven’t come up with what i want if i win. So i haven’t attempted it yet, but once i do i will.

I always think, if i could get paid for eating, it would be my dream job. Like how can get life better than that? Ever. Like isn’t that the dream? To be able to eat all you want, like i heard recently there is position called, 'director of sleep', this person goes to hotels and sleeps. he gets paid to check if the hotel room is comfortable enough, if the atmosphere is good enough for tired people who want to get a good night sleep. It’s something like that for me and food, but more deep and more intense. I’m not the best cook, but i try new stuff all the time and i have all these recipes that i have bookmarked on my computer that i want to try out when i have the time. It’s an extremely relaxing activity for me. It’s almost like magic, because just some time back they were just ingredients, now its yummy stuff. there is still some stuff i don't eat, can't eat - paneer, fish(i love all other sea food, just no fish and no, no salmon either), olives, beef(just because I’m Hindu), goat cheese(yuck, I’m sorry goats, but it’s just disgusting). Almost everything else, i would try just for trying sake. Again, i don’t know how i feel about snake and crocodile meat and all those exotic (weird) meats. That takes guts, more than anything else.

When it comes to stuff i love, i love cheese. In Mexico (this is what another roommate told me) they did a study where they asked if people would give up a certain kind of sex or cheese. Guess what 90% of the people said? Well, they love cheese just as much as me. I love all kinds of fruits, especially berries and tangy kinds like green mango and gooseberries, and stuff you only get in India. But i love all fruits i could never discriminate among them. I like vegetables too, but I’m a little bit of a kid about them, i just eat them because they are good for you. I love tomatoes and i eat them raw sometimes, same for onion (in salads of course), garlic (in absolutely anything), peppers, carrots and some others. The rest just because you have to eat them to be healthy.

I owe some of this love to my mom too; she is always very experimental about what she cooks, so i always got to taste new kinds of things. And yes, she is the best cook there is. Among my favorite cuisines, i would put Lebanese and Mediterranean food up there. This goes without saying that 1st place goes to Indian food (and equal parts to south Indian, north India and everything every part of India is famous for) and i do include indo-Chinese food in this, as it’s very very different from real Chinese food, very very different. Others include, Portuguese, Mexican and Italian.

There is so much out there to try, I’m worried, what if I’m not able to try all of it over the course of this lifetime. If that does not happen, my bucket list will never be empty. The joy of eating is incomparable, it just never disappoints you. It can taste bad, but it's not the fault of the food, it's your fault for not doing it justice. i friend of mine asks me, why i keep eating all time and my response to that is, if i die the next moment or soon at least i know i was full and well fed before dying and that i wasn’t craving something before passing into nothingness.