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| Irish stew: Familiar ingredients but a different taste. |
How does one serve up a meal that’s familiar, yet different?
“And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.” No one can say it like the Bard, but while I love his poetry, I differ with the sentiment. Sweets grown common give us dearer delight. Of course we want the occasional Asian or Mediterranean meal but sometimes we want food that’s different yet familiar; food that’s a change from the everyday, yet not radically so. Maybe I need to explain this apparently garbled thought. Whenever Bunty visits, I ask her what I should make for dinner. Whether or not she’s joining us, she gives the matter full attention because she knows a housewife with a crew of trenchermen has to figure this out three times a day. She understands that if the family’s had two successive Indian meals they need variety, and also that I am in no mood to go sweat in the kitchen so the menu has to be something that can be directed from an armchair. So she frowns slightly and says something like: do you have qeema? Do you have mutton? That’s it, then. Shepherd’s Pie it is. Or Irish Stew then. Just make a nice fresh salad on the side. And she gets it; she knows exactly what fits the bill. Possibly because we’ve both been brought up with the same food — even though by mothers from different parts of the country. As now she and I feed our kids the same stuff. We’ve both added to our repertoires, our exposure is different from our mums’, but we both have the same concerns. More important, we have the same tastes. She knows that sushi isn’t going to hit the spot — if indeed I could make it — and alu methi with moong ki dal will make the kids run away screaming. We’re looking for a meal that’s different yet familiar.
