Shefaly tagged me for this meme and I must say I am too late for it. She must be wondering what happened to me.
What’s your favorite table?
Dinner table at home with my family around. It has been ages since we had our dinner together.
What would you have for your last supper?
I will have chappan bhog (56-course meal) of my choice. I like small but variety of portions of food. Though even small portions of 56 varieties can never be less. 🙂 But it makes sense to eat to heart’s content at last supper. I can then die with no regrets about eating less throughout lifetime. It will have all my favorites from both north indian and south indian cuisine and also my favorite chatpata snacks. Desserts like brownie with ice cream, chocolate mousse, ice cream sundaes are must.
Sorry I am not one for sushi, chinese or Thai. I like purely vegetarian food, with out onions.
What’s your poison?
Chocolates, Bhel puri, tikki, chat. All junk food. 🙂 I always overdo so much that after a while I can’t eat it for a long while.
Name your three desert island ingredients.
Cold coffee (cold water can be a luxury there), allo kabli (a dish from bengal that has potatoes that can sustain me for long), payesh ( kheer with jagger and not sugar)
What would you put in Room 101?
Room 101 sounds scary if you have read about Winston’s fear in novel 1984. It reminds me of rats and as it happens, I am also scared of rats.
In the context of food, I would put all stale food and vegetables with too watery gravy there. I hate it when my favorite food stuff are not cooked well.
Which book gets you cooking?
I have done very less cooking. But whatever I have cooked, I ask my sister or mother. My cooking then turns out well. I have never referred a book, though I have downloaded few from Web. And I do check out ndtv.cooks.com sometimes.
What’s your dream dinner party line-up?
My friends and my husband’s friends dining together in harmony (Don’t raise your eyebrows, I don’t have a husband so far 😛 )
What was your childhood teatime treat?
Pohe, fried chidwa, shahi bread (bread dipped in sugar syrup) and moori-chanachur (puffed rice with namkeen) 🙂
What was your most memorable meal?
My birthday meal last year. I was expecting a private meal with my kid sister and my best buddy. It turned out that my buddy had invited my other friends too. All through the dinner, I was longing to spend sometime alone with my friend and my sister. I wished all my friends would leave soon after dinner, but man they lingered as much as they could, also we had to drop one of them who stayed near our house.
What was your biggest food disaster?
I was cooking paneer ki subzi at home. It all went wrong after I cooked masala with tomatoes. Reason was that the tomatoes were water-clogged after being in refrigerator for long. I borrowed tomatoes from neighbors (like typical Indian neighbors) and re-cooked the masala. Fortunately, I had not thrown in paneer in the pan yet. 🙂
What’s the worst meal you’ve ever had?
I did not eat the worse meal I was offered. It was black chana and it was stinking of rat’s shit. Don’t ask me how it got served, I wont be able to tell you.
Who’s your food hero/food villain?
My mom is my food-heroine and my dadi can be my food-villain sometimes.
Nigella or Delia?
None, as I have used neither of their services.
Vegetarians: genius or madness?
Genius-es because I am one. 🙂
Fast food or fresh food?
There is no blanket rule on this one. I like both depending upon state of my mind.
Who would you most like to cook for?
My family. I have never done that so far.
What would you cook to impress a date?
My date’s favorite. But he has to be my very own, special one to have me cooking for him on a date. Let’s see when that happens. 😛
Make a wish.
That all my wishes come true. If there is a wish fairy, I invite her to my place for dinner so that I can have privilege of having my wishes answered anytime.
Acknowledgements for pictures Bhelpuri picture has been taken from blog Archana's Kitchen. Cooking humor in Dilbert's strip is also copyrighted to Scott Adams.
Visceral Observations 
Poonam: As they say: der aayad, durust aayad, so with your meme.
Thanks for picking it up and running with it. I am going to publish all links once all are done. My friend Alice who tagged me will be surprised with the responses. 🙂
did anyone ‘consume’ that food disaster of yours??? Dont tell me you gave that to your neighbour in return for the help!!!
and ur most memorable meal sounded like one u wudnt wish to remember at all. LOL.
and where on earth would u and ur husband be when your repective friends are having dinner( in harmony of course!!!) ???
btw, i liked the references to the pictures. avoiding accusations of plagiarisms, is it??
@Shefaly: 🙂 I am glad that I did this light-hearted meme. 🙂 I was just not getting opportunity to write.
yes, I am sure response to memes are surprises.
@VImal: Nah, no one ate my disaster. 🙂 I couldn’t have given it to neighbor even if I tried. 🙂
Nahi, because of what I felt at the time, I can never forget that meal. But looking back, it wasn’t bad at all. But then hindsight is always easier.
at my place, its a dream I have, I am not sure yet if I have that kind of household.
yes, want to avoid all accusations to plagiarism. How come your comment is so satirical today, blogmate? 🙂
The Bhelpuri looks really tempting.I am ordering one for my evening snack 🙂
I hate to rain on your parade but doesn’t chocolate mousse have eggs? (The question is metaphorical because apart from tarte tatin, I can whip up only one other dessert I like and that is a choc mousse). Are eggs not ‘non-vegetarian’? 🙂 Just wondering.
@pr3rna: I just had one. Too much, isn’t t? 🙂
@Shefaly: Yes, eggs are non-vegetarian for me. Its true that I was born in a vegatarian family, but I don’t eat non-vegetarian because I don’t like them. I tried eating all sorts of cakes (with eggs), pastries, chicken grilled sandwiches, food cooked in onion. I just couldn’t get to like it. I am a vegetarian by choice. There are certain cakes and some desserts like mousse where I have kind of acquired or come to accept egg’s taste. For example, I can tolerate onion in say, sambar but not in rice. Given a choice, of course, I would prefer something I can have without onions and eggs.
Though I know a restaurant that claims to make chocolate mousse without eggs. It tastes fine, so I haven’t bothered to question. As it is I am food pariah, there are already so many things that are out of my bounds. 🙂
photos make you so hungry and thirsty. very nice explanations and at the end you are a
foodie. you don’t have a husband but want to have so that you can experiment dining with both friends and see the fund. what a bad thing your buddy did by inviting otheres so shattered all your dreams hope you will not have any such moments.
I am here and too busy with work and no posts also from you except may links I have to reply to your query on disabled I will mail you after some time have a nice week and the month of may and all months thereafter.
I guess u must be a pro by this time.. atleast in Paneer ki sabzi… If yes then proove it…
thats how normal I am 🙂
but with that question of yours, i just realised that anyone could post a comment with my identity! one has to just enter my name and my email id, right? (wait, am I scaring you or myself now?)
and you dont eat cakes???..seriously??? eggless cakes are bohohoring. I would do just about anything to eat a piece of cake.
I am a strict ‘chickenatarian’ and I rarely approach non-veg. I always prefer veg to non veg, but sometimes in get togethers I become helpless 😦
no cakes….seriously????????
I havent heard of many dishes you mentioned in your meme.
Kya khate rehte ho aap..:P
You think you are a genius because you are a veggie? lol
@praneshachar: I am a very selective and fussy kind of foodie, if I can be called a foodie. 🙂
@flacon: yes, I do make nice panner ki subzi. But my cooking can be inconsistent honestly. 🙂 I cook after long gaps. btw, how to prove it?
@Vimal: I know that’s normal you. yes, anyone can comment in your name like that. BUt why would someone? If you ever point out that it was not him, the fake commentator can be traced with their IP address that wordpress documents.
Nah, I eat very few cakes where taste and odour of eggs is not overpowering. I have never eaten likes of Merricake. But after graduation, I learnt to accept pastries once in a while. But my folks and some of my friends make awesome eggless cakes.
@lallopallo: Don’t tell me you NRI (non-required Indian :P) doesn’t know poha or chidwa or bhelpuri! I pity you! 😛
Even if I were a non-veggie, I would be a genius! Next time I am sure you will write “Hail Poonam!” 😛
Its really genius to be vegetarian. Even, with lot of vegetarian variety, there are usually less options per cuisine for a vegetarian than a non-vegetarian plus, a N-V can choose from both Veg and Non-veg options, and it becomes even harder if one doesn’t prefer to eat onions,garlic and eggs. I too turned veg. for 7-8 years before getting back to basics.
I have worked with Gujrati-s in Mumbai, who are very strict about what they eat, and there were some who even stayed away from stuff like coriander, potatoes etc.. They used to interview me while eating, whether the food contains this-that ingredients, so that they can order/serve themselves accordingly, something which was very hard for me to identify and then tell them.
I usually don’t care about what I am eating till the taste is good. 🙂
lol..I know of bhelpuri though..
Hail Poonam mam..:P
@ Poonam
Well, that’s ur part of the problem 😛
Waise the saying goes on
haath kangan ko aarsi kya Padhe likhe ko farsi kya
//My friends and my husband’s friends dining together in harmony
This instantly reminded me of the ending scenee in Dil Chahta Hai, where all the couples are sitting and eating together.
And yes, I almost got a heart attack before I read what was inside the paranthesis. 😛
And your biggest food disaster aint that bad. It worked at the end atleast. 🙂
One tiny little question… If your friends and your husbands friends are dining in harmony together than what are you and your husband doing? Surely not serving, because the harmony hotel will have service won’t they? 😛
You’re vegetarian? Thats another person struck off the list to eat with. 😛 [Unless you really love chhole! 😛 ]
@Anshul: I know what you mean. Why did you switch back to non-veg because you craved for the taste or it was hard being veggie due to non-availability?
@lallopallo: Aha! Mogambo khush hui! 😛
@falcon: you mean cook and put a pic here or is it another way to invite yourself to dinner at my place? 😛
@Amit: In fact, I do like couples outing together. 🙂 Why would you have a heartattck at my having husband? I am bound to have one some day. 😉
@Ashish: Actually me and my husband are also eating. I thought that was obvious. We would have folks to serve. 😛
Aye, we discussed this before, you not wanting to dinner with veggies but we had a truce because I too like chole.
@ Poonam: I turned vegetarian once for some months – or was it years? – in 1994. There was an abattoir strike in Delhi in the summers I remember. Meat was not available so I managed with a few Dasheri mangoes after each dinner. 😛
Re the eggless mousse, how does it fluff? I am guessing it is dealt with by whipping extra cream and sugar in. But I could be wrong. I do not bake but because I have food allergies I have to know everything about ingredients.
As for being a pariah, well, I went on a holiday with a vegetarian friend recently who is a monoglot. I was so tired just translating menus for her that either she learns something else (French, Spanish, anything) before we go on a holiday together again or she never gets to be a pain in my neck again.
In my view it is simple – if one does not wish to eat something, one should at least know how to recognise it, no? 🙂 Same goes for my allergies too.
@Poonam: None of the above, you can say I started eating to help friends who couldn’t finish their non-veg portion by themselves.
After all friend in need in friend indeed.
Also, even when I was temporarily non-vegetarian, I was stlll a hardcore egg eater. 🙂
@Poonam
Well HGow would I know i fu really cooked the Paneer ki sabzi.. I mean just how difficult it is to find A pic of good paneer ki sabzi…
As inviting me… Well you may go ahead I just might consider it… You never know!!!
best of luck! 😛 🙂
And I hate that pinku…
@Shefaly: yes, it has lots of whipping cream. That is precisely what I like about it. Thankfully, I have discovered so far no food allergies, though I must say chances are slim given that I eat so selectively. 🙂
yes, I can easily recognize what not to eat. If it’s a language barrier, I would carry my ‘no, onions, no garlics’ graphical banner. 😛
@Anshul: I can never dare to finish a friend’s palate. It is enough if I manage to finish mine.
@Falcon: You will have to wait for that invite till I have my own place. I would hate my grandma eyeing you over suspiciously.
Well, I repeat again: sign in to gravatars, pinku (mauve) will be gone. YOu just need to put yopur email ID and chosen pic there.
@Poonam : I knew that you are “not” married, so that should explain the near fatal heart attack. 😛
@Amit: Did you know before this post that I am not married? God, then I am leaving dangerous clues about my identity in my blog! Bad joke, wasn’t that? 😀 But that was a very bad, unflattering answer to my question. You deserve it 😛
Well I posted my pic on my blog..orkut… and I took pains in doing tht.. And All for this stupid pinku… I am not going to sign up for some Stupid bekaravtars.. jus to get that pinku changed…
Ooooooooooooo boy!!! someone’s on a meme spree 😉
@i hate pinku: at gravatars, you only have to fill up your email and pic. That’s it. Pinku will be gone.
@nova: yeah, as Ish said, me a meme queen 🙂
Chanced on your blog just today. Must admit you do a great job at it 🙂
And, know what you do a great job at SEO too and that’s how I landed on your blog. Search ‘Bhel Puri’ and you come 2nd on the image results on the Big G. Not sure if this is a part of your “SEO” strategy though 😉
I am one of those laziesttttt people who read countless blogs and never ever care to comment on even one. Yours would be the first one I am commenting on and there’s a reason to it 🙂 (other than the fact that your blog is one of the best I’ve stumbled on)
All these days of my life I always had the feeling that I was the only Guy/Human on this Earth who would religiously burst out “Pyaas mat dalna bhaiyya” everytime I ordered a chaat – like it was second nature. Needless to say, it kinda makes me happy to know God did create others of the ilk who wouldn’t mind carrying a ” ‘no, onions, no garlics’ graphical banner” everywhere they went. Just like you I was born a vegetarian too, and again just like you, dabbled my bit with eggs n stuff, but couldn’t ever get to like them. And once again like you ( aren’t the similarities getting one too many, but heck I am too joyous to care) wouldn’t mind onion in a few things.
I got sooo tired of my friends giving me creepy looks every time I proclaimed my “None of those Sulphur bulbs in my chaat” thing, that I’d bail myself out saying “Allergic, you see!!!”, rather than reason out at length why I couldn’t stand onions and garlic to them non-believers.
It feels sooooo good to discover that some where on this planet amidst civilization there are others who do not truly like E,G,O (than avoid by religious/allergic compulsions).
@Sri: It was good to read your long comment. I cna understand yuor plight is same as me. Yes, I cant eat onion and garlic. Hard to explain it to people. And hard to find things you like. I tell chatwallaha that Onions/garlics spoil the taste for me and I eat chat for taste. So dnt you spoil my taste.
Its ahrd for me when I go out on team lunched for some Chinese cuisine, hard to find things without onion and garlic there. I have to scrimp on food. 😦
But good to know I am not alone. If you find my blog interesting, then keep visiting. Comments are one the motivations that keep this blog going. Thanks for commenting, will look for more to come!