Myriad Musings

Nothing reflects the rising cost of fresh fruits and vegetables better than greens in Chennai, especially the slightly more North Indian ones like Methi and Palak.  Methi which had never exceeded 15 Rs now sells for a shocking 30 Rs on the streets of Besantnagar, on the rare occasions you actually find it!. I normally buy vegetables and fruits from the road side hawkers - even if the cost is a 10 - 20% higher, it is a question of survival of small businesses and hopefully the produce is a little more fresh and a lot more local.  I visit big stores for exotic produce mostly, this time I found Methi in Pazhamuthir Cholai at a lovely 10Rs a bunch!  I bought 2 and we have had methi everything this week - Methi Sambhar, Methi leaves in Paniyaram and finally yesterday Methi Thepla a.k.a Methi Paratha in my house. Gau has exams this week, he spends 2 hours in school writing the paper, then comes home and mopes around the house hardly studying and grabbing every second he can ...

Mom's really happy with me right now. I finally took the humongous tiffen box she gave me on a picnic and I even cooked everything that went into it! What you see here are the remnants from the picnic, I had no time to take a picture before we left. We decided to go to Thiruvalangadu and Tiruttani on Sunday ( decided on Saturday, left on Sunday actually).  Since we couldn't bear to part from the twins until 11 pm on Sat and then drove home, I got up only at 6.30 on Sunday.  So we didnt leave until 9.30 (original plan 8 am).  Even that only because Sathish got both the kids up and ready.  I made upma kozhakattai for dad's breakfast, cheese sandwich for Gau, jam sandwich for ashu and baked potatoes to fatten gau up.  I made awesome thengai saatham with a wonderful twist, tomato rice, curd rice sans fruits, raisins and nuts since ashu prefers it plain.  I also fried all the vadam in the house. Coconut Methi Peas rice: 1/2 bunch methi, leaves only ...