3 square meals for 1 round metal

83 member squad lead, Mahesh Vs Paes home turf Olympics buried, history of mystery girl revealed and finally 1 bronze in the Indian kitty for now.

While all of us are effortlessly turning into couch potatoes and flexing our fingers between ESPN and Star Sports to catch the action live, the competing athletes’ lives are enough to give us a complex. How the hell did they get their bodies there? Rather, Kaunse chakki ka atta khata hain?

Their fitness can give you a fit of consumption fear. With a stuffed gut and my light weight, I decided to dig in a little. I didn’t need to surpass page 1 of Google search to click on Olympians calorie count. Here starts the tales of irony.

Contrasting calories

Athletes have to get 4,000 to 6,000 calories in their bodies a day. I’m feeling stuffed already and the super markets must be running out of their stuff.

Some of these diet staples include a pound of pasta with olive oil, cheese pizza, Ben & Jerry's cheesecake-brownie ice cream, Snickers candy bars, Pop-Tarts, a dozen eggs, and even beer.

Now I'm starting to understand why the International Olympic Committee still considers marijuana to be a performance-enhancing drug, even without hot dog eating as an Olympic event.

http://olympics.yardbarker.com/blog/olympics/article/olympic_athletes_diets_are_more_insane_than_you_think/11329870

Now compare this to our homegrown diet. Desi diet is enough to give everyone a power packed fight.
A boxer on a weight loss programme? A wrestler strictly vegetarian? This happens only in India!

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/07/24/what-indias-olympic-athletes-eat/

No junk food. This is one of the things Thapa says he dislikes most about being a professional boxer. Burgers, soft drinks and fried food are forbidden to him.

Yes, it’s natural to make a platter performance comparison. Again there is more to winning than watching what you eat. I personally believe that to get everything right in life you’ve to get something wrong. But then who plays referee? As we wait to weigh more medals, the junk Vs health food Olympic debate continues.

Flying thought: Wonder what the Queen had for dinner on the inaugural night?  

Assassination of procrastination

I proclaim healthy food is procrastination personified.  Hands up all those who agree!! There are too many hurdles that come along healthy way and by the end of it, you wonder if it’s worth it. Why go out of the way to think about it, step out with an unadulterated healthy shopping list and then scan through cooking books, channels and friends for help.

Instead picking up the greasy pack of chips or frozen food is so easy to indulge taste and time. It’s fast to cheat and eat and makes your feet run towards it without provocation. See, daily dose of exercise also taken care of.  My sentiments too!
Having said that, contradiction stands tall with health and diet increasingly gaining likes as a conversation and networking starter.

Recently on one fine day, my conclusion of health food got redefined over a hurried healthy lunch at Swati’s home. The table was well laid with healthy homemade desi and Middle East food and I conveniently set my eyes on the hummus dip spread on a crunchy toast. To be true to myself, I had few glaring in my face reasons to why my mouth dropped by at the toast. Firstly, it looked unfamiliar and fast to get over with. Secondly, it looked unhealthy and didn’t want to correct Swati that she had actually served me sin. I even borrowed few roasted peanuts from the Suran ki sabzi and topped it on the hummus toast to give the freshly garnished tomatoes some company.

Swati quickly corrected the look in my eyes by elaborating on its healthy, fresh and preservative free ingredients. Euphoria ends and Mumbai’s monsoon lightening strikes reality at me with the realisation that healthy food is tasty, fun to cook and doesn’t tax your efforts.  And most importantly, you don’t have to go out of your way to consume health food; it’s all there in your kitchen. All you need to do is open your mind and your eyes will look for themselves. There is enough health in your monthly grocery list, rearrange them and you are set.
Guess what, health food is fast to cook, easy to digest and tasty to your buds (Good Lord! I almost sounded like Maggi). But on similar lines, you don’t need to spend your life by the fire because it’s never over cooked…just cooked right and enough. That’s why it’s called ‘health food’.  And believe me, there are no hurdles to harm your health.

No doubt fat and calories are a must for every diet, but so is moderation of intent and ingredients. 

Try it! It won’t kill you; least a healthy appetite will grow on you. The rest is a healthy history!

Cakes can walk the talk!

This is a dated post, but I INSIST on sharing it.

Swati and I baked cupcakes for Maya’s 3rd birthday celebrations. It was Swati’s hand that was doing the culinary talking and my mouth with the ingredients to befriend them. It was Bunk the Junk’s first assignment, Swati and me cooking together for the first time, my first baking experience, my first photo shoot with Revant (Swati’s son… christened as Revanthadu, couldn’t help but give his name an Andhra assortment)  and the incredible win of Mumbai Indians (not their first). What a team treat… in more ways than one.

I took my first baby steps into the kitchen to be introduced to a squad of strangers… wheat flour as against the predictable maida, master blaster Wakefield cocoa powder, coffee powder (Café cake day), baking molds, cup liners, baking oven with a disciplined timer (love its timer tone and it religiously returned me to the kitchen in between strategic tie-ups). The list is endless like Pollard’s rain of runs on that humid day.

Inspite of Swati’s warm welcome ceremony, not every ingredient was forthcoming towards me. I was excited to be in their company and Swati was effortless with them. In fact, the ingredients were holding on to her like a child to a mother when confronted by a stranger. Kewal (Swati’s husband) further played peace maker, pacifier and the icing creator. The ready to be cracked egg misbehaved by sheepishly dropping his little shell piece in the beating bowl. My eyes caught it just before I blinked but my fingers struggled for a good 5 minutes to spot it. I had to sweet-talk and finally adopt it as my ‘babuu’ before it conceded defeat. Whew!!!

Swati was a patient spectator to this drama and like a true mentor guided and explained the baking recipe, rules and rituals. As we moved on, the rising Celsius degrees of the baking oven was equivalent to the apparatus thawing to me. The sugar was now grinding faster and finer, almost managed hairline crack with the eggs (felt like Karbonn Kamaal catch winner), and the rhythmic flow of the milk with chocolate/coffee/ground sugar mix in the beating bowl was creating an orchestrated music. In the background, the cheer girls were actually dancing to this tune.

As the night passed, the baking batter gave me the ‘apron of approval’. I was now the proud orange cap winner. Gradually, in a batch of 12, the batter found residence in the cup liners which lounged themselves in the baking molds. The heat flirted with the batter within the oven walls and created sensuous dance in our taste buds outside the walls. Without getting carried away by this tantalising tease, we let out feet do the talking. The oven fresh cupcakes were cradled for cooling and we were set for a replay till we reached a score of 40. I personally grew friendlier with every batch of 12 and so did the squad of ingredients. They started sending me Facebook friend requests and I was quick to confirm them.

It was time to retire for the night and wake up to create icing in Disneyland. When we woke up, the baked cakes rose like the bright risen sun and needed little diamonds looking up at the sky. The cakes posed a well-toned body with chiseled muscles at the right places. Here comes the sexy part. Creating icing cream in different tones and textures is the most therapeutic unison experience. I partly helped Swati by holding the cone while Kewal and she laced the cakes with creative imagination.  Pink paradise, blue bliss, purple pastels and white wishes icing shades adorned as cupcake crowns. Wow!!! It just got better and sexier with chocolate shavings sprinkled on them. The sprinkle created a twinkle in our eyes.

Just few more tail ends to achieve the taste ends. We quickly treated ourselves with few bites and pleasantly surprised ourselves. Aunty (Swati’s mother-in-law) asked us to thank God, seek his blessings and we obliged.

One last thing, create Disney touch of land. I stuck Disney character stickers on each of the pulp wood skewers. They found their due place on the cupcakes just before being served to a stadium of 40 kids.

Time to pack the cup cakes. Bunk the Junk begins. We let the cupcakes to do the talking!

Happy Birthday Maya.