Thursday, June 22, 2006

Mama meme

Can I have one urula amma”... this dialogue is from Lg's blog..Now I have never seen/known Lg outside the blogosphere. But I have asked my mother a thousand times for a share of her food.. Normally well after I have eaten and she just sat down to have her meal, I would go to her and ask
"Amma, can I have one urula ?"
soon my sisters would come and ask for more urulas.. eventually Amma would make us all sit on the floor and she feeds each of us like the Ammakkili feeding babykkilis..
Ultimately, the Dinner routine in our house was, Amma taking a big salad bowl and mixing the rice with moru and payaru and meen curry, us( myself and my younger sisters) would sit on the floor and she feeds us.. This ritual went on till I got married..
My mother was never a good cook. She hated cooking. But there are certain things, she makes, that I can taste even now..in my mind..
She made the best kadumanga Achar.. To this day I haven't been able to replicate her pickle.
She would patiently peel, slice and cube raw mangoes to tiny pieces, salt them for 2 days..on the 3rd day, the scene at home would be like this
"Ente Karthave..Ara, ee manga muzhuvan vetti vizhungiyathu? njan ethra neram irrunnu nurukkiyatha, bhayangirikale..ninakkokke makkal undovumbozhe ariyathullu!!!"

She also made yummy Achappam( kuih rose).. When I got married, I stole her Achu( well I asked nicely, she didn't give, so I took!).. When she came to KL, she inspected my kitchen and the scene was like this
"Ee achu kandittu nalla parichayam!!"
"Eey.. no such thing, all achu looks alike amma!"
"Appol nee anu ente achu moshtichathu"
"Eey, njano!! no way"

Once when I came home from the medical college, Amma made pakkavada.. We finished it in one day and the scene was like this
"Oru sadanam ondakkiyal bakki vekkathilla, appol thanne vetti vizhungum, arenkilum vannal entha eduthu kodukkuka?? Ethungaleyum kondu thottu!!"

Whenever I came home for visit, she would make payaru thoran.. She doesn't cook it well.. but the thought that mattered.. She knows..I need payaru thoran every meal..still do!


In between all these.. she made cornflour cake( hardest cake i ever ate), she poured Kerosene, instead of coconut oil, in to a big chatty of mathi curry, cooked hardest idli( she was trying to save uzhunnu), that we used to throw like flying idli frisbee...
Although she wasn't a good cook, she complained every time when I cooked anything edible..
This one is too salty
too much chilly
too much onion/ginger/garlic etc
and I forever tried to make her happy. I was obsessed.. All i ever wanted for her to say that, I did well.. But that never happend.
I must say having her as a critic, made me a better cook..

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Sarah. Somehow I feel you did it cos I asked for it?

I wanted you to do this. I want you to read this whenever you feel sad and angry at your Mom.

I can almost see the momma bird feeding her little birds. You shameless girl!, you used to eat like that until you got married! Shame, Shame, Puppy shame! I can see a warm cheerful momma trying hard to make her kids happy without anyone's help !

BTW, madam, translate all that into English also please,so others who stumble across will know what it is.

Thank you Sarah for writing this.

Sumitha said...

Kerosene into fish curry Ayoh!It was absolutely nice to read your post Sarah,

Annita said...

Ooh..gosh..reminds me of my mom too..:))especially "Ithungale kondu thottu"..hehe..Where's your mother from?

And did you really mean 'Kerosene' in a curry?Ooh..gosh!!

Vineela said...

Hi IC,
wHY NO RECIPES FROM YOU,IC
Vineela

starry said...

nice post. I can picture your mother feeding all the kids.one mouth at a time.good post.

hope and love said...

UR MOM REMINDS ME OF ME..
:))

silverine said...

Just discovered this blog of yours. The food tastes so much better when Mom feeds you isnt it? Still remember coming from school and her coaxing me to have the lunch she prepared for the afternoon and I would pretend I am too tired to eat and she would feed me..mmm heaven. I got away with that for so long :p

My mom is a heavenly cook but only naadan dishes. I do the rest :)

Lovely post. Bought back so many memories.

Scoot said...

i made ghee rice and tuna casserole from your recipe blog and it came out superrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrb!!!!thanks:)

suemamma said...

I'm so glad to have seen this post. It show such a different side of your mother.

jac said...

Kollam

jac said...

not that "Kollam" with a knife.