The Family Curry – Day 10 #writing101

Today’s Prompt: Tell us something about your favorite childhood meal — the one that was always a treat, that meant “celebration,” or that comforted you and has deep roots in your memory.

Today’s twist: Tell the story in your own distinct voice.

I have grown up amidst relatives, a huge bunch of them, whom we proudly claim as family. And even though we live in nucleated families, scattered in different cities of India, we still have get-togethers. Now, don’t cater to the idea that everyone is present in a get-together. Nope. Even a gathering of a couple of people passes as a get-together, for us. So, anyways, the main attraction of a get-together is, and always should be, food. Now, among other affairs, we have this formal sort-of dinner, which requires each and every person to sit down at the dinner table and well, eat (and talk, if you want to. Otherwise, just eat).

So, whenever there is this formal dinner at our house, in Lucknow, my mom cooks up a devilishly beautiful dinner which honestly keeps our mind away from the talk. Her menu has changed over the years, but the only dish that has remained constant on the menu is gatte ki sabzi. (Pronunciation similar to David ‘Guetta’)

Gatte Ki Sabzi
Source

So this gatte ki sabzi is basically gram flour dough fried, and chopped into nuggets sort of things. Then it is steeped and served in this thick, but not so spicy, gravy. This Rajasthani dish is so much more than a normal curry vegetable. The nuggets, soft as an angel’s wings, break in your mouth and combine again to form this dry, textured sensation that your mouth begs for something runny. And that feeling is delivered by the gravy, swirling in your mouth, mingling with the nuggets to take your taste buds on a beautiful journey. Ah! It is, not exactly God (because that would be the lasagna), but it is heaven. Pure heaven. And the best part is that the flavour keeps on getting better after every bite.

Now, the menu of our get-togethers is modified at almost every gathering, but the one thing that I never want to change is my mom and her hand-cooked gatte ki sabzi…

And guess what, I’m having one of those formal dinners pretty soon. So, if you want a bite of this heaven, you know where to come. 😉