Friday, January 11, 2013

2 downs, 1 up, one middling

It's all about food, of course.

The downs are as follows: 1. matta rice flakes are not a cold breakfast cereal, despite being listed in the cold breakfast cereal section at Big Basket. Furthermore, they do not taste good, even when you mix them with sweet things. 2. The coconut oil I bought tastes like ass. Smokey ass. Not rancid, just totally, utterly disgusting. It made the matta rice flakes look like yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Not that I make short work of a yellow cake with chocolate frosting or anything. Nope.

Anyway, the matta rice flakes are only a mild disappointment, but I'm bummed about the coconut oil. I use coconut oil as a moisturizer for my face and body, and was hoping I could keep doing so here, but unless I can find a much better coconut oil that's not happening. And honestly, the moisturizer choices, while abundant, leave something to be desired, because so many of the offerings are skin whiteners. I knew before coming here that skin whiteners were popular, but I still wasn't prepared for how popular. Kwality Big Bazaar, though quite small in size, stocks a wide selection of them. Big Basket lists approximately 150 lotions and moisturizers on their site, and 75 of those are whitening products. I know that still leaves me 75 to choose from, but most (all?) of them have ingredients I choose to avoid. So compromise it will be! But no lightening lotions. I'd scare people.

The middling (because I'm going from bad to good here, despite the order in the title) was the pre-made paneer butter masala I bought the other day. I decided the kids and I would try it out for lunch today, because it was marked as "mild", and therefore, I hoped, suitable for Liel.

Well, sort of.

First of all, it was not mild in the way Americans would define that word. But I'm in India, so of course that makes sense! But I've bought "hot" salsas at home that couldn't even come close to this stuff in terms of spice. Just sayin'.

So I put some rice in a bowl for the girl, and added a little bit of sauce. I'd say it was about a 4:1 rice: sauce ratio. Too spicy. So I brought her some plain yogurt to cool it off, and she put in about twice as much yogurt as there was masala sauce. But then she could eat it, at least! I think the channa masala I bought, and which is labeled as being "medium" spicy, will have to be eaten on a day when I have something else cooked for Liel, cause there's no way that's happening.

And the good? Well, I'm making ropa vieja! In my rice cooker! With water buffalo!

OK that last one might not really call for an exclamation mark. But it smells super yummy, so keep your fingers crossed that it will be, because not good water buffalo ropa vieja would make me a sad panda indeed.

2 comments:

catmum said...

too bad about the rice flakes, bummer! That was one ingredient that Sangita used several times in our classes, and it was delicious...I did find some recipes online for it. I do remember we only soaked it in water or sauce to hydrate it and keep its texture intact. Generally served as a savory dish, but sometimes sweet. Here's one link:
http://thefootloosechef.blogspot.com/2009/03/aval-dosai-rice-flakes-dosa.html

FxMedChiro said...

Is your blog being translated to Hindi? I'm thinking there could be some great laughs.