#you cant just boil chicken a veggies and call it day

[storiesundercandlelight]

Loving Loki - Four

Two weeks. Two uneventful weeks had passed since David and I had our day out. The day where we had also said that we would start dating each other, yet here I am sat on may couch on a Saturday morning wondering why fate and timing had been so cruel to me. 

I was being selfish, I knew this yet I couldn’t help myself. So many thoughts were running through my head right now. The case was over. Detective Loki was on the news. Missing girls both found and alive. Even the father of the last girl to be found had been located after his mysterious disappearance. I wanted to be happy, I was, almost. David had been gone so much recently, the last two weeks were manic for him, not just because he solved the case but also because people seemed to blow up about this story, about the detective who had single handedly solved this brutally horrible case of the abduction of two girls.

My phone vibrated against the wood of the coffee table beside me, my eyes pulling away from the dull noise of the TV. It was David.

I know you’re mad, I’m sorry I haven’t had any time to see you. Can I come over later?

It was hard to be mad, I just couldn’t justify it. How could I be mad at someone who so patiently and passionately wanted to do his best to find the missing girl, who had risked his well being to bring her home? You just cant be mad at someone like that. But I cant deny this strange feeling inside. It had been almost three months since I moved here and the lonely feeling never fully went away. I almost cried when my friend Kate told me she was coming to visit me, I swear I couldn’t wait the three days it was going to take before she’s due to visit. 

I’m not mad David, how could I be? Of course you can come over x 

These little texts back and forth had been a constant part of my daily routine for the last two weeks. It was the only thing that fully reminded me that I was even in this relationship. This very new, very non-existent relationship. 

Ok, I’ll be there around 5:30pm? We could order some food and watch a movie?

I had to admit he knew how to do it. Somehow he knew after so little time that I preferred to stay home and snuggle up rather than dressing up and going out. Well…except from when Kate gets here then going out is a must, the girl seems to function best under florescent lights and above crowded dance floors. 

My eyes drifted to my laptop, still sat on the coffee table “Draft One” the only thing written on the screen. I tried, so so many times to get words out. God I wanted to write something. To pour my emotions out and create something that others would be still glued to at 1:00am in the morning because they simply can’t put it down without knowing the ending. I don’t know what it was but the sudden urge to leave the house was so heavy on my shoulders that I didn’t hesitate with my next text.

Skip takeout, I need milk, I’ll grab something to make for dinner x

I was pretty comfortable cooking for myself, it had been a while since I’d cooked for anyone else but the idea of trying something new with David was so exciting.

Sure sounds great x

I allowed myself a few seconds to smile at the fact that he put an x at the end of the text, its such a petty thing to notice but I did anyway. Then I jumped up, grabbed my coat, keys and bag and headed out. 

The little car I’d got myself was useful enough, it wasn’t fancy or particularly expensive but it worked for me and didn’t look like a crumpled up tin can so I think I did okay. The parking lot to the local supermarket was pretty full, I didn’t expect anything less for a Saturday. But I did take notice more than once of the kids cheerfully throwing their parents groceries to each other other the carts. One wrong move and that melon is going everywhere. 

I settled for teriyaki chicken, some rice and a few greens. I’d cooked it more than once and didn’t feel like a complete fool when it came to cooking it for someone else. As I walked down the isles grabbing what I need plus extra groceries for the week my phone started ringing. David?

“Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah I got a five minute break so I figured I’d call, whats that noise?”

“That would be two kids trying to decide which one of them can throw the vegetables in they mothers cart the furthest, I think they’re going for a world record”

“You’re joking right?”

“Nope, you cant make this stuff up, the floor attendant looks like he’s about to blow a fuse” I pushed myself up onto my tip toes to reach a bag of chips from the top shelf. 

“If it’s the Harris kid they’ll be strung up from the ceiling by the time you leave”

“You know too many people”

“It’s a small town, so what are you cooking tonight?”

“I cant tell you”

“Why not?”

“Because if I do then you’ll have too much time between now and when you’re due over to realise you hate what I’m cooking and make an excuse not to come” I finally reached the till where a teenager was chewing gum and scanning my items at a snails pace. 

“I promise I wont hate whatever you make”

“I’m gonna hold you to that when you taste it and realise that I’m an awful cook”

“Well you said awful first so maybe-“ I heard David reply to someone in the background, the till beeping and the struggle of holding the phone between my head and shoulder while packing preventing me from hearing fully what was said. “I gotta go, I’ll see you later?”

“Oh yeah, sure. See you later” The line went dead just as I’d finished paying. I grabbed my bags and said thanks to the girl who’s eyes were directly chained on the guy working the other till, she popped her gum and nodded at me without even taking her eyes off him. 

The rest of the day went by pretty uneventfully, I showered, cleaned the house quickly and ended up in the kitchen. Okay, if I start the dinner prep now I can leave the chicken to marinade in the fridge and then just pull it out to cook when Davids here. I was feeling a lot more optimistic about David coming over. Maybe this would finally be the start of our relationship, no more texting and “Im sorry I couldn’t make it” calls. 

I started to cut the chicken on a matt into small pieces, the rice boiling happily on the cooker beside me before hearing a knock at the door. David looked tired, but not as tired as he had been during the case, this tired was a normal kind of tired, not the kind that made him look like he was about to drop any second. As David took off his jacket I returned back to cooking, I could hear his footsteps approaching me and within a few seconds he was behind me, leaning close to me to look over my shoulder at the food. The chicken was now cooking in a pan, mixed with the veggies and sauce. 

“I wont lie I could probably eat both of our portions right now” I felt a shiver run down my spine when David spoke, he was close enough that I felt his breath against the back of my ear. His hands were resting gently on my hips. I loved how easy it was to be around David despite the not so normal start we’d had. The over the phone, mostly at work and occasionally in between all of the above schedule we had seemed at first like it would never have worked but I could honestly say I was glad we’d stuck it out. The warmth of him behind me as I cooked our meal felt so right I couldn’t find anything to complain about. 

“Why don’t you set the table? It’ll be ready soon” I turned my head to meet Davids gaze a soft smile tugging at the sides of my lips.

“Sure” Just as David turned to go about the job I’d set I quickly grabbed his arm. He stopped to look at me a questioning look falling over his features. I didn’t leave him waiting long before I reached up and planted a kiss on his cheek, teasingly close to his lips. As I pulled away I swore I could see the surprise on Davids face before he smiled and went to set the table. Yes I could get used to this feeling.

The food smelt and looked thankfully as good as it tasted, I poured two glasses of water while David was already happily digging into his food. 

“Do they forget to feed you?” 

“You have no idea” He spoke quickly before going back to his food.  I smiled looking at David, ti had been so long since I’d had the opportunity to just look at him. At the department he was so rushed recently and working out regularly left very little time to fully appreciate the seemingly perfect angles of his jaw or his blue eyes that turned a stormy grey when the lighting was right.

“You’re staring”

“Huh?” I quickly meet Davids gaze, realising that he’d stopped eating and was looking at me with a small smirk. “Sorry, it’s just…I kinda missed looking at you, I haven’t really had the opportunity” I felt heat rise to my cheeks and quickly looked down at my plate.

“I know, I feel the same. I was surprised you didn’t notice me staring the other day”

“You were?”

“Yeah, you were at your desk and had this pencil hanging out of your mouth and you looked like your computer had just asked you to single handedly solve its coding, you were just so in your own world, you didn’t even notice anyone else around you, you looked pretty” David held my gaze but I could see the slight embarrassment at his confession etching over his features, he put his fork down and sighed. “I know this hasn’t been great, this whole relationship thing between us. I wanted it to be better than this but I just couldn’t think of anything but the case, I don’t normally get so involved but those girls…they need someone like me to spend too much time looking for leads and not enough time on his new girlfriend, who was well within her rights to leave me, I wouldn’t have blamed you”

“I wouldn’t have left you David. I know how hard this had been, I saw the paperwork. I don’t blame you for not paying attention to me, I couldn’t, I like you for who you are and if that includes your dedication to your work then so be it” a smile spread across Davids face and I let one spread across mine too and for a moment we did just look like two fools in love.  

[colonelsambrosia]

Sensitive Taste-buds & Olfactory Nostrils

By Col George Daniel @colonelsambrosia

I grew up in a very orthodox Syrian Christian family from Kerala. You folks may be wondering what kind of community this is? Well, the oldest in fact. Verily, as old as the year of our Lord to be precise. This community migrated to Kerala 2k years ago from Semitic origins (Israel) and the founder is someone called Canai Thoma (yes, he is googlable!). This community has a legacy of culinary expertise which is derived, inspired, adapted and adopted down twenty centuries of history in their Kushhini (Kitchen in Syrian).

Why did I happen to mention it? I attribute my ultra keen sense of taste and the sniff of a bloodhound to my Mother, an ardent exponent of Syrian Christian Cuisine, subtle, less-explored, mildly proliferated (sometimes copied), inspired through tradition, mixing of cultures and ostensibly some streaks of fusion. Right from my childhood days, she taught me how to whiff different spices- she had a huge collection of those and she knew how to develop a palate that can trigger an alarm if there is even a microscopic-cooking-error or a distaste. She had zero tolerance towards culinary goof-ups and would cry sacrilege at the minutest aberration by a rookie maid or an unsuspecting cooking-help in the Kushhini.

Consider the ecstatic Syrian Christian Lamb Stew illustrated in the picture- this healthy stew, full of veggies and chunks of Lamb (in India generally people don’t know the differences between Lamb, Hogget, Mutton and Goat meat- so the common word for meat of sheep and goat is Mutton) and a host of spices is slow cooked over simmer in coconut milk which may curdle at the slightest hint of heat. This dish, due to its painstakingly arrogant mode of preparation and rich taste enjoys iconic status in southern India. Strikingly similar is the Fish Moilee, a seafood dish inspired and adapted from the Portugese influence in Kerala and the Chicken/ Fish Mappas-another stew with clear Nasrani origins. Any quirk in the construction of these dishes, is treated as desecration-on-person by Ammachis( Grandma) in the Nasrani diaspora.

For instance, I was having coffee the other day with my taste-neutral wife ( poor thing wont even come to know if someone dropped a rotten tomato in her soup) and I opined that the there is a slight smoky flavour in the coffee- default or design? She swore on her Pop’s grave that it just cant be. The domestic help, a nice, well mannered girl (perhaps the last of this vanishing tribe), also swore on her Mother’s grave that it can’t be possible since she personally oversaw the whole ordeal. We investigated and Viola! – the vessel in which the milk was boiled had a very negligible singe resulting in a very faint smoky flavour detectible only by the sole olfactory nostrils present in a mile’s radius! My younger Brother also suffers from the same syndrome but fortunately he lives in a different continent.

This is just one of the thousands of anecdotes I can relate to my roaming the earth for 40 years. I believe it is a gift, a forte or a maternal endowment for which I am grateful for. Over the past years I have tasted and sniffed tens of thousands of dishes and given my opinion. Just by commenting that a dish is full of flavours and consistency and blah is not enough (that is just masterchef- level eyewash for you) – you need to know the pathology of the dish; What is right? What is wrong? Which ingredients are playing truant? Which condiments are running amok? I relate myself to a forensic expert cum detective on the quest for real, authentic, gastronomic delights- food has no borders, no divides; all it needs is to be healthy, nutritious and tasty, period.

The blog:- https://colonelsambrosia.wordpress.com/blog/