The Monsoon Alphabet Meal

Breath of fresh air

With the post rain petrichor

Fills my sense and makes me crave

For a hot cup of coffee and some pastry freshly baked

For a hot platter of all kinds of pakodas

While I laze and spend this dark lighting evening

With a light book and my window seat

Yes, I am in the monsoon wonderland finally! The rainy haze has finally set in Mumbai (also where I am at :P) and I couldn’t have been more excited to bid the scorching heat goodbye. But with the beautiful weather, we Indians are used to savor pakodas and bhajias, get drunk with the aroma of hot coffee or masala chai, and some crazy yet awesome people like me would also enjoy ice cream! Hungry already?

Well today I am going to talk only about food – monsoon food thanks to the beautiful location I am at right now (Goa it is!) and the amount and quality of food I have been enjoying lately (You guys have no idea!).

A perfect monsoon meal has to start with hot coffee or tea, for me it is Masala Chai with a lot of ginger. Just imagine the sight of the tea brewing in a clear glass carafe against a misty window hazed by the falling rain. And if it is accompanied by a chip and dip delight of potato fries and onion pakodas made by your Mom, what else could be a perfect start to a lazy rainy evening?

Post twilight let the lights rest of sometime. Dim the bright light of the rooms and set the ambiance with beautiful blue sparkle tea light and here comes the main course. As the Goa fever is on, I have developed a lot of liking for sour, mildly acidic and spicy food. The tangy tomato rice, spread out in an Indigo Neuvodinner set, with chicken vindaloo and goan prawn curry cooked with the tinge of kokum. Goan cuisine is the result of the Portuguese influence on Indian cuisine and hence this dinner would take anyone to the colonial Goa or on a virtual trip to the spice world of two nations. While vindaloo is a picked curry which is at times enhanced by addition of raw mango, goan prawn curry is spiced out by chilies – used a lot in Portuguese food and then addition of kokum subsidizes the hot curry with mild tanginess. And all this teamed up with the picture-perfect Mediterranean salad – cherry tomatoes, red onions, sweet pepper red and yellow, Greek olives garnished with feta cheese, taunting you with the colorful appeal in a clear square glass bowl. Yes! This was my awesome meal tonight, just not decorated this attractively.

And the cherry on the meal would be a desert that would go any glutton go crazy right? What about brownie with Ice cream! Sizzling hot brownie topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup, decorated in a round dish, with the layers distinctively visible; and this with an amazing match of the FIFA WC - my personal idea of a flawless night! Did I forget to add my mom opted for blue lagoon instead of ice cream? No matter how tantalizing it looked in a tumbler that looked very similar to the Canard tumbler of Borosil, I stuck to my Ice Cream.

Well I tweaked the look of my monsoon delight a bit with some Borosil products to make you guys hungrier, because I think the food that looks better tastes the best and I really wanted to give you the taste of the food I enjoyed, with words this time (Sorry no photos). This was the Alphabet meal I served for you tonight. Let me know your idea of a perfect monsoon meal too.

P.S. - This post is written for the My Beautiful Food contest organized by Indiblogger and Borosil.