COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE...
What is it about the hunt for the best pieces of meat from the meat and potatoes [and the other hidey-holey vegetables the cook puts in to throw you off] dish?
You stand over that table, at the top of what could be best described as a loose queue.. or a serpent caught mid-writhe.. You are in the middle of a conversation with Mrs.‘Hakoba-lace-petticoat-peeping-from-accordion-back-split-skirt’. You are discussing, how, while you agree that writing screenplays for the hindi film industry, does not quite constitute writing as such, it must figure somewhere as it IS a series of words strung loosely together with some effort at conjugation and punctuation. She looks at you in shock at your stupidity in even attempting an argument with her [and I must admit that almost anything she says makes you want to say 'but aunty..']. I look at the meat dish in front of me like manna from the gods.. playing its dutiful role as a conversation steerer. "Ooh!. Beef chilly fry! Its my favourite", I say enthusiastically, knowing full well that the cook is her sister, Mrs. ‘Slightly-opened-lace-curtains’. She predictably stops trashing my literary non-skills and attempts to see if I will attach suitable action to my declarations of love. Will I do justice.. or is it merely another bandying about of the word 'love'?
Now, here we have a real problem.. If this was my mothers beef chilly fry, it would matter not a whit, how long and assiduously I labored over getting the choicest pieces on my plate.. but this is a landmine.. The challenge is to serve myself enough to justify my excitement, while at the same time surreptitiously avoiding all the waste-of-space pitfalls of potatoes, carrots, big green chillies [tcha!..not spicy, baba!] and potatoes… all inserted into the recipe to create bulk and disguise the fact that only a half kilo of beef has actually been used.
She stands breathing cuticura and eau de cologne at me as she peers at my plate. I can almost see her counting the pieces of beef I have taken. But I’m onto her and am actually quite a pro [ask my long-suffering sister, Christine..].. I can pick out the best pieces and cleverly hide a few under concave capsicum squares, the entire operation conducted at lightening speed, which belies the fact that I have won all the best pieces!.. How do I know I’ve won?.. As I walk off, I can almost see the next person now being forced to bend from the waist and peer into the dish to find a piece of meat.. any piece of meat.. any size.. something.. anything... to make the other little piece of meat on their plate get less lonely.
HAHAHAHHAHAHA. Sumptuous!
ReplyDeleteHahaha!!! True True True!!
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