The Inner Child Series - 10 Food Memories From My Childhood

1. Cold Amul butter on a sultry afternoon

In the afternoons, everyone would be asleep at home. I could never nap in the afternoons as a child and the same holds true for me as an adult. Afternoons gave me the luxury of time to explore, curiously walk around the house, day-dream. I used to love opening the fridge and carving out a thin slice of Amul butter, it would instantly melt in my mouth. Delicious and simple!

2. Vegetable sandwich from the street-side vendor

Bombay has street-side vendors that are a common sight - they make white bread (Wibs) vegetable sandwiches with boiled potatoes, cucumber, tomato, onion, beetroot, green chutney and butter. After exams a bunch of us would ask our parents for Rs.20/-, pool all that in to buy a bunch of sandwiches, a bottle of coke and 2/- per person entry to a near by park and make a picnic day out of it. To this day when I go to Bombay I can never resist this sandwich, it tastes like the childhood freedom of just having finished your exams!

3. Coconut cookies given at school during Independence & Republic Day

My school had a tradition where they'd give coconut center filled cookies on Independence and Republic Day, two per student. While my fellow classmates detested it, I used to love it. The cookies were crisp brown on top, had these layers almost like a rose, small cherry where all the layers coalesced, the center was filled with fragrant soft coconut. I would eagerly look forward to the patriotic holidays for that! My adult life has gone in pursuit of similar coconut cookies but nothing has made the cut so far. Goan Bolinhas come close but they aren't it.

4.Idly & chutney from Annual day

School had an annual day where each class would put up two acts, we took it very seriously and always wanted to one-up the other sections. I am a dancer so annual day used to the biggest highlight of the year, it was a competition to be in as many dances as one can! I loved the stage and meditative nature of performing, it was the only thing that mattered in that moment. Usually these happened in large auditoriums with a red curtain, stage lights, wooden flooring, wing entrances, audience in the dark, the whole jingbang. I was a sucker for it. Performers backstage were given two idlis, chutney and a Frooti. The chutney was almost a solid already clinging to the idly as it was packaged together, the liquid soaked in by the idly. It was delicious and felt satisfying to eat backstage between acts, touch-ups and costume changes!

5.Hot samosas from the canteen kitchen

For the longest time school did not have a canteen. I used to always carry a dabba from home. Suddenly when I was in fourth grade, during snack time they started serving a limited menu of just samosas. On certain days when my parents were pressed for time they'd give me Rs. 5/- for a samosa and it would be super exciting to get a hot, freshly fried samosa, wrapped in a newspaper and bite into the deliciously flavored potatoes. The occasional nature of the treat would make it all the more enticing. One can never go wrong with potatoes, to this date boiled potatoes with a little salt and butter are my comfort food. Little carbs can take ones mood to a long way.

6. Ice-Candies/Pepsi from the downstairs kirana store

They were called Pepsi and would cost 1/- or 2/- depending on the size of it. They came in all sorts of lovely colors and flavors - Raw mango, cola, pineapple, mango etc. Basically frozen flavored ice fingers, one would just nip a corner of the plastic and wait for the ice to melt. They were also 100% prone to giving you tonsils or a cold. Pepsi was a thing of luxury, I used to love the mango one, it used to feel like eating a cold frozen mango! Tonsils were somewhat worth it, and most of us would do this activity in black, never admitting to eating a pepsi.

7. MMs yellow lassi

My mum would take me on a shopping trip with her to Malad, I would get super tired with all the walking and sensory overload. We'd take break at MM's and have a lassi, they have a plain malai one and a kesar one. I'd get a kesar one with a little bit of milk cream on top that is absolutely delicious. On some days along with the lassi we'd get a vada pav and I'd be ready for round two of shopping. To this date, I have not been able to find a lassi as perfect as MMs - be it sweetness or the milky-ness, or was it the walking that made it so delicious?

8. Ice-Cream Golas at Mandvi

Mandvi is my native place, it is a coastal town in Gujarat. One of the specialties is an ice-cream gola - it is a glass filled with crushed ice, topped with malai ice-cream, a bunch of different syrups as per your liking and lots of nuts. There are two kinds of people on the planet - the ones who will mix all layers as soon as they get the glass or the kinds who will keep the layers independent as they dip the spoon into the glass, each mouthful with different textures and temperatures. Slowly the ice-cream and ice melt, and by the end they become into a cold drink. My summer vacations would be incomplete with ice-cream golas, all of us cousins would look at each other conspiratorially after dinner to make our ask. We'd promise to have warm water after to not screw up our throats.

9. Sabudana vada with green chutney made by neighbour

My neighbors in Bombay had a tradition where they'd make me sabudana vada for my birthday. They make the best sabudana vada and green chutney, not sure of the trick, replication has been attempted but was unsuccessful. I do think that sabudana/tapioca has an extremely interesting texture. As a child it was pure joy to bite into hot crispy sabudana vada, soft at the center with surprise of peanuts bits, one had to break them in half, watch the steam evaporate before greedily digging into one.

10. Puran-poli with ghee

Puran-poli is again associated with birthdays in the family. Staple was puran-poli with aloo & tomato subzi. The puran-poli would be cut up into four slices, like a pizza, ample ghee would be drizzled, it'd roll off the hot surface to the plate and one can wipe the plate with pieces of puran-poli. The mild sweetness of it would be complimented by the tanginess of the subzi, post two of these one would be full but not satiated. This post would be remiss if it does not touch up on my love for ghee as a child, ghee made everything better - chapati, rice, khakra, even now as an adult wherever I travel I carry a small bottle of ghee, a dollop goes a long way.