October 16 — World Food Day — a day to celebrate food, its diversity, and the shared love that binds people across the world through meals. It reminds us not only of the importance of food security but also of the joy, creativity, and learning that cooking brings to our homes. Every recipe we try, every mistake we make in the kitchen, carries a story — a memory simmered in flavour.
It’s an interesting topic —
because my “disaster” was something I didn’t even realize was one until my mom
came home.
Long back, when I was in my teens,
my mother had to travel to her parental home, leaving us — my father, my
siblings, and a distant relative of my grandfather’s age — at home. I decided
to try a recipe from a book: Mixed Vegetable Sambar.
Almost all the ingredients were
available — the vegetables, tamarind, and pulses. I soaked the dal,
pressure-cooked it, chopped the vegetables, roasted the spices, ground them in
the mixer, extracted tamarind juice, and followed every step as instructed. By
lunchtime, everything was ready. We had a good meal — a typical South Indian
spread of curry, sambar, rasam, and curd.
Still, something felt slightly
different in taste — a change I couldn’t explain or identify.
When my mother returned by
dinnertime, she was delighted that I had cooked. She opened the sambar pot,
took a ladleful, admired the perfect consistency — and then paused. When I told
her that something felt off in taste, she smiled and revealed the secret:
“You’ve used moong dal instead of toor
dal!”
I stood there, dumbfounded. We had
eaten an entire meal of “wrong-dal sambar” without realizing it! But the best
part? Everyone actually enjoyed it — even our elderly guest.
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