Travels for Taste

Tales of travel and food with a touch of spice

Father’s Day Breakfast – Asparagus Soldiers and soft boiled eggs

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As far back as I can recollect Sunday was my daddy’s fav day to cook, he is so good with food and flavours and is meticulous to the point to military precision, he always left the kitchen very clean and explained the health benefits of whatever he rustled up, which actually wasn’t necessary considering the food was so tempting always that my sister and I barely heard what he spoke while we stuffed our faces 😉

Even now in his 70’s he is still as enthusiastic in the kitchen and now loves cooking for my sisters kids,his family favourite dishes are biryani, chicken curry and a simple dessert made with china grass.

He used this massive skillet to make biryani’s and its gathering dust now somewhere at home. Baba – as, we call him makes the best soft boiled eggs ever and the most scrumptious omelettes and runny scrambled eggs with cheese.(I want a skillet real bad now!)

Baba , I wish you were in London with us, I would love to have made this simple breakfast for you, I love you daddy.Happy Father’s day, but then you do know that you are the nucleus of my life, don’t you?

You will need:

  • A tiny bunch of fresh asparagus
  • 2 thin strips of bacon/prosciutto
  • 2 eggs
  • sea salt to season

Preparation:

  • Boil the asparagus after you chop of the woody bit, check if they are done in about 7 minutes, drain hot water, wash in cold water for like a few secons and leave aside,covered.
  • While the asparagus is boiling ,boil the eggs in another pan, do not cover and cook them for about 4-5 minutes, drain the hot water and add cold water so that you can hold the egg easily and quickly ”behead” the eggs.
  • The beauty of a soft boiled egg is the runny interior which is prefect for dunking the asparagus soldiers into.
  • Pan fry the bacon till it’s crunchy, you can also use fine strips of prosciutto if you like
  • Wrap the crunchy bacon strips around the asparagus
  • I keep some sea salt aside to add some flavour , I love eggs so I prefer them without any salt sprinkled.

Baba makes the perfect ”quarter” boiled eggs which are runny and soft and he removes a bit of the shell and pours out the egg into a tiny bowl, it goes so well with Pohe (puffed rice used to make a tasty cooked breakfast with finely chopped onion,curry leaves , lime and tiny bite sized potatoes, garnished with finely chopped coriander) … I remember sitting around this tiny table in our first house in Bombay with my sister and Baba would give us these yummy eggs for breakfast on weekends.I love going back in time and reliving those happy days of simple family togetherness.

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Egg-citing egg recipes to inspire you!

Of movies and GREAT MOVIES

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Some movies have such an impact that they make you smile somewhere deep inside , they give us hope , that kind of hope that can stir up a twinkle in the eye of even the most deprived of souls …The Shawshank Redemption is one such movie.

I cannot fathom why I haven’t seen it for all these years …

It’s the kind of movie I would see with my Father , he loves watching war movies ,old westerns and the like .When he and my mother came to visit us last year we had a lovely few weeks together. He made a list of his all time favourite films all old English awesome one really …I would love to share that list will try and find the paper where he wrote it …

We would have an early dinner and then I would download the movie on my laptop using utorrent and my parents and me would crowd around my laptop and watch it only stop if I wanted a break in between I always do, movies make me hungry errr hungrier to be honest …am always hungry 😉 My mum doses off after the first 15 minutes and wakes up after a few more and asks why so and so did this and what is happening and then dose off blissfully again , though she’s one determined person I tell you , she wouldn’t quit halfway would sit through to the end with me and daddy.

Anyway, this ritual went on for about 15 days after which my Laptop crashed due to some bug and when it was done up again it was time for them to go , the weather had changed ,it was much colder than their old bones could handle so they would turn in earlier and stay home most day.

I do miss them, but I miss my dad the most when I see such movies. I almost imagined I was curled up next to him as I was seeing this movie. Will call him tomorrow and tell him about it, of course am sure he has seen it and will have some interesting movie facts to tell me, he always does.

The following lines are ingrained in my mind forever and ever – “Hope is a Good Thing,Maybe the BEST thing and Good Things NEVER Die” – Andy from The Shawshank Redemption.

It’s a movie that will stay with me for a long long time to come ,maybe some day I too shall sit down with my kids and share such moments ….hopefully 🙂

P.S: Baba’s List of Must watch movies , family favourites at ours and anytime watchs for a LIFETIME…

*Where Eagles Dare

*North By North West

*The Bridge on the River Kwai

*The Eagle has Landed

*The man who knew too much – who can forget Doris Day singing “Que Sera, Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“

*Dial M for Murder

*Psycho

* Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid

*Mackenna’s Gold

*It Happened One Night

*The 39 Steps

* Godfather 1 &2 …. Oh Marlon Brando what he did no one ever has and no one ever can these movies and books are EPIC !

* The Day of the Jackal

*Casablanca

*Rear Window…Irony was I saw this when I was in bed nursing a broken leg 😉

*Frenzy

* One Flew over the cuckoo’s nest

Chocolates n memories ummmm

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Toblerone ….It’s not JUST another chocolate

To date this awesome pyramid shaped yummie remains the single most popular chocolate that all uncles’ aunts and doting parents get for the kids on the family from a holiday abroad.

I have very very fond memories of my dad returning from work abroad with a BEEEEEGGG bag crammed with chocolates amongst other goodies.

I am a chocolate lover and have always caved in, in the ace of temptation. Before I left Mumbai to come to London early last year , the Cadbury’s new introduction SILK was my all time fav guilty treat. I kept one stashed away in the fridge even when I stayed with my in laws for a while and my father in law and me gobbled it up turn by turn of course we had to ensure the wrapper stayed crumpled in the fridge lest the watch full eye of my sweet mil was to see how fast we were downing calories into our systems!

I found new chocolate heaven in LINDT chocolates over Christmas last year though, I must say for that few minutes when you pop a LINDT into your mouth it’s like sitting under a chocolate waterfall as the tongue is enveloped in a beautifully smooth taste and every taste bud is awake and singing out aloud in pure joy, the melting chocolate transports me into food nirvana EVERY single time J

Anyway back to the TOBLERONE, I was in the supermarket  a few days back, tired after a day’s work wanted to get a nibble to satiate the rumbling in my tummy till I got home, I wandered into the chocolate aisle and there it was sitting quietly amongst the others, I for a minute thought “why something  that’s gifted to me so often” .It’s then I realised that it’s actually been a really long time since any uncles or even my dad has got me one of these .

Seems a long time away in time that I was a kid or a youngster even…

So until some doting relative or parent gets me one of these I have decided to stock up on this goody for my sweet cravings and allow each bite to take me back to some happy growing up memory.

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