The Foods I Loved, Lost, and Still Crave

Since the past few days I have been thinking about Knorr Soupy Noodles, remember that? Maybe I was just craving soup. But I guess that was one of their best food items, which is now discontinued. I remember that I couldn't get the water-to-powder ratio right. It ended up being too soupy sometimes and sometimes it ended up being like wet Maggi. But it was good.

My food palette hasn't changed much in the past 28 years. I still like Maggi. The smell of Maggi cooking is very easy to recognize. It is my comfort food. Anytime I'm ill, I eat Maggi. Maybe my taste buds have gotten so used to it that it feels like comfort, it feels like home. I also like a cheese slice with bread, something I eat when I'm ill or just bored.

Maybe that is why comfort food never really changes. Life changes, routines change, but certain foods remain the same. Maybe that is why we keep going back to them. It is not always about taste, sometimes it is just about familiarity. Knowing exactly what something will taste like can itself feel comforting. Maybe that is why even after trying different things, I still end up going back to the same simple foods. But this isn't just about Maggi and cheese.

I love eating Rajma Chawal, Chhole on bread, Sindhi Kadhi with rice, Paneer Bhurji, Dal Makhni, and Pav Bhaji. All these foods are cooked by my mom. Actually, I love all pulses. I think it is the way my mom cooks. It has a hint of Punjabi essence. It is not too spicy, but also not so mild that I don't feel anything.

My food palette hasn't changed a lot because I think I never really pushed it to change. I haven't tried many different cuisines, mostly just the popular ones. I like idli sambar and dosa sambar. Sometimes I even like eating them for dinner. Kind of like breakfast for dinner. One thing I have realised is that I choose what I eat now. Some foods have gone from special occasions to just "Do I want to eat this?" If yes, then I just ask mom.

I think home food has also spoiled me a little. When you grow up eating food cooked a certain way, everything else gets compared to that invisible standard. It is not that restaurants are bad. It is just that home sets a baseline that is very hard to beat. Maybe that is why no matter how many things I try outside, I still end up going back to home-cooked food.

For example, I love Pav Bhaji, but I only truly love it when it is cooked by my mom. I have tried Pav Bhaji at multiple restaurants but didn't like it. Eating it sometimes felt like I was eating some kind of acid. Wait, actually I did try Pav Bhaji at a Delhi restaurant recently and it was eerily similar to how my mom makes it. Maybe it is just a region thing.

I still remember when Lays packets were full of chips instead of air. I really like the Cream and Onion (green), Blue, Orange, and Dark Green versions of Lays. When I am sick I prefer eating the salted Halke Fulke by Haldiram's. I also love hot chips, the green and red ones. I usually buy them from small local hot chips shops because they store recently cooked chips. Fresh chips are a totally different experience compared to packaged ones.

On the other hand, once I met a person who used to run a factory that made chips for these brands, and he never allowed his kid to eat packaged chips 😛. I also like karela chips.

I like bitter chocolate, but not too bitter. The 70% dark Bournville hits the right taste buds. 90% is too dark. 70% feels just right. Coming to ice creams, I enjoy chocolate, butterscotch, and pista. You can never really go wrong with these common flavours. I also like that chocolate bar which has a chocolate crust, then cream chocolate, and then hard chocolate again. So much chocolate. Although I do get bored of chocolate after eating too much of it.

I also feel I cannot eat very sweet things like I used to as a kid. Now too much sugar just feels overwhelming.

I also remember Bytes and Little Hearts. Good snacks. Those were the kind of snacks you didn't think much about back then, but now if I see them in a store it feels like running into an old classmate.

It is kind of mind boggling that food makes us feel things. Maybe that is why we don't just remember food, we remember where we were when we ate it, who we were with, and what phase of life we were in. Every food has a different feeling associated with it. Like the food you got at birthdays. Some chips, some cake, some biscuits.

I did not like lauki, toori, etc. when I was younger, but now I don't really mind them. Maybe taste changes slowly without us noticing. My mom used to always make me eat food that I didn't like, and with time I developed a taste for it. So I am okay with it now. I think this is probably common for a lot of people.

Maybe that is what food becomes as we grow up. Not just something we eat, but something that carries memories. Some foods remind us of being sick, some of birthdays, some just remind us of home. And maybe years later we won't remember random days, but we will remember what we liked to eat during those days. I think that is what makes food special. It stays with you.