C - Capsicum

Now I shall proceed to explain why C stands for such a weird thing in my book.

So it seems to me that I spend my entire life questioning myself, I often wonder if I am shallow.

Okay, so capsicum never has been a vegetable that was an active ingredient in anything at home during my formative years. But my first year in Bangalore, I met a crazy roommate (do you remember the one who head bangs?) who was/is a very VERY good cook. So much so that she and I planned to start a catering business to make some money on the side. The definition of mouth-watering Punjabi khana has a small picture of her standing with her hands on her hips next to it.

She used to make these amazing parathas of all sorts. My favorite became the ajwainwala paratha. And to go with it, she used to make a lot of curries, typically Punjabi, but what really had me on my knees was the alu ki sabzi. Big fat chunks of alu mixed up with fresh green capsicum and stirfried lightly in ghee with that typically North Indian masala - crunchy and melt in the mouth at the same time. In those moments when she was serving me that sabzi, she could asked me for my life aur main de bhi deti.

And guess what, it wasn't the alu that was the attraction, it was the capsicum. Needless to say, I was hooked to the vegetable.

And these days where I have to jhaelofy my own expertise in the culinary department which extends only to the occasional hit-or-miss pulao or the pray-that-it's-not-burnt suji ka halwa on special occasions when it comes to Indian cuisine, I often find myself missing her, despite the fact that we hate each other's guts and the last time we saw each other, we had to be pulled off of each other lest one kills the other. I actually miss her. And the capsicum. More the capsicum actually. Most, rather.

Now you see why I wonder if I'm delusional or just plain shallow. Sigh.