imag-e-in: TASTE BUDS

When Shri suggested to Megna, my second daughter that we go to Kareem’s for dinner, I had little idea of the food that will be served that night. A ride in the Delhi Metro that we enjoyed took us to Chandini Chowk. “Karim’s” - Shri mentioned to the cycle rickshaw puller and I was a bit reluctant initially to climb on a pedestal that I did some years ago in Visakhapatnam. But this was a superb ride, enhancing my thoughts with the cool winter breeze waving past our faces. We passed through the narrow lanes rather roads that enriched life with business of printers along with the road side stalls engaged on making food that was aromatic. The queue of cycle rickshaws moved at ease like the Range Rovers move about as we climb up the hills to see the sun-rise in Kanjanjunga with horns and whistles that nestled a lovely scenario and backdrop. The small shops around sold silver and other spices and people crowded to buy and sell as well to eat. Wow, that drive in the cycle rickshaw is different from the one you can experience in Kolkota streets. In a jiffy we alighted at the dhaba, named Karim’s and the restaurant was conspicuous by its presence a bit inward from the gully we got alighted – “This is the place!” – Shri said. As I read the menu and the details on that, I was fascinated. Haji Zahiruddin comes from a family whose bloodline extends back to the chefs who conjured elaborate feasts in the courts of Mughal emperors. Generations of chefs honed their culinary wizardry in the nearby Red Fort until the last Mughal Ruler was toppled by the last British ruler in 1857. Returning to Delhi in 1911 after his family spent decades in exile, Haji Karimuddin, the grandfather of the present owner , setup shop in the same alleyway where his descendants now prepare their family recipes, each one a closely guarded secret. Secrets are worth keeping as they preserve the original tastes! Times of India wrote once –“Karim has stuck to the typical Mughlai menu....the mughlai dishes have resisted the onslaught of offbeat culinary skills. We ordered some dishes and as the aroma spread, the presentation attracted our taste buds even before we ventured to put our hands on the dishes. Let’s have one more portion of this and an “OK” came instant to support the need to fulfill our taste buds. Once we finished and paid the bill we knew “even paupers can eat like kings”. I have tasted mutton raan in a Karachi restaurant and rack of lamb and Firni in an Afghan restaurant in Jeddah – juicy and tasty are the minimum I can narrate. They belong to the Mughlai cuisine. As we returned and boarded the Metro back home to Dwaraka, I commenced and indulged in the thought of culinary skills and the surrounding scenarios that came up in mind. As my elder daughter Divya wanted to do her graduation, she chose to do it in Hospitality Management and I was not so thrilled initially. But then options and perspectives evolve on time and you grow in any chosen field doing your best to exceed excellence. Shri is a product of Dadar Catering College and had tested his skills in cooking. My mom and grand mom were experts and now wonder someone took the brand name –“Grand Mother’s” and extended to ready to eat packaged meals! That’s like the ready-to-eat gourmet cuisine “Kitchens of India” of ITC which my son-in-law markets. My wife’s cousin married a Chinese named Anu and their son Anoop Phalghun a Chef of International Acclaim and now work with Hilton, Melbourne. Recently Sandeep, from Mahe tested his recipe to win the first prize, at the Australia Cooking Standoff, in Mumbai. My own cooking skills come from within, with whatever is in store and fridge and given shape by creative skills as my mood exists each time – I call it “food in mood”! Creativity is an art and comes from within and with a desire to excel, one tend to supplement like in Karim’s or at any other restaurant. TV anchors takes you round the world to show case the different features and tastes that are cooked around the world. Indian-origin Chef Vikas Khanna, cooked for Barack Obama at a fund-raiser event, and is quoted "President Obama actually is a very big foodie. The President loves spicy food and I'm sure he enjoyed our creations, inspired by Himalayas." Taste buds are special structures that help detect tastes. We all have about 10,000 taste buds, mainly on the tongue with a few at the back of the throat and on the palate. They're replaced every two weeks or so. Taste buds surround pores within the protuberances on the tongue's surface and elsewhere. A taste bud is a taste receptor. There are four types of taste receptors, sweet, sour, salty and bitter. These receptors are on various locations of the tongue. As I age there are restrictions that add the four tastes and I slowly reduce my eating habits. An older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds and for some of us -the two white poisons, as someone called it Sugar and Salt in abnormal quantities can harm us. Where the taste buds reside is our tongue and that’s a tough worker. It is made up of groups of muscles and like the heart it is always working. It helps in the mixing process of foods. It binds and contorts itself to form letters. The tongue contains lingual tonsils that filter out germs. Even when a person sleeps, the tongue is constantly pushing saliva down the throat. Many consider the tongue to be the strongest muscle, at times talking tough and covered that only can SHUT by lips - that do the second best job after a KISS. Imagine the culinary journey of a morsel of food from cultivation, packaging, cooking and eating; it all ends as the chain of food traverse through the tongue for a flicker of seconds and we tend to live for those sumptuous moments of truth.