Darn it! I ran out of tomatoes this morning. I was making rasam, the tur dal was all cooked and ready in the cooker. The puli thanni was boiling with salt. The rasam powder dabba lay open, ready to go into the brownish liquid bubbling away merrily, and that's when I realized I had run out of tomatoes! The search in all compartments of the fridge, including the freezer section was of no use. I just didn't have tomatoes. So what, you may ask. But being raised in a family that was probably the origin of the adage "brahmanah bhojana priya" it was difficult for me to fathom rasam without tomatoes. The molagu jeera rasam, that doesn't require tomatoes was an option, but today was not just the molagu-jeera rasam kind of day. Besides, the thuvaram paruppu was already done, and waiting in the cooker. Should I just run to the nearest HEB, well drive actually, and get some tomatoes. But that's five miles away and there's no gas in the car! And our grocery shopping was not due for another week. I was in dilemma.
The mind reels back, and the location is the kitchen in my home in India. The situation is similar. The pulli thanni is boiling away merrily, and the tur dal is all cooked and ready. And my mom realizes there are no tomatoes. She is in a fix too, but the kind that arises when there are one too many options to choose from. She could either ask me to quickly run to the Chitrakulam market, well ride my scooty actually, and get a 1/2 kilo (not lbs) of tomatoes. And the friendly anna might even thrown in a bit of kothamalli and karuveppilai, at no extra charge. Or she could ask me to run to Nalini aunty's flat opposite ours and "borrow" a tomato. And if Nalini aunty was short of tomatoes too, I could just run downstairs to Kachu aunty's flat and she would solve both Nalini aunty's and my tomato problems!
And they call the US a land of opportunities!
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7 comments:
Ha ha... I ran into the SAME situation here the day before yesterday.. I was making bisibelabath and did'nt have tomatoes. Guess what I did? I threw in the leftover rasam from 2 days ago with the residual omatoes to solve the pulippu part and the tomato part. Talk about multiusage.
U cud've borrowed from DW :P
Inge koode no tomatoes...No sathumathu for 2 weeks now...
Enna kodumai idhu..... Oru country oda ability ya tomato vechu compare pandriye.... Andha ooru economist or politician ketta evvalo varutha paduvaan... :)
haha jaya...u bet! Did we ever imagine we would run out of things like tomatoes???
Malathi....they only have cereal in their house!
Srikanth...Tomato maari oru chinna matter kooda easy-aa kadaikaadha ooru idhu!
It happened to me this week...everything ready for rasam to be done...am all ready for tomato pickle...but then it hits me am all out tomato...no fresh...no diced...no puree...absolutely nothing...zilch...i ultimately had to settle for some plain old roti only....
Venkat :-) The sacrifices we all have to make!!
I dont know how to call it..When I landed up in your blog I was thinking about rasam :) and then when I saw that "BBP..." I was ROFTL. But somehow without even reading the description on the side, I was reminded of Austin,TX. Dont ask me how.. But then I saw your description and it struck me so hard that I felt I needed to leave a note.
Thanks for the laugh..
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