FooD inStincT

This post is going to be on things I enjoy doing with, and around food. My recent conversation with an amazing food critic Bilal here on word press, has inspired me to write a little on food and myself, just a personal article which you might relate to as well.

3 things I love doing WITH food

1. I absolutely love baking. However, I don’t do it that often due to all the other things that I keep myself occupied with, including eating muffins and nutella off the jar. I usually bake cup cakes and muffins. I have said to myself that I must spare some more time for baking each month so that I can make some buns and pastries too. My husband loves savouries and I rarely make an effort to try a savoury recipe. I love savouries too but if it’s baking it has to be cakes for me. I’m mentally fixated there.

2. I love creating new recipes and I have been good at this from childhood. When I was in 7th grade I wrote a recipe book named “my own recipes” for an exhibition. The school still cherishes some of my written projects as best works of former pupil. I am very proud to know that. This  continued and I still mix and match ingredients and come up with new things. You can find some of my recipes here.

3. I respect food and believe that we should not waste them. In the light of Islam wasting food is haram too. Whenever I cook I always make sure nothing is really wasted. I always find ways to creatively reuse my leftovers. You won’t believe if I say those dishes that I prepare with leftovers are a big win in my home compared to even those that I make fresh! I am looking forward to sharing with you all some of my “leftovers recreated” recipes in the future InshaAllah. I also am interested in freezing food for later use without throwing them only because they are an excess and have been lying there in your kitchen shelf for some time. If I buy fresh bread or buns I plan my week accordingly and finish off all those easily expiring food first before I prepare others. You need to be organized and give it a thought. Food wastage for me is a big NO NO.

3 things I love doing FOR food

1. I would love to travel JUST for food and that too in India. Indian street food are so delicious and the variety is endless. Every province in India has its own list of special treats, savouries and sweets. I’d love to take a tour starting from south of India Tamil Nadu to Kashmir and then across Rajastan to Orissa. I know this would take months but it’s just a wish on my bucket list and who knows InshaAllah it may come true.

                                              

2. One day InshaAllah for My love of food, I would want to write a cook book of my own. I don’t know if I am an expert to do this in real but at least may be I would create a food blog. Currently I am a very busy mom so I really havent had time to blog. So, I am hoping some time in the future perhaps.

3. I love food photography. I absolutely adore those amazing pictures people take of their plate of food and post on Instagram. I am not talking about those who click on every other meal they have and post it there, but those who do it on a serious note with professional skills. I would buy myself a professional camera and learn to take beautiful pictures of my cooking and other food I love. You must follow me on Instagram. You will see how much I’ve been trying 😉

3 things I LOVE food

1. My most favorite food of all is a Cake. Any cake would pretty much please me but i love chocolate cakes, Japanese strawberry sponge and peach or mango gateaux the most. I love coffee gateaux, and salted caramel cream cakes too. As I told you pretty much any cake that has a good balance of salt and sugar (preferably not too sweet) and a great tangy fruit touch perhaps to cut through that sweetness. Most of the time I enjoy cakes with a small cup of coffee with less sugar. I need something to balance out the experience besides the fact that coffee is something that falls in to my staple food list. I just love it like I can’t stay alive without it at work, at uni, at home, after the gym, name it.

2. My next favourite is a savoury, the mighty Italian Pizza. I enjoy both home-made and restaurant pizzas, just that I got to make my mind up before judging how authentic it is and so on. At home it is sooo homey, and my mom uses many ingredients all at once, very heavy, meaty and cheezy with quite a thick crust. I usually enjoy it at Cioconut Lounge when I am in Sri Lanka and I love the pizzas from Dominos in Malaysia compared to Pizza Hut. Pappa John’s is fine too. In Qatar I use to love Pizza Hut.

3. My next favourite is steak. Who doesn’t love steak? It’s quite difficult however to find the best halal steakhouse in many countries I’ve travelled to (UK, Luxembourg and France)  but I’ve had most of my steak tasting and enjoying experiences in Malaysia and Qatar where usually beef and chicken are unquestionably Halal. I love Kenny Roger’s Rosted Chicken that comes with 3 sides, Tony Romas Rib Eye steak and at Fridays I love the Lamb tenderloin all well done. I DONT EVER eat my meat rare or medium rare so I would not be able to comment on how it tastes like. I love black pepper beef sauce and mushroom gravy on my steak all the time. For me a good steak meal should have some baked potatoes, a fresh salad and some grilled corn on the cob. Chillies is another place where steaks taste good and are decently priced and this, I am talking about is in Malaysia.  In Qatar I’ve had steak at TGI Fridays and Ramada Hotel. They were fine. In Srilanka Sizzles serves some good sizzling steak but they are just so overwhelming with too much going-on on their hot plate. It just looks like steak with a mess of noodles, peas, shredded veges and what not. I would not recommend but its okay for a try.

3 things I HATE food

1. My number one dislike when it comes to food is ice cream. I just can’t enjoy them even on a hot day. They are just not for me, but occasionally I would not mind having a tiny scoop of these two particular flavours from Baskin Robins – Pecan & Butter and Mint & Chocolate Chips. I’d happily say “no” to ice cream at any given time. My sisters and mom love me for that since they never need to share it with me.

2. I also don’t like fizzy drinks. The maximum I can have from a can of soda is a couple of small sips just perhaps to quench my thirst. I have never ever had an entire can of cola all by myself. You gotta believe it!

3. I then, hate oats. As much I wish I was blessed with a craving for oats every morning, I hate it to bits. I use to say that people who love to eat THAT Oats are just born lucky. Having oats as your breakfast helps in losing weight and I just cant get there even if I was to become fat! Oats … ewww! I’m sorry but cooked oats is just gooey and slimy and I don’t really want to share with you what that reminds me of. If you love oats just leave a comment below. Id love to hug you for that…. (bows down twice)

Have a Foodelicious Day,

HIBA