American cuisine to me was Meatloaf, veggies, mashed potatoes, and salad. Then I encountered the Thanksgiving turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and the other works.
How in the middle of all this bland and thyme the chili came to be, has intrigued me enough to go look up Wikipedia. Guess what – the Mexicans brought it to Texas and today every American family boasts of its own chili recipe. I knew turkey and gravy eaters with a penchant for sweet saurces (cranberry, apple, even barbecue) could not have invented this phantasmagoria of flavor and texture.

Today – wars are apparently fought over ingredients, and each family boasts its own traditional recipe.

I have yet to understand why they haven’t understood what flavor means around here and tried to infuse their other recipes with it. Today I nearly died from the offense that was the thyme turkey stuffing. Thyme? Really? Thyme?

On my new protein-only diet for 6 days in a week, I find myself spooning down chili every so often – esp when they make the chicken version, although the beef version is to die for (depending on who made it). Sprinkle some shaved cheese flakes on this thing as you get it to go with some green onions, and by the time you get to your desk the cheese has melted into some chili nirvana and slurp. It’s unstoppably awesome. Hot – check, spicy – check, chewy – check, satisfying – double check.

For the desis, this is more like kheema curry, with beans thrown in and bigger cut veggies (onions for instance). For the veggies, you do actually have a soy mince option available for chili consumption – which so far has been rare to locate in restaurants, but I found one in Trader Joe’s. I also find that off the beaten track restaurants in one-lane towns have chili that is extremely over salty – don’t know why. But all in all, it’s the one food they love serving hot, and a must try on your next visit.

Also, it’s chilli without the second L.

Chili

So this is what they meant in all those romance novels where the heroine said I’ll make a chili and not something with a lot of chillies.This is a bit confusing to the FOB desi as he arrives on the shores of the hallowed west. Surely chillies must mean (see below):

red and green chillies

Because we – back in India – use chillies to indicate all kinds of products that will blow your tongue to heaven come with hotness: red peppers, green peppers, serranos, black pepper even, for us it all the same – chilli or even chilly sometimes.

When I first visited the US in 2006, I was befuddled with the complacence with which people consumed sandwiches. It was the thing to do -everyday – and I was expected to do it.Worker’s lunches, shopping brunches, drive to the mall, or quick snack at home.

Now I came from a land of Jai Sandwich’s Masala Toast with extra spicy green chutney – so when I was served a Ciabatta with one leaf of lettuce, a slice of tomato, a lot of over salty deli style turkey (which I didn’t know was called that back then, it was turkey salami to me), a slice of cheese with sachets of mustard and ketchup – I was offended by the raspy dryness it left behind in my throat. Out went my appreciation for bread of all kinds. This wasn’t a sandwich. Surely. You know. Because it was a carpet with some salad fallen on it.

Then came the salads. Matlab chaat khaane ke baad koi salad kha sakta hai kya? I was inflamed that my taste buds were not inflamed by all the unflavored or mildly flavored salads I ran into.

The problem with both these foods – and for me this is an especially sore point – is that they are both cold foods unless u request them hot. I need my food to be hot. Else it’s not food. It’s something I put in my stomach to fill time gaps. I didn’t get how non-hot was food at all. Not to mention all the gas headaches I’d get because well non-hot food does that to me.

It’s been over 4 years since that day now. And I am amazed how my world has turned. I crave sandwiches. Bland, over salty, dry sandwiches with a Diet Sierra Mist. Yes I even have a beverage of choice now. Today for example I ate a sandwich that was a petite Ciabatta bread (think dry and extra chewy), with one leaf of lettuce, one slice of tomato, one slice of grilled eggplant/brinjal, one slice of grilled zucchini, some sun dried tomato paste  and garlic artichoke aioli. I still ask for the sandwich to be toasted. Even if it’s just lightly so. Then I asked for a cold pasta salad. And I washed it down with my fav drink. And I didn’t have a gas headache.

Live with something long enough, give it a fair chance, and you can come to terms with anything.

… to be continued

Indianese:
Namaste. Today we’ll talk about cleansing your chakras. You cannot directly cleanse them with Bhujangasana although it must contribute to your digestion. We know where it came from right? Why? Because it’s good for you.

I told my American roomie once that it wasn’t shack-russ, it’s chuck-raaz. She said it sounds better when you say shack-russ. It invokes a feeling of peace just to hear it said. Hmm. Interesting point. Chakra is sort of crude syllabic isn’t it?

Point to be know-ded mee-laard.