Fingers- The Best fork, spoon and knife - SINCE THE DARK AGES!

My mother would break up small morsels of food with her fingers before feeding it to me when I was very young. I trusted the love that was transmitted through her fingertips. I could eat everything that she fed me because I knew it was the right temperature and that it won’t burn my mouth; the food would have been broken to fit my mouth and mixed with the right amount of curry so that I could swallow the food and make it slide down my esophagus. I am one of those who believe that Indian food should be eaten with the fingers. Eating Indian food with our fingers improves the taste of the food greatly.

Eating with the fingers is sensual and liberating. According to traditional Indians one's taste buds can actually get awakened with the touch of one's fingertips. We are not just eating with the mouth alone, but also with the eyes, nose and fingers………. visual presentation, aroma and difference of textures are what make the difference between a good meal and a great one, right?

Our fingers are very sensitive to touch and so can help our enjoyment of food because not only are the fingertips centres of acupressure, but each fingertip relates to one element of the universe: air, water, earth, fire and ether. Another important reason is that our fingertips transmit emotions. Our fingers happen to be the most hygienic eating tools that we have.

And who said the other races don’t use their fingers. The Japanese use their fingers to eat sushi; the British eat their fish and chips with their fingers, the Americans eat their burgers and corn on the cob with their fingers and people from practically every country in the world use the fingers to eat something or another.
Well, to enjoy food, use your fingers. But keep your fingers clean, wash your hands before you eat. Keep nails short and if possible no nail varnish. Eat only food cooked with good authentic ingredients otherwise you end up with yellowed fingernails due to the use of adulterated ingredients in the cooking.

The Smell of Coffee

“Mmmm... There's absolutely nothing better than waking up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee....” said my friend. I too love the smell of coffee. I've never been able to drink it too much of it though, but I love the smell just too much! Over the years, I have tried drinking coffee from various establishments. I have bought and tried all brands of coffee powder, but some coffee just did not agree with me. Then 5 years ago, I found out how I can drink coffee, enjoy it till the last drop and still not suffer any stomach discomfort- I had to eat something and drink coffee example, have a slice of cake or a piece of cookie while having a cup of coffee! I guess it was the balancing of the acid in the coffee.

Do you know that a number of perfume counters have coffee beans for people to smell in between smelling different perfumes? Do you know why smelling coffee beans enhance our ability to smell different perfumes? A perfume is a mix of many different molecules of smell and that's why the smell of a good perfume "unfolds" over many hours, as the various molecules gradually evaporate.
Repeated exposure to a particular smell causes "adaptation". Do you remember all the bad smells in your environment you are so used to that you no longer think “this is awful” and hold your nose? Coffee beans are a pungent olfactory stimulus that is quite different from the components of most perfumes. Therefore, smelling coffee beans is a way of cleaning your "olfactory palate." This process is something like eating crackers or sipping water in between samples at a wine tasting. Olfactory adaptation is diminished by smelling coffee, so you can sample more perfumes.

The husband used to say that I should have been born a dog as I am constantly smelling and sniffing the air for smells of food. Perhaps I can smell better because I am smelling coffee forever!! I had a chance to develop some recipes with coffee for a coffee establishment. I had to smell even more coffee and I started falling in love with that smell.

After reading the book Pour Your Heart into It by Howard Schultz – the Starbucks CEO, I had a kick out of visiting Starbucks, at least twice a week and tried all kinds of gourmet coffees but I also visited the joints because I could get the free heavenly smell of coffee.

Recently, I bought the Bialetti Mokka Express from Italy. This works on a stove top – no plugs, no cords and no nonsense....just fill with water to the indicated mark, put your coffee granules into the upper basket, join the two halves together and then put in on the stove top. Hear it gurgle and you have one of the best coffee.....

Guess what, born into an Indian family, drinking Indian filtered coffee, and then Chinese thick coffee, American coffee, French style coffee for a while and now I have become the Italian coffee connoisseur!
Mmmmmmmm........a cup of coffee anyone??