Food

I was idly watching a food channel, which by the way is a bad idea if you are stressed out and are already susceptible to overeat. There was this Japanese cooking show where the chef was preparing some creature which I think belonged to a species that crawls, whose name I dont know, with the air of an actor. It was quite theatrical really - his audience went ooh and aah as he threw some part in the air, caught it right on the knife, slammed it and adroitly cut it to pieces. Art of cooking! Like the deft pizza maker throwing the pie up in the air and catching it.

Reminded me of the parotta makers. Back home, come evening, the little roadside food shops would come alive with the sound of the ladles hitting the huge iron pan. To attract customers, the chefs, as they mash the parotta, would break into a loud rhythmic clanging that could almost be deemed a percussion performance. Last I heard, it has been banned, quite rightly though, for noise pollution. Ah well, soon we would rediscover it in TV or some five star hotel would have a parotta festival and would set up a booth where we would pay a good amount of money to hear the kothu-parotta makers of the yester years.