Childhood memories are often attached to food in such a way that once you smell or taste that, you are instantly transported back to your kiddy days.
For me, something that takes me back to my childhood is bread toast with butter. Yes, you read that right. Lightly browned crispy bread toast with melted butter takes me back to my carefree days of yore.
What's so special in bread toast with butter, you might ask. Well, it's not just any bread toast, but the perfectly done toasted bread, with just the right amount of crispiness and moistness that, once you take a bite, transports you to food heaven.
My Ma did it just right, the toasting I mean, on a heated gridle or tawa. No toaster (electrical or otherwise) business, mind you. The toaster never does it right, almost always drying up the bread's moisture and making it tasteless. Ma always did the toasting on a tawa, or chatu as we call it in Bengali.
After the tawa was heated up just right (not too much or bread would get burnt), she placed the bread slices on it and put the gas on sim. The bread would get slowly toasted brown, then flipped on the opposite side. After both sides were browned perfectly, butter would be applied and would melt slowly, emitting a divine yummy aroma.
We children would devour the toasts as soon as Ma buttered them, not even waiting for them to be served on the plate. We siblings would finish one loaf between the three of us :)
I have tried to emulate Ma's style of toasting bread, and can say have achieved intermittent success. My efforts are mostly successful, to the extent that the family prefers to have bread toast almost every day of the week.
Even now, when I inhale the smell of rightly toasted bread with butter, and take a bite, I feel the warmth of childhood pleasure.
Through food, we can connect with our past memories, reliving the simple joys of childhood. Some things never change, and shouldn't either.
For me, something that takes me back to my childhood is bread toast with butter. Yes, you read that right. Lightly browned crispy bread toast with melted butter takes me back to my carefree days of yore.
What's so special in bread toast with butter, you might ask. Well, it's not just any bread toast, but the perfectly done toasted bread, with just the right amount of crispiness and moistness that, once you take a bite, transports you to food heaven.
My Ma did it just right, the toasting I mean, on a heated gridle or tawa. No toaster (electrical or otherwise) business, mind you. The toaster never does it right, almost always drying up the bread's moisture and making it tasteless. Ma always did the toasting on a tawa, or chatu as we call it in Bengali.
After the tawa was heated up just right (not too much or bread would get burnt), she placed the bread slices on it and put the gas on sim. The bread would get slowly toasted brown, then flipped on the opposite side. After both sides were browned perfectly, butter would be applied and would melt slowly, emitting a divine yummy aroma.
We children would devour the toasts as soon as Ma buttered them, not even waiting for them to be served on the plate. We siblings would finish one loaf between the three of us :)
I have tried to emulate Ma's style of toasting bread, and can say have achieved intermittent success. My efforts are mostly successful, to the extent that the family prefers to have bread toast almost every day of the week.
Even now, when I inhale the smell of rightly toasted bread with butter, and take a bite, I feel the warmth of childhood pleasure.
Through food, we can connect with our past memories, reliving the simple joys of childhood. Some things never change, and shouldn't either.
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