“Filled with food with layers too good!
Pack them up nice and slow dats food!
Sometimes you do not know whats in the docks!
Opening it was fun; the tiffin box!”
Potato is literally the saviour of tiffin box in the north while coconut is the saviour in the south! Just an observation really! Not an invitation of Uttar dakshin debate!
read on!
When we were young (er!) the tiffin box was a treasure!
Most favoured of course was the puri masala or even puri halwa! But the standard tiffin for most ‘north’ indian kids in KV was the Roti or Chappati and dry sabji!
The small cut roasted Potato were the best! You can never go wrong with Potato!
Now I seriously miss this favourite vegetable of my mom! She could do magic with potatoes! I try to avoid them as much as possible but those french fries are so tasty!
Many times she would always have a set of boiled potatoes in the fridge ready to cook!
The boiled ones could either be cut and made into sabji for the Roti or mashed and made into stuffing for her famous aloo sandwich or aloo paratha! Oh the fans she had for her aloo dishes!
If nothing is available for guests she would simply make some aloo pakoras!
In one type of her own special Upma she used to put small pieces of aloo and that used to lift the taste! The only way upma gets my approval! Either you roast some small onions or used small potatoes!
Her aloo dum was also very famous and so was the aloo kofta! The koftas were so delicious even before she had to put in the curry that many times she had to make extra dry ones!
Then she had this trick with bread and aloo that used to result in amazing rolls and cutlets!
So breakfast and tiffin box was her forte! The tiffin box food filled by her had so many fans! I normally had to defend her dishes and distribute them myself since that is the only way I could get it myself!
The standard dish for our train travels was the roasted dry potatoes and Chapati on the first day and Chappati with Baingan ka Bhartha from day two onwards! One of the main reasons why we used to like the train journeys was to savor her dishes! If you are lucky you will get those Bitter gourd or stuffed Karela! The Chappati would be made with plenty of oil or Ghee so that it would not get spoilt was her justification! Luckily no of us used to look like they had such an expert chef in home!
Now while she could cook Bhartha and stuffed Karela in a jiffy; we normally stick to roasted potatoes or onion tomato only!
Giving Idly or dosa with chutney is not an option since we know that it would get spoilt so Chappati with the stir fried vegetables are still the best tiffin box materials!
Miss those days of tiffin box! The two layers and the basket which used to come with it! Finally the plastic water bottle which later on was the Milton ones which were so good but very liable to get lost!
Another thing of those days we used to love were the disco songs of Celebrity Bappi da! A quick sketch on a busy day!
Shubh ratri!
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