Sunday, November 27, 2005

Can Indians Fast?

Hubby is away for 2 weeks so I have been having boiled vegetables and other boring bland food (as my hubby refers to it)

and If I am not hungry well I dont have to bother making something to eat which is nice.. and I can even skip a meal if I want to.

Is it just my Indian husband or do all Indians lack the ability to skip a meal without feeling weak?? or Lathargic??

Why is this ?

Why is a sandwich NOT A Meal
and why isnt soup a Meal?
Why can we eat baked beans and egg for Dinner??
What is so wrong with plain TOast????

The questions go on and on......

16 comments:

Our Catholic Family said...

I don't get that either. What is so wrong with raw veggies - or a salad? Why not have french toast (eggy bread) for dinner? I'm a cereal addict, and don't get why cereal is out.

Shell said...

Cereal.. Maybe they should invent a spicy cereal...

My hubby says I wrong to say all Indian food is just spicy.. but well most of it is...

Our Catholic Family said...

Can he name one dish that isn't spicy? I mean like a meal not a dessert. Honestly, I can't think of one...

I guess you could say idli, but the chutney and potato masala both have chilis and spices.

Our Catholic Family said...

BTW, my husband says he can indeed fast. Fast from talking.

?????

He says it's done all the time in India and he used to do it before he came here. Maybe he's just pulling my leg, do you know?

But never from food. Could you imagine? On the weekends he's hungry every two hours. And, only wants *hot* foods. I wonder what he would do if I put an apple in the microwave....if it would count...

Shell said...

Fasting...

I have done fasting for indian festival myself... But. define fasting.. Going 12 hours without food?? is that really fasting?

Iam not sure of anythign longer.. might be.. but I dont know..

I used to do the 48hour famine when I was a child to raise money for 3rd worl countries...

I dont know.. lets ask an Indian..

Whats the longest fasting period anyone ???

Shell said...

By the way... If you microwave Cookies they count as a dessert..

well atleast thats what my husband does.. he heats up EVERYTHING..

As for the apples..good point, but I Would have to peel it for him first... lol

ahh men .... arnt they such a treat to have... :)

yum said...

My husband likes to eat "in time" but its not that big of a deal. I do agree that its better to be on a schedule (something i can manage to do)and keep ur blood sugar up. I can feel it drop when I havent eaten in a long time.

yum said...

Oh but my MIl, thats another story! Every single morning for 6mo she was with us, she would eat toast. She loved it actually. I took her out often to try new kinds of foods, and she really enjoyed it. But, the funny thing is, she would eat really small amts of meals and then snack all day! I felt pressured to keep a lot of snacks in the house. And the hardest part(for me) was that she only liked "tiffin" for dinner, meaning a small meal that doesnt include rice. We almost always have rice for dinner. So I would get stressed thinking of what to make. Yeah, I know thats a very minor thing :p

yum said...

I think there are things which arent spicy. Gujarati kadhi(yogurt gravy) with kichedi(rice and dal cooked together) is one.

Also each family makes food according to what they like. I know one Indian guy who cant take any heat and says his whole family is that way.

Shell said...

I know what you mean about stressing about things to make.

My MIL and Hubbys sister and 2 kids came to stay with us and it was traumatic coming up with different meals and MIL would only eat vegetarian and cooking vegan is my least talented skill.

yum said...

Hi Vikrant,

If MRE means ready-made foods... yes they are available here. ahem... Im a little bit of a "food snob" I must admit! the thought of boxed/frozen dinners makes me feel a little yucky. Im kinda picky about it. There are few things like that which I will buy. One is the Kawan brand frozen malaysian parathas...

Shell said...

MRE'S are quite good actually..

We use them for camping, quick lunches and saometimes for a extra curry with dinner....

Hubby doesn't mind them... I find them too spicy..

I usually at yoghurt.. but iam going thru a weird thing where all dairy tastes fermentedly off..

whats that about ?

yum said...

Hey gori, which brand do you buy?

One of my (american) friends had bought a CAN of navratan korma at the indian grocery near me, and accidentally left it at my house(she lives out of state). I couldnt bear the thought of it, but my husband opened it one day(hes not picky at all). It smelled awful. I dont even think he ate it, it was that bad!

I would think frozen is better. but still...

yum said...

I should have clarified about the "tiffin" thing. My MIL likes to have idli, dosa, appam, adai, chapathi, or even puri or paratha for dinner. basically, anything but rice. They think rice is too heavy to eat at night. go figure.

She also only ate nonveg on certain days(very common in india). She relaxed on that a lot while she was here(shes not at all orthodox type anyway). But one day I had big plans to go out for dinner, on one of her nonveg days, and she said "usually I eat nonveg this day, but not today". Ahh well! hehe.

Shell said...

Hubby eats western food quite a lot, mostly at lunch time around his office.

Although we have phases, we probally on average have indian 2-3 times a week. Sometimes we can go a week or so.. We have pahses, BBQ phase and Roast phase..

We use Gits a lot but other than that I can't recall the other Ready Made brand.. i know its popular in India.. we dont actually have any in right now so can't check.

I use gits packets for gulab jamins ,Jillabi's and dosa mix.

yum said...

Actually Vikrant, this is a thing most people assume.
I dont feel any obligation to cook indian food, if it sounded like i was complaining abt it, i was not. My husband is not picky about food much, I am. And I like hardly any western food. I have a huge preference for food with FLAVOUR!

The funny thing is, believe it or not, I never liked american food much! I was a horrible eater at my moms house. Then I discovered the reason I didnt like veggies or meat is because it didnt have the right spice ;)

In fact, there is very few american things I would cook. When we go out, we usually have chinese, italian, thai, pizza etc. Today we are going to "Panera Bread", do they have them in England and Aus? Its one of our favs.