Man does not live by bread alone

Or does he ?

Looking at the picnic hamper I packed this morning it would seem that man only lives by bread. In the basket there were 4 chutney sandwiches, 4 cheese and tomato, 6 boiled egg, 6 omelette and 4 jam . In addition there was a flask of tea, 6 assorted fruit juices in tetrapacks and 2 litres of aqua vita.
Since yesterday morning, the question was floated - what do we take for breakfast?


This was translated as - there had better be enough food for all of us. After all we are travelling 120 miles to have lunch on a farm! So we need to tank up enough to keep us going till mid day and perhaps even later.

This was further translated as - there should be enough variety to suit as many people as are travelling i.e. for 5 people there should be five different things.

Welcome to my world.

I am not running a hotel.

Nor am I running a restaurant.

Nor am I running a fast food service

Nor am I running a take away

But

I am running an "ordinary" household.

With a difference.............................


Our kitchen opens soon enough ( almost at the crack of dawn!) where one cup of wake me up comes out in turns for each person as he awakes. This early morning waker upper is coffee ( with Nescafe whipped up), black coffee ( made with coffee powder in a coffee machine ), black tea ( weak with a dash of lime and sugar), strong ( boiled over and over and with FRESH milk) , normal ( which is for all those who didn't have their special cuppa - boiled, with milk and sugar).

Then come the dribs and drabs of breakfast. Dry toast, buttered toast, cut fruit chilled, cut fruit at room temperature, freshly cut fruit ( i.e. just before eating!!) eggs: one or two - scrambled, semi scrambled, omelette, masala omelette, cheese omelette, fried sunny side up or double ( all either on or with toast) upama : spicy or non sticky or non, dhirda , idlis, dosas ( with or without chutney and sambar with or without ghee). Of course to be fair, the last four items are not all asked for on the same day.

Then of course is lunch which is first served at the first stroke of the twelve mid day gongs. And again half an hour later. And again at 1 on some days. It goes without saying that each person eating will have a different if not varied menu from what the others have/will eat.

In between the breakfast and lunch come the packed lunches which are obviously different because one travels 3 kms down the road in a car while the other is lugged 25 kms away by train!

Then we have a repeat performance of the afternoon wake up ceremony prior to our leisurely evening walks in the park.

Finally we wind down our day with the last meal ( thankfully!) for the day which is our dinner which is again every half hour beginning at the stroke of 7. ( For all those who are unfamiliar with the goings on in a kitchen I would like to inform you that meals do take time to prepare !) . Once again we have different menus and sometimes even different cuisines as diverse as very Haute and rustic Indian!

Some days we are lucky. We have so much left over food that it can be disguised or modified to become something else. After all, one man's meat is the other man's poison!

But I shouldn't crib. I should be grateful that I do have someone to cook for. After all it is no fun eating by yourself . Eating one dish out of one dish.

All I can say, is thankfully we are only 6 people at home!

I can easily cope with half a dozen.


Can you imagine what I'd have done with more?