The Magic of Thayiru Saadham

As some of you know, I am on a current hiatus from all things curd (thayir) related. This means, no more kuzhambu, no dahi anything, no thayir vadai and no thayiru saadham. Yes, you read right, NO THAYIRU SAADHAM...sob.

For those unfamiliar, originating with the concept of paal saadham (milk rice), thayiru saadham (curd rice) has represented the southern cuisine for a long time. A lot of people tend to disregard this as a common food or as something bland and I am ashamed to say I was the same for a very long time.
The eye-opener was none other than a very exhilarating plane ride to India. My mother had made some thayiru saadham to bring with on the ride. I argued with her saying we are paying for their food and the airline company has to give us food and such precautions were absolutely unnecessary. My mother, as usual, disregarded my arguments and packed 2 containers full of thayiru saadham with delicious mavadu oorga (unripe mango pickle...yeah sounds better in Tamil :P ).

When we got to the airport, I was so excited to board the plane I forgot all about this thayiru saadham business. We were flying on Japan airways and had a 3 hour stop over at Tokyo. After watching a couple movies and reading my book, I started to feel a bit hungry. When I asked the flight attendant for some peanuts or something of the like, she replied that dinner would soon be served. Content, I fell asleep only to be woken up for breakfast. I asked my mom, what happened to dinner, and she smartly said, time difference. Grumbling I washed the sleep away and proceeded to hack my way through breakfast. About 3 bites into the food, I started feeling sick. Oh oh! My body sprang into action and asked for some orange juice and put the food aside. The orange juice helped my stomach settle but it didn't appease my hunger. Not able to shush my growling stomach and not able to feed it anything, I was insufferable throughout the ride.

When we finally got to Tokyo, I told my mom I was starrrviinngg. She asked me, do you want a sandwich or something? Now, on a normal basis, I would've loved a sandwich, but at that moment, I didn't want any of that. I was nearly on the verge of tears and I looked at my mom and told her I really just want to go home. It was then, that she handed me the container of thayiru saadham. Looking at it, I started sobbing. Sometimes, simple things in life can impact you greatly, and that day, thayiru saadham was my silent savior. I felt right at home and my travel sickness was all gone.
I don't know what it is with this trademark, but ever since then, I have never questioned its power. I'm just appreciative. Now that college is upon me, sandwiches and 'American' food are unfortunately the highlight of my diet, but I know thayiru saadham will always be the staple foundation I can rely on and definitely my first priority when given a choice. 

Summer Travels -- Ironwood Pt 1

Is there magic in Nature?!

The right answer, the one that everyone expects would be a loud, resounding, YES! However, my answer would be dependent on what we are talking about and whom we are seeing it with. I am not a nature person. Sure, I love planting a garden or taking a walk and spotting animals just as much as the next person, but just staring at flowers, or just looking at trees is not something that I would do.

My family, and two other families, decided to plan a trip to a place called Ironwood in Michigan. Now, the total count was 10 people so we ended up booking a van. Now I would like you to imagine a nice windowed 11 seater mini bus, however the truth is sadly not that. We, and I kid you not, had a white van...not just any white van...THE WHITE VAN. Yup, the one that they use in all those kidnapping scenes in movies and TV shows. Joy. Not only was the van structured that way, it was also a haul to get in and out. The height was so much, we literally had to do pull ups to get in, and utilize our school bus fire safety courses to get out. And, of course, as kids, where were we seated? In the back! Yay! Now, sitting in the back has its perks. One, no one disturbs you. You can just chill and do whatever you want. At the same time, you are unintentionally excluded from all interesting conversation, current locations, yelling out directions, and other events happening up front. Now, that's okay because you know what? You have access to all the yummy goodies in the back seat. Indulging never was this easy. At the same time, since you have access to all the food, you are consistently asked to pass this or hand over that...even when you want to just curl up and sleep. So, sitting in the back? Its not the best place to be if you want to be part of all the action, but its not the worst place to be either.

So, as every great travel story goes, 'it was the middle of the night, the trees cast creepy shadows. The bright yellow sign said WATCH OUT for deer... Suddenly, the driver realized we were LOST! OH NO!! What will the group do now?! Stay tuned to find out! ' --insert cheesy commercial break--

Okay, so yes, we got lost. Our GPS got very confused and pointed to a tree. Typical. Anyway, the pretty girl..aka me, fell asleep through most of this. Eventually we reached our residence of....Comfort Inn! Yay!

Now, I was already pretty grumpy as my last final exam didn't go as well as planned. Now, add in the fact that we are going to see boring nature-y stuff in a kidnapping van, and you have got the Grinch of all time.

So grumpy me, entered our room and was out within a few seconds.

 My god! What an amazing night of flawless sleep. At that time, Comfort Inn was my best friend. Their bed was so soft and their room was just the perfect temperature. I could probably write an entire blog post on the buoyancy of their beds. But I'll spare you all :P

The next day we woke up bright and early for some delicious breakfast. Now, that I was a bit more composed, I was eager to see what exactly this city of nature was all about...and was I in for a surprise!

**Stay tuned for part 2**