Food is an art.

I've got a neighbor who bakes cakes professionally. Some people may start drawing conclusions calling me lucky, but I'd say the opposite. When you're greeted with the delightful aroma of freshly baked cake in the corridor when you've come home from college, threatening to open those salivary glands, it requires all the self control you posses to stop your hand that's itching to ring the doorbell to your neighbor’s house instead of your own!

I'm no food lover. Yet, I can't describe food in just a few words. Food is a delicacy. It’s an ancient art and like all forms of art keep developing with time, so does food. Just like art, you've got traditional authentic food, as when it was made in the time when our land was ruled by royalty and everything used was fresh and new. On the other hand, you've got fast food just like we have graffiti. Something captivating that comes up while you're snapping your fingers or whistling a tune. It's fast and easy to cook up with its own technique and way to go about it. Then comes Modern art, where you let your hands do what they want, and travel the paper as they like to. You let your heart control your movements and come up with some abstract design (Translation: A mysterious "shape" that millions of people are supposed to figure out) having a deep underlying meaning. So many chefs out there are whipping out new dishes and blending together different tastes to create something new and exotic. Sometimes, I feel we don't appreciate them enough!

On another note, I eat only Jain food. In case you don't know what that means, Jain food is vegetarian food with a few more restrictions. It doesn't include underground vegetables as well like potatoes or onions. (Mind you, the reason isn't because it grows underground. I guess most of what we Jain people can't eat does (grow underground), which is why categorizing it like that seemed to be easier.) Some people ask me why I follow it. Is it because I just believe in my religion and it’s something I have to do? Or is it because I just can't bring myself to eat other food? Honestly, it’s the latter. Just thinking about killing something which can talk, see, smell and roam around the world like us human beings makes me feel like a murderer. At the same time, I try my best to respect my friends and not make a face when they eat. (Really, I do!) They claim that I'm missing out on a large part of my life and that Jain food is bland......

I accidently overheard them talking and approached them. The Indian guy also told me that his friends were planning to open a line of Jain resteraunts...Good Luck with that! :D

.....So, you can't imagine my surprise when I walked on these people having a completely Jain spread at a restaurant! And they admitted that it tasted good too!

After looking at my mom and grand mom put in so much effort while cooking and after looking at the way people can describe food and have arguments about them with expressions on their face you never thought possible, I realised that calling food just good, or even wonderful doesn't do it justice. Some pasta may be delectably soft with a parcel of spiciness engulfing it with flavours unknown, you may have hot rotis at your service which have steam oozing out of it's unnoticeable pores as it flattens down and the ice cream must be icily inviting with some scrumptious Belgian chocolate to die for! Just listen to a food monster talk about food- you'll get my point if you haven't already! :P

Kanksha :)

Thanks for reading! 

Btw, I loveee taking pictures of food. If you get the correct angle and light, even apples can be made to look delicious. Not that I don't like apples.