Come on, I’m not talking of political and non-political debates that take place in the parliament… though they do qualify as being both contemporary as well as crunchy. But listen, they are not delicious, are they? At least I don’t find the vocalised thoughts of Sharad Yadav delicious… however crunchy and contemporary they may seem to him and his types.
So now that we know that contemporary and crunch needs to be delicious as well, let me clarify that I am also not talking about AIB or the way they roast, not even about Alia Bhatt and her responses to Karan’s questions, and definitely not about stand-up comedy today. I’m actually talking about a pretty serious issue… breakfast.
I remember when I was in my twenties some thirty years ago, I was fond of giving one of my newly married uncle a surprise visit every Sunday. No, never to ogle at Aunty but to ask her to make one of her special dishes that I euphemistically called ‘The crunchy omelette’. But then that was ages back and then we didn’t have Kellogg’s. Anyway, my memory of eating cornflakes was mother forcing me to eat some gooey concoction with hot milk and excessive sugar. ‘These are cornflakes,’ she always reminded me, ‘and it is best to eat them with hot milk.’
I learned the truth about cornflakes when Specky won a Commonwealth Scholarship and we were in York, UK for around three years. There, for the first time, I apprehensively followed the instructions of Specky to put cold milk in Kellogg’s cornflakes.
‘Are you sure? Cold milk? Will it taste good?’ I asked.
She said, ‘Go on. Don’t be nervous. You’re going to fall in love with it.’
I did. And I did fall in love with cornflakes in cold milk. Well, that was our first corny recipe, if I may be allowed to say. Ha! Ha!!
Now after all these years I hear of all the wonderful recipes using Kellogg’s that the Gupta family is known for. Cornflakes coconut laddoos are one and then there is the ‘passing the parcel wala naashta’ which has deseeded custard apple pulp, chopped walnuts, cornflakes, and cold milk converging as one to dance the macarena on your taste buds. If you think everything is sweet in that household, think again. Or rather, visit them when they are all in a chatpata mood and Mrs Gupta will prepare for you her ‘nakhare wala naashta’ in a jiffy. This one is a ‘crunchy snack made wholesome with chapatti power’ and even with a body as heavy as mine I did try to salsa with that bowl held in my hands.
With these and nearly a hundred more creative interpretations of recipes prepared with cornflakes playing the role of the protagonist, I have all the reason to keep finding valid reasons to visit them and wait until some new delicious innovation appears! And yes, these are all contemporary and crunchy experiences that make me pay them a visit again and again and again.
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Contemporary & Crunchy. #KelloggsWaleGuptaji
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Arvind Passey
24 March 2015
