Relish with Dishes

Tawa, Bamya, Dolma, etc. What are these? If you have knowledge about multi-cuisines, you may know these are some of the names of Iraqi’s food, just like we Bhutanese have Ama Dhatse, KewaDhatse, Shakam, etc.

They have typical ways of preparing food. The rice is fried. It gets mixed with lots of oil and little water. Such as steam food is rarely cooked. And the curry strews up with tomatoes, lots and lots of tomatoes in Tawa and others like we Bhutanese use lots and lots of chilies in all curries. Hike of tomatoes price can’t do away with it, like we can’t do with chilies. The tomatoes were cut into the tiniest pieces and that too with others like cucumber, carrot, etc. The curry tastes sweety-salty but delectable. The overall cooking takes a very long time, almost four hours.

“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it up.” My fried Hashim repeats Arnold Glasgow, an American humorist’s saying. True.

I told my friend Hashim about our kind of food, I even made him taste chilies, and his stomach went wild for the whole night and he damned me to be borned as chili. That is another story. Sometimes I would call him Tawa and as much as I’m Amadhatse’s guy!

I have fine-tuned with his food. What I may like to call, I am ‘use to.’ One reason for this is; I have less work to do when he cooks; most of the time I just help him to peel off some vegetables’ cover and wash it. The rest, he would do it all by himself. My job is to reach to a dining table whatever had been prepared and eat and take to the washing basin but most of these, he does.

I eat and eat but slowly. I have learned this technique in my school days-to eat slowly! When I was in a boarding school, I used to eat slowly, let others take and go, while I would aim for another second share as I waited to finish others and go. Many times it works in the school, when the mess in charge called for the second share and a similar technique is what I used to eat with him, lol. “Take it, take it.” is all I hear now. This technique has become a habit to me and even in parties or some gatherings; I would be the last one to go and get the food.  Slow but lots and a lot of of food. But this is no good now as an adult; I feel at least. Last and more, and sometimes last and none. Even if it were none in school days, our mess would provide another special preparation for it.  Sometimes with butter, fried food, etc. Good that we waited. Did anyone have a technique like mine? To be last in eating and first in eating?