Love for Briyani

I come from a non vegetarian family. My mom was a working woman so we had a big non-vegetarian feast on Sundays. Sunday's lunch usually consists of chicken or mutton varieties, very rarely sea food.

I had developed an aversion for meat early on in my life. I used to accompany my servant maid to buy chicken or mutton from the butcher shop. The butcher shop in India is a tiny shack barely having roof. Huge trunk of a tree served as a butcher block. The meat is cut in front of the customer in normal humid temperature. The body of the goat hung on a hook with flies flying around the meat. As a kid it was very traumatizing experience to see the whole de-skinned goat hanging on a single hook. The sight of red flesh scared the hell out of me. I always used to hide behind my servant maid "Deivanai . I happily called her "Theva-yanai aka god's elephant.

The aroma of chicken or mutton cooking on the cooker filled the kitchen .I avoided going to the kitchen on days when my mom cooked meat. My mom in her best effort to make me eat non-veg korma would add lot of potatoes in Korma. My Sunday lunch menu used to be curd rice with potatoes from mutton or chicken korma. She often made chicken/mutton biryani. My mom's logic was that biryani absorbs the fats from meat so I'll get the animal protein : ). I ate the biryani rice but never ate the meat pieces. My love for Non-Veg biryani with thalicha blossomed thanks to my mother's efforts and persuasion to make me eat meat.

When we used to go for marriage parties in India, my husband used to sit in between me and my MIL. I pass the chicken/mutton pieces from biryani onto his plate and my MIL passes his favorite sweets. Thus we made him "BHIM BOY". BHIM Boy's belly is still holding fat from all those food he gobbled at the marriage feasts. When he left for US, oh boy! MIL and his dear wife missed him terribly during the marriage feast.

The red meat in the deli/meat section still makes me uncomfortable. Last time when my mother in law visited us, we went to get mutton from an ethnic food store. The store is run by a Pakistani and he sells halal meat. He tried to get a fresh cut and invited us to the freezer room. I went along with my MIL and completely shocked by what I saw. I saw the whole goat with skin removed. I was holding my MIL's hand at that time and my hands started shaking the moment he opened the freezer room. Even my MIL who has handled meat all her life felt little uneasy. It took me 10 minutes to come out of the shocked state. I was angry with myself for going to the freezer room. I think the "grown up in me" wanted to check my fear of seeing a de-skinned animal. Apparently, I haven't got ridden of my fear.

When we lived in India after our marriage for a year, I always cooked sea food on Sundays. In US, I am fine handling chicken. Chicken meat is packed clean with no traces of blood and they don't have strong smell like fresh cut chicken meat. I have now inherited the tradition of making chicken biryani often at my house. Now I am an expert in making chicken dishes. My chicken dishes are great hit in our office parties. I've started eating little pieces of breaded chicken and the chicken 65. BTW, I make all the chicken dishes without tasting the meat. CB is the official chicken dish taster at our house.