Week 6 : The Mint Chutney Conundrum

I haven’t been able to do much this week. I could barely finish 2 lessons on Duolingo and did not start any other course on LinkedIn or Coursera. I don’t know if it's the burnout, seasonal depression, or my intensified regular depression. Arya says that I have all the time in the world to do things and I should take it one day at a time. Isn’t she the best? I would’ve totally spiraled into self-destruction without her support and timely reality checks to keep me grounded from my delusions. However, I am riddled with constant intrusive thoughts and I think to myself whether I’ll ever be okay. Not in terms of my issues but with regards to my existence and life. Knowing how badly I dread working a full time job again, knowing how I do not want to do anything out of obligation. I worry about myself if I will be okay someday and won’t have to worry about where my next paycheck is coming from or when. It would’ve been great if I just didn’t have to worry about sustaining myself.

Arya being Arya, with her constant reassurances and support keeps saying that she’s there for me so what am I worried about. But I don’t really feel like nor want to put that kind of pressure on her. I am still getting around to the idea of her taking care of me. She says she’d love to do that for me and I don’t have to think about it in a negative way. All my life it felt like I was a task and an inconvenience to be dealt with, so I don’t want her to resent me for not working. Yay for childhood trauma.

So we had this internal running joke. We both have bonded over our quirks and peculiar preferences. Among the vast sea of our specifics, one of them was the mint chutney. Personally for me, I feel every mint chutney tastes different and I have my preferences of good, bad, and okay kind of mint chutney. Arya on the other hand, who is not much of a food person, says that all mint chutney tastes the same. And this back and forth went on for months every single time we came across a mint chutney, me asking her if she tastes anything different from the previous ones, and her saying it’s all the same.

I, on the other hand, thought that lip gloss, lip oil, lip tint, lip stain, and all other lip-related products are pretty much the same thing with different shades. I will never forget the look of judgement I have gotten from Arya when I said this. The ‘why are you like this?’ look or the ‘what am I dating?’ look. Anyway, whenever we discussed the variations of mint chutneys, I loved teasing her saying all lip products are the same. One fine afternoon, we were having a meal at Ikea which came with mint chutney on the side and as usual, I asked her to try it and waited for the review. She finally agreed that all mint chutney is not the same! After almost 6 months, I finally won. I don’t know what I won but it felt nice.

Earlier this week, my father called and asked if I wanted to check out the Goethe Institut in the city. So we along with my sister went, enquired, and after a long day of overthinking and overanalyzing, he paid the tuition fees for the A1 level. I feel overwhelmed about starting a completely new thing after 4 years of working a job, travelling 50 km away and then coming back; I still have to figure out how to travel. I want to do well but I feel so afraid of failing that it gets suffocating. Arya helped again saying that I could look at it as an experience of learning a new language and culture, and that I am giving it a shot for the both of us. She uses one of my lines where I frequently tell her, “your brain is playing tricks on you”.

Food Update of the Week

While I was out with my sister and father, we went over to Palladium in the afternoon and got food from Ishaara. We had my personal favourites: Tandoori Broccoli, Chicken Tikka, Paneer Makhni, and Garlic & Butter Naan. They enjoyed it. Tried the Pina Colada and it was quite good. It had been a while since I had good Pina Colada. Before leaving for home in the evening, we went to Paul for desserts. They had such pretty looking desserts, I wanted everything. The Black Forest and Blueberry Cheesecake looked so good. Even their selection of breads. I caught a glance of their pastas, pizzas, and french toasts. I’d love to have a full fledged meal there someday. So my sister got a hot chocolate with a mini croissant, and I went with the Tiramisu. Soft, creamy, a little fluffy coffee dessert.

Here’s a different story for tiramisu. Arya had never had tiramisu before and we went together months ago to Si Nonna’s where she tried it for the first time. She did not like it at all because according to her it was “wet food”. I laughed so much how she labeled tiramisu as wet food knowing how much I loved Italian food. It felt nice to see her come out of her shell little by little and speak her mind. Couple months later, I convinced her to try tiramisu again and give me a total of 5 tries to figure out which place’s tiramisu she’ll like. Since one is already done, I am working on compiling a list of places with the best tiramisu based on what I’ve had in the past as well as recent online reviews. I have a list of about 8-10 places from which I’ve to shortlist 4. So after having the tiramisu at Paul, I figured it’s not going to be something she’ll like. It’s quite a challenge because I need to find the perfect balance as per her preferences. She’s also not much of a coffee person.

I was dropping Arya home and her mom fed us fried chicken and chicken biryani. I like very selective dishes when it comes to chicken and I don’t exactly prefer chicken mixed with any other food which includes curries, rice, etc. I do like fried chicken and tandoor chicken dishes, boneless of course. Anything mixed with it triggers certain sensory issues for me. I don’t know, Arya giggles and says that I am too autistic.

Anyway, the fried chicken tasted so good! It had a really great combination of spices and condiments, and I nicely ate 4-5 pieces. Arya helped with getting the bone off. The chicken biryani was quite fragrant and delicious. It reminded me of the biryani my mom used to make when I was a kid. Her mom also gave me a big drumstick which I had at the end of the meal. The fried chicken topped it for me.

Coming to biryani, my all time favourite is the one at Social. Their Paneer Tikka Biryani has been a staple since I was in college. Give it a try when you can.

Binge-Watching Update of the Week

Arya wasn’t feeling it much to start a new TV show, so while we were browsing on what to watch, she came across this Bollywood movie on Netflix, Queen. Saying it was one of her favourite movies and it was a comedy. So we watched that over the weekend while she was here. It was a lot of fun watching it with her and I liked the movie as well.

Thank you for reading :)

Catch you in the next one, peace.