May 27, 2011

Food Cravings - Then and Now

This is a post which was lying in my draft and I decided this is certainly something I would like to post ! 


This is about my food cravings during pregnancy... they weren't many, but nevertheless there were somethings which did catch my fancy. Now what I do know is that these cravings are not so intense... but given a chance, I still love these food items the most. I guess what you have eaten as a kid, and what you fancied the most is what surfaces when you are pregnant. Just a thought. 

 A frequent question which I have been asked in the past few months is what have been my cravings in terms of food. And till recently I have not really seen any pattern in my food likes. I like to eat a variety of things, and if something is served to me regularly, then I am bound to lose interest. But, that said, there are two food items which have topped my list of frequent eats. One is Puttu and Kadala ( a traditional Kerala breakfast item) and Jackfruit chips.
Jackfruit chips has been my childhood favorite, and it being available in plenty in Kerala when my mom, brother and I came for summer vacations made it almost my staple in between meal snack. My grandmother's house had a huge jackfruit tree in the backyard, and she used to watch and get a good one cut a week prior to our arrival and painstakingly clean it, slice and fry it. The fried items would be carefully packed away in airtight containers and kept out of anyone's reach till we arrive. My grandmother is no more, but whenever I eat jackfruit chips, these are the only thoughts which cross my mind.
Puttu and Kadala is traditionally steamed rice cakes served with chick peas, and here also the black variety is the one which is used commonly. As for me, I love puttu which can be prepared using a wide variety of grains like, rice, wheat, corn, ragi, and amongst them my favorite is the ragi puttu. It comes out a dark brown colored steamed cake with a top of grated coconut and  the smell is divine. In the past few months, I have prepared this I believe so many times as compared to the whole of last year. In fact I would say that B has had even an overdose of Puttu and Kadala :) 
Apart from these things, I had a recent craving for pesto pasta, but that has not worked out since I am in Trivandrum, and nothing here even remotely resembling a pesto sauce was available. I finally settled on spaghetti as that was what was available to me.. and that too I had to make myself, as restaurants had a very funny way of preparing it with a 'local touch', to enhance the flavor, as they say! 
So all in all, I do not think I had any particular intense cravings through my pregnancy if you take away the above two. I know some friends who used to have dreams about foods they want, and those would be prepared the next day at home! Nothing like that seems to dominate my dreams though…. 
What are the most interesting pregnancy food cravings you've come across??
But now, after Trisha is here, I am not allowed chickpeas or jackfruit, as it might upset her stomach. So there.. my favourite things are denied to me for sometime now.

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