July 4th... long weekend .. Monday and here I am content to the core in this lazy Florida after noon. Meat Loaf - I have seen this on the menu at various eat outs/restaurants in US and some homes but never tasted it. All this changed yesterday when my dear wife served the baked dish, hot out of the oven. This was the first time she experimented with the Meat Loaf recipe. Beef/ Pork is not my liking, but this dish was great. After relishing the left over of this great dish and as I relaxed in the my patio shade among the chirping birds under the Florida sun, I drifted in and out of my memory bank retrieving the bits and analyzing on why I preferred chicken over Beef/ Pork. Here are some bits of information which I could muster from my lazy sleepy processing unit.
Growing up in India, we rarely had Beef or Pork at our home. Beef was scarce and the only time you get it locally was accidental and i mean it literally. But first let me give some background, I grew up in this small town, Bhilai, one of the steel cities in India. As you may be aware, Cow is a sacred animal and so there is no question of slaughtering for meat anywhere in the Hindu majority belt. So in Bhilai, beef used to come from the tribal areas (why tribal areas.. I don't know). Bhilai is in the beautiful Chattisgarh state which has a large tribal area. Now how did we get the Beef from these areas. Look around you, I am pretty sure you will find Malayalees everywhere (Malayalees or Mallus are people from Kerala state inside the Republic of India).. How this particular sub-species of Human spread to even the remotest corner of earth is another interesting vast topic in itself. Coming back to beef, my relatives / friends living among the tribals would season the beef, pack it and bring it along when visiting Bhilai.
So the beef supply is not abundant.. but I did mention "accidental", right? Now there are some stray animals especially cow which get killed in the steel plant. How in the name of Beef chilli fry these poor animals get killed? Maybe when a mallu overhead crane operator sights one near his path, he just releases one hot iron beam over this poor animal killing it instantly and make it look as an electrical / magnetic failure. I am pretty sure Mallus are fully capable of this. (So be wary of pissing off a colleague who is a Mallu and incidently also a Crane operator. And also be careful while being under a crane). So the meat from the dead animal then gets distributed among other Mallus in the community. This is interesting, but who will vouch for the quality? Nobody, the only guarantee is the Mallu Crane Operator. So the quality issue was another scare which prevented from having this delicious item at our home.
The only meat item left was chicken and fish. Chicken was a delicacy during festivals. It also was on the menu couple of times in a month during good times. Our family budget from a single earning member never allowed the luxury of having chicken more than this interval. Fish used to come to our doors ( I mean fresh supply by hawkers carrying a limited number in basket on the pillion of his bicycle). I never had Pork during my stay in India. I don't remember my mother making any pork dish at my home. This does not mean that it is not available in India.
So in short, I am not used to the tastes of Beef / Pork / any random animal.
Growing up in India, we rarely had Beef or Pork at our home. Beef was scarce and the only time you get it locally was accidental and i mean it literally. But first let me give some background, I grew up in this small town, Bhilai, one of the steel cities in India. As you may be aware, Cow is a sacred animal and so there is no question of slaughtering for meat anywhere in the Hindu majority belt. So in Bhilai, beef used to come from the tribal areas (why tribal areas.. I don't know). Bhilai is in the beautiful Chattisgarh state which has a large tribal area. Now how did we get the Beef from these areas. Look around you, I am pretty sure you will find Malayalees everywhere (Malayalees or Mallus are people from Kerala state inside the Republic of India).. How this particular sub-species of Human spread to even the remotest corner of earth is another interesting vast topic in itself. Coming back to beef, my relatives / friends living among the tribals would season the beef, pack it and bring it along when visiting Bhilai.
So the beef supply is not abundant.. but I did mention "accidental", right? Now there are some stray animals especially cow which get killed in the steel plant. How in the name of Beef chilli fry these poor animals get killed? Maybe when a mallu overhead crane operator sights one near his path, he just releases one hot iron beam over this poor animal killing it instantly and make it look as an electrical / magnetic failure. I am pretty sure Mallus are fully capable of this. (So be wary of pissing off a colleague who is a Mallu and incidently also a Crane operator. And also be careful while being under a crane). So the meat from the dead animal then gets distributed among other Mallus in the community. This is interesting, but who will vouch for the quality? Nobody, the only guarantee is the Mallu Crane Operator. So the quality issue was another scare which prevented from having this delicious item at our home.
The only meat item left was chicken and fish. Chicken was a delicacy during festivals. It also was on the menu couple of times in a month during good times. Our family budget from a single earning member never allowed the luxury of having chicken more than this interval. Fish used to come to our doors ( I mean fresh supply by hawkers carrying a limited number in basket on the pillion of his bicycle). I never had Pork during my stay in India. I don't remember my mother making any pork dish at my home. This does not mean that it is not available in India.
So in short, I am not used to the tastes of Beef / Pork / any random animal.
Anyways I am now in a place where every meat is abundant and cheap, vegetables are expensive. I am indebted to my lovely wife for introducing me to the new tastes. So my friends, next time when you want to know why some qualities are missing in me, just ask me? As always I can give you some unscientific, idiotic explanation which you may not digest, but I will be grateful that at least you asked.
