For action two, I was paired with Christa (situated in Vancouver), and we had to design a food experience that is meaningful to us. Reading the word food got me really excited; I love eating, but cooking is not my thing. I shared this information with Christa, so she could find an easy recipe for me to make.
The most fantastic celebration of Lahore is undoubtedly its cuisine. It is a paramount pleasure of the Lahori Punjabi people. Cooking, feeding, sharing recipes and consuming food makes up a massive part of our lives. My experience of growing up in Lahore has been one filled with food, flavour and an intense adoration of hospitality. So I choose Channa(chickpeas) chaart (no word perfectly describes chart in English, but you can think of something that has many ingredients in it or perhaps a mixture) you can have at tea time, lunchtime, dinner time. Even at breakfast, the chana chaart is ever-present, and it is also a popular street food dish and, most importantly, my comfort food.
Christa’s offering was Salsa pico de gallo (fresh) and salsa Roja (charred).On Monday morning, I rushed to the grocery store near my house to buy fresh jalapeños ( the most important ingredient ) to find out that they are not available because of COVID nothing is being exported or imported. So this meant no tortilla chips either. I ended up checking two more superstores in the area but no luck. By this time, I had waisted 3 hours going around in circles. I went home, frustrated.
After a few hours, I decided to improvise the recipe. Instead of using fresh jalapenos, I got canned ones, and for tortilla chips, I found locally made chips. Finally, around 10 p.m, I decided to make the SALSA. I put on the Mexican playlist Christa shared with me and started cutting the tomatoes and green onions for some very odd reason, cutting seemed very therapeutic. It felt like I was letting go of all the tension I had in me, and in that very process, I forgot to document half of the process.
So I finished making both the Salsas by midnight. I set them up on the table and took the first bite after I had swallowed it; I thought it tasted quite nice, so I had some more. It wasn’t just spicy but had loads of lime in it, or maybe I ended up putting in a lot of lemons because I had no set of instructions to follow. However, it was quite delicious.
