Why my 'Uppuma' was salty today!!!

Why was my uppuma salty today?

I came home today, at 8:00PM as usual, to find that there was nothing cooked to eat (that's as usual too!). I could have cooked rice and made a simple 'sambar' (or a glorified 'dhal'). And eaten it with Frito Lays chips.

But today I did not feel like I can wait to cook rice and sambar (an easy 1 hr affair). The ringing sound in my stomach told me to cook something fast so that I eat something soon. I did not have to think too much to decide what to make - fast.

In fact deciding what to cook has never been a trouble for me as I knew very few items to cook and my impatience helped me too! Thus I decided with finality that I should make my
world-famous-in-my-hometown vermicilli 'uppuma'.

Actually I am very good at making this Uppuma. I am so good that every time I make this I get kudos from my roommates! I still remember the first day when I tried my hand in making the uppuma. I had eaten the uppuma my mom makes and recollect seeing her cook that very vaguely. With the taste my mom's uppuma in my mind I cooked my uppuma the first time. From then on I have worked on improving it and have literally perfected it.

After perfecting the art of making uppuma, I worked on making it in the shortest possbile time and my current time is 30 minutes, down from an hour! Now that you know my confidence level in my 'uppuma-making' skills, I will tell you how I went about making it today.

I was watching 'Alaipayuthey' on DVD and was, in parallel, cooking too. Who will spend 30 full minutes on a dumb activity like cooking? So, I usually depend on DVDs to save me from boredom while cooking. While Madhavan was proposing to Shalini I was cutting my onions and tomatoes - with tears (of joy?)in my eyes!

I fried the vermicilli a little bit in the pan and microwaved mixed vegetables and the tomatoes.
I went on to fry the onions and reached a state where I had to boil a couple of cups water along with the vegetables. When the water started boiling, I added the slightly-fried vermicilli and allowed it cook for 5 minutes.

Now came the time for adding salt. At this point Shalini was singing 'Ragasiya Snehidhane' to Madhavan and I was painfully thinking about how lucky Ajit was - to have Shalini as his wife. Damn! I thought, 'only morons get beautiful wives'! I started thinking whether I am a moron or a smart guy? I really could not come to terms on whether I should be a moron and have a
beautiful wife or be a smart guy and settle for something less. As though I am having a choice in that!

Anyways, I came back from my trance and added 2 spoons of salt. Actually I dont use spoons for salt - I just use the center of my palm to measure and add salt. I have always done that earlier and today was no different.

By this time Shalini & Co's secret marriage had got exposed and I was sadistically happy to see them (Shalini and Madhavan) kicked out of their homes! I waited patiently for a few minutes for the vermicilli to get cooked and greedily transfered a bunch of scoops of uppuma to a plate. I poured my favorite buttermilk on it and put a spoonful in my mouth.

That is when I realized how salty it was! Even though I remembered adding 2 spoonful of salt I was shocked how salty the uppuma was. I started questioning my knowledge of inorganic chemistry and starting thinking what went wrong. Then I realized that it was in my trance (damn the beautiful Shalini and the moronic Ajit) that I had added the extra spoons of salt!

My room-mate ate the same without raising much hue and cry. I am sure he would bitching about the food while he was trying to somehow eat it without wasting it!

So much for a good movie, a beautiful heroine, her moronic husband, my uppuma and the extra salt!