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If you have not read the first part of this blog , I would request you to get updated by clicking here. If you belong to the other category, who happened to waste time reading the first part , read more here.
I removed the fish head & tail , before slicing it into pieces. Little did I know that while frying , it shrinks to half it size. Still I continued frying. I lost first few pieces because it got over fried. Second set of pieces looked brown & edible. So I fished them out of hot oil and put them to rest on a tissue.
I had a friend who was a professional Food photographer. His photos adorn many restaurants & hotels in Kerala. Once he showed me a picture of Fish moli & Appam. I was awe struck . The picture was soo beautifully taken that I could almost taste it. He said, "Sojish, most of the food that you see in the pictures are not good for eating !! " . While I looked confused, he continued " Yes, to make it shine we add extra artificial things to it. Once the picture is taken, we throw the dish away."
Well, I never needed all that . My fish fry looked crisp & fresh even without any artificial things .And it tasted soo gross too!! I could immediately feel the absense of salt & chilli in it. And few pieces were over cooked that it tasted like a piece of charcoal.Actually, Its no big deal. After so many failed attempts in my cooking career, I know exactly what I should do . Just let it fly to the wastebin.
Now the tips & tricks on cooking by yourself ( This is especially for those bachelors who are planning to visit US & has never toured a kitchen before).
1) Don't expect your food to look "red" in color , unless you are using some mixes. I tried adding chilli powder to get the color. It never turned red and even worse, it burned my ass off.
2) Before eating the results of your major projects like Fish & Chicken fries , drink a couple of chilled beer. No , beer is not an appetizer. Chilled beer will make your tongue frozen enough to accept unsavory food.
3) If your final product looks bad , chances are that, it'll taste bad too. So don't risk your stomach on it. Especially if you are staying alone in a new place.
4) Fish stinks. Raw fish stinks even bad. If you are not comfortable in putting your fingers under gill cover and pull out the gross looking gills out of a fish , then cooking fish is not your cup of tea. Avoid it. 5) Like an expert chef, you might want to use all sizes of cup , dishes , pans & plates while you cook. What you don't realize is that, it'll leave a mess . Usually it comes to light only after you have had your food. Your mom won't come & clean it up. Its your mess and its your headache too. 6) Keep fresh fruit & Corn-flakes handy. It helps , especially when you are really hungry & lazy.
7) Love your Mom for whatever she cooks for you. Trust me , its soo much better than what you can make by yourself. Mom, if you ever read this blog ...... I want you to know that I love you soo much . You don't know how much I miss you today ........ or atleast how much I miss your fish fry today. Epilogue I decided on writing an epilogue after I got overwhelming reviews from a lot of my readers eulogizing the first part of this series .( All right, I was lying. I just had my regular reader Nasra commenting on it. That too after I promised her that I would be a guinea pig for her next culinary project ) Getting back to cooking, there would be few amongst you who are really strong willed. You know, the kind who are like, "I wont leave this mess without getting it fixed ". If you are one amongst them, listen to me. If you went wrong the very first time, it means that you dont know cooking. It'll take hundreds of tries before you will get it right, if at all you would ever. So, while your mind is steadfast on getting the right combinations, take care of your stomach too. Eat something once in a while, else your epitaph would say "Here lies a dude, who died of hunger , while cooking"
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For the concluding line ..May the dude rest in peace 
