The Case of the Lunu Kenda

The Mister has been sick. 

It started with a text message lamenting the fact he was slowly dying. Then as the day increased his lamentations of impending doom grew and I ended up going home early just to spend a few hours more attending to him.

It is curious how the common cold affects us all in different ways. Dare I say,  it is a well known fact the common cold affects each particular gender even differently. Our male counterparts feel the wrath of the angry cold,  debilitating any normal functions and leaving them helpless and almost childlike. However the female individual,  struck by the same bug will be able to withstand the worst and continue along their daily routine simply because if they do not cook,  no one will. I had firmly resolved to ensure this phenomenon truly ended with the generation of our parents.

And yet,  I find my stone cold heat melting at the sight of the individual with a fever pitifully lying on the bed after requesting very spicy chips (claiming to be the only food he can consume and contemplating throwing up). 

So ensues my Wednesday evening after work,  multiple grocery shopping,  and hours of checking the stove for the first attempt at a lunu kenda. The recipe I checked did not state there was a portion of salt,  which I assumed to naturally mean the portion was irrelevant. Lunu kenda. Hello! So of course after hours and hours of worrying the new brown rice was a flop,  the kenda almost turned out. Except for one tiny flaw. The lunu tasted like sea water salt kenda.

Just goes to show, there is, I'm sure something greatly significant in this - to our lives and an even greater lesson to be learned. Years from now,  I'm sure I'll figure out what exactly that is. Until then,  I for one have resolved to definitely go easy on the salt.

Comments

  1. DiliThu Mar 06, 07:15:00 AM 2014

    (y)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SachiMon Mar 17, 05:19:00 AM 2014

    Oh man. I first learned to make lunu kenda when Chatura's father was sick. Never quite got the hang of it. Ended up making some kind of pudgy rice. Now I am better at it. It takes practice perhaps? With amma's sickness, I've learned to make sooduru kenda, and bedi haal kenda. Good for tummy upsets it seems. Who knew. An aunt came over and was displaying shock that I did not know how to make these types of kenda so I told her very politely and a tad too cheerfully, that no I did not know but could she please make them to show me? :D And she walked right into it. ha. :D But I learned. So you know. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. B.I*Mon Mar 17, 03:59:00 PM 2014

      It is good to know I am not alone. Also, perhaps future blogposts to share so I can learn sooduru kenda and bedi haal kenda too? :D

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for dropping by. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Popular posts from this blog

The Silver Shore*

After going through this particular post by seanhenricus I was reminded of how beautiful the Nilaveli Beach is. (Great photography there by the way). Although most of this is out of nostalgia and just homesickness (I'm about to buy plane tickets), I remember this magical place and the heart aches for a different time and place. Imagine a full moon poya. A silverish huge moon in the sky. The cool breeze and the silent waves hitting the shore every few seconds. The shadow of Pigeon Island just a few seconds away to the left. I stand there. Taking in every smell, every sound. The sand is soft to my bare feet. I look at the foam that forms. I can't help notice the gleam in the water...of the moon light glimmering, dancing away. The foam is white. Silvery. Everything is a shimmery silver. And I stand there. Years later, I can't forget the Nilaveli beach. I long to go back. To stand there again, on a full moon poya day. To feel that magic again.
Read more

The Perfect Sri Lankan Watalappan

Image
You will need: ·    500g of grated juggery (I got lucky, I've found grated juggery from the indian store. Will add more pics).  2 cups thick coconut milk (I use coconut milk cans or pitikara polkiri powder) 8 large eggs / 10 small eggs (or 18 eggs if double the recipe) About two cloves worth of ground cardamom One ground clove  1 tsp vanilla (I know you can add cashew, I've never been a fan) Directions:  I like to vary it up, and try different dishes. Pre heat the oven to 320F. Fill an oven safe dish with water half way, and place it in the oven, one rack below where the watalappan will go on top.  In a large bowl mix the coconut milk and jaggery, cardamom, cloves.  Stir well until the jaggery is dissolved.  Whisk the eggs with the vanilla, in a separate bowl, and add the coconut milk and jaggery mixture to it.  Mix well. Strain into oven proof moulds / ramekins. The straining is very important.  Cook in the oven for
Read more

The happiest people are the saddest

I'm reading all the wonderful things people have to say about Robbin Williams. He sounds like he was a very good man.  I wonder.  It reminds me of a book I read a while ago. The sense of an ending. There was a very good note left by a character that chose to end his own life. The book dealt with philosophical suicide, which has been something that has fascinated me, ever since reading excerpts from Albert Camus in Myths of Sisyphus which argued against suicide as a way of rejecting freedom and life.  With all the sadness in the world,  I feel like I am leaning more towards the thoughts shared in sense of an ending...wonder how any of us choose to go on sometimes. We are all touched by it, this sadness that goes around all the time, the pain - some way or the other. At one point or another. I remind myself the trick is to really focus on a Pollyanna sort of theory, looking past the negativity. Beyond it. In spite of all the bad things in the world. Despite the horrors
Read more