The familiar question...

(This is an article initially drafted about 10 years ago...publishing 10 years hence.. as I found the time...and the courage..and in any case the ability to disclaim it to a 10 year younger self!)

My wife asked me, for the umpteenth time, 'what shall I make for lunch?'. By a vague mathematical calculation which I am generally good at, it is somewhere between the 4561 to 4900th time that I have been asked the question. I guess its is fair on my part to say that I am rather tired of answering this question... 

It has been my constant refrain to be excused the pain of this question, to move to a more planned regimen of menu for a week, or in the worst case to be offered options, the process of deciding the fine aspect of what needs to be cooked is at best a trivial decision, not because it is a decision of the lower order, but because what is in the refrigerator stands to be consumed sooner than later in one form or another. So what needs to be cooked for lunch is just a matter of timing, its when it should be cooked. Is it going to be okra for lunch and cabbage for dinner or the other way around. 

My problem is that the questions are offered sans a choice, open ended, when an open choice doesn't really exist. Smart alec answers like 'butter chicken, braised salmon or shalmi kebab' are soon retorted with 'You know that's not possible'. My wife is a greenie, rest of the family are mild rebels to her cause. 

So the process of responding to her in a manner she likes is rather time consuming. To start with, I must detach from the context what I am doing. Then proceed to determine first the available inventory, two, a mental run through of what the tastebuds would appreciate or more often than not, offer less resistance. When I am in a good humour, I offer value added advice on creative suggestions and several new additions to our household menu have come by - such as - ginger chicken with sautted vegetables or Saffron egg rice, inspired my my alma mater mess (seriously good!).

Of late have been less indulgent to fork my creative processes in culinary direction, so the aspect of menu decisions has lost its sheen for me. I am back in my safe zone of muted resistance at the dinner table on 'sameness'. But my wife is persistent. Well so am I. I will thwart her persistence this time, not by outright refusal, but by cunning. So what I do is as follows,

'What do we have in stock?'

'Okra, Cabbage and Cauliflower'

We have been quite health conscious recently, having gathered a few extra kilos apparently almost suddenly. So picking the theme,

'Let me check for the nutrition advice for each' 

I check the inventory and discover we have 3 vegetables to choose from - Okra, cabbage and cauliflower. Next, I decide to make a very scientific decision by consulting nuitritiondata.com on the calorific/minral/fat value of each of these three greenies. It takes mew few minutes to get there, she awaits disterestedly. Okra has vitamin C, Traced of agany begin to appear. Cabbbage, Vitamin A and cauliflower has loads of fiber to clear your intetstines. This is getting a bit too much now. 

Considering the weather for the day, a bit chilly, I decree that it is best to make okra beacuse it will provide more resistance, and the delay inconsumption will potentially cause some of the vitamin C to be lost to the microbacterial residents of the refrigerator complex. 'Ridiculous, I am off my top' she says to herself.

Fibers are less prone to destruction, I premise, because I guess they are too big for microbacterial intestines. Driven to it, she despairs and 'Let it be, I will decide myself'.

I smile in subtle victory.

We proceeded to have okra, cabbage and cauliflower over the sequence of the Lunch, Dinner and next day's lunch. All is now well.