I swear I don’t know what to do
The Dish Disaster!
playing Jenga with my dishes…
It is around 4 Pm. I entered my kitchen hoping to make some tea and snacks. And eventually, fix some dinner. The maid hasn’t come yet to do her cleaning.
Hence the place looks like a war zone! It looked like the cook who made food there nearly fled away to an unknown place abandoning the kitchen.
The first thing I needed now was a small size saucepan to make tea. And the kitchen sink was precariously full. To the brim. Vessels were balanced dangerously unsteady on top of one another and stood there like some sort of amazing boulders ready to fall on the passerby.
It was a festival day. I had made a South Indian menu complete with Payasam and Vada. This entailed the usage of many large vessels. After all, dishes like the Sambar and Rasam need space enough to boil well. Hence all the cauldrons were out.
Where is the tea-making bowl?
The exact type of bowl that I was now looking for, to make my tea, had been used in soaking tamarind earlier that day. I don’t exactly remember how I landed up with such a full kitchen sink.
The thing with me is that I tend to pick up things a bit semi-consciously. I enjoy cooking so much that when I reach a state of flow I start doing things without quite meaning to.
How do I proceed?:
Never mind, I thought to myself. If I can’t make tea right away, I can surely start making Dal for dinner. I looked around for my favorite red pressure cooker.
But nope. It was not to be. It sat prestigiously(Prestige is its brand. Pun intended) at the bottom of the kitchen sink! I have many other cookers in many different shapes and dimensions. But all those glorious vessels had also found their place in the sink.
So you shouldn’t be surprised to see around twenty five spoons and nearly all the ladles in the sink just to feed four people!
The official chewing up of my medulla-oblongata:
Dear lord…Don’t you want me to make any dinner today? Forget about it. I think I will begin making the evening’s sabzi (vegetable). I looked around for my latest Stahl Kadai. I remember receiving it as a gift from my mum-in-law.
But then, it was in the sink. So I looked for my non-stick kadai. Once again the sink. Alright…alright! Forget about stylish Stahl cookware or the non-stick pan.
I am sure I have those cast iron pans. Or those aluminum pans. But no….even that was not to be. All frying pans of every size I possess were not available in a clean state that day for further use.
It looked very much like Judgement Day.
All my vessels seemed to love the sink so much! Where on earth was my focus when I let all those vessels pile up?
I proceed anyway:
Now, never mind.
I am sure I can grind some masala for the sabzi that has to be prepared for dinner. I quickly took out some ginger and garlic for the ginger garlic paste. I also pulled out some tomatoes from the fridge for the masala. I began peeling and chopping the ingredients.
Thankfully the knives and peelers were retrievable as they never really go into the sink for the fear of harming someone’s hands. After a few minutes of work, all the masalas were ready to be ground.
That is when I started looking for the right size of blender jar. And oh! Even this was supporting all the chaos in the sink!
Lo! Is there nothing in this kitchen that is clean and in working condition? The cooker, the kadai, the plates, the spoons, the cups, the blender jars…just about everything is adorning my kitchen sink presently. It looked like the waiting game for the maid was almost mandatory. On most days actually.
The I Spy game:
After experiencing this sort of trouble for so many years I came up with this I Spy game.
Many a time the late arrival of the maid and the subsequent delay in work had to be put up with. And on one such day, I came up with this I Spy game.
This game involves standing and bending at different angles in front of the sink in order to identify and figure out the exact location of the vessel that I need without actually touching it or digging my hands deep into the sink water.
Looking at it from different strategic positions enables me to figure out its location. Like the GPS. Once I understand where the exact cooker whistle that need is or where the exact spoon that I need is amidst the jungle of vessels-then I proceed with the next step.
Playing Jenga:
The next step involves playing the Jenga with your vessels. Don’t get me? Here’s what I do. I pull out the exact vessel that I need from an ocean of dirty dishes, without really disturbing the neighboring vessels or the way they have been arranged.
This is a precarious job that requires a steady hand and a calm mind. First I forget that I am in a great hurry to finish cooking. I tell myself I can cope with some delay. Then I tackle the utensil which may be standing on the edge of some odd plate. Or it may have been randomly shoved amidst other uneven vessels.
If it is on the top of the pile, then well and good. So much the better. But as bad luck would have it, the dish that I need will be right at the bottom of the pile.
Then, in this case, I just pull it out in one quick motion. Like how you’d pull your striker out from a board of pauper coins. crash…and Viola! It’s out. There may or may not be any damage to the surroundings. Though I avoid disturbing the other vessels.
Abundance is the key:
I swear I own multiple tea strainers, rolling pins, knives, spoons, ladles , cups, saucers, cookers, blenders, plates and every other cutlery you can imagine.
Because of course, I thought abundance was the key. If you own way too many things than you can probably use, then the problem should be solved. Isn’t it?
Interestingly, the reverse is true. The more things I own, the more vessels that go into the wash!
