When you are on the wrong side of 40 or 50, there is no dearth of tips on how to stay fit. Exercise daily, walk 10,000 steps, drink more water, eat healthy, drop the whites from your food (salt/sugar, milk, maida), try the x, y, z diet…I know them by heart and when I surrender, I do lose some kilos faster than expected but also invariably gain them back even sooner. What to do when I enjoy my food? “To eat is a necessity but to eat intelligently is an art,” a good friend keeps reminding me.
In search of this art in Tamil Nadu’s food capital, Madurai, I mostly end up reading more about what other people are doing elsewhere to eat, live and look fabulous! From Japan’s less is more minimalist diet to tapas recipes and the daily routine of mini-fasting (mostly done while you sleep) followed by a light lunch (or none at all) and a big protein-packed dinner – I understand how well they help to keep feeling and looking better.
But alas, common sense is not my best friend. I continue to walk into bakeries and cafés and pamper myself. Sinful indulgences these are and I am also spoilt for choice each time I go to review a food festival. To detoxify I return to my favourite chef in town, Manimaran at Puppy’s bakery, Anna Nagar. He puts together some of the best salads that make me temporarily go guilt-free!
Last time when I went, he did not even spread the salad on a plate. It was compressed in a glass jar with no compromise on taste or quality. “This way you will eat less,” he smiled. I must have looked unhappy for he returned with a small plate containing mini-pizzas!
He calls them pizza-pops because you can do away with your knife and fork and just pop one entire pizza into your mouth complete with creamy cheese topping and other ingredients from broccoli, mushroom or baby corn to olives, capsicum, barbeque chicken and spicy paneer. And when the 1.5 inch pizza is held on a skewer stick, kids go crazy with the pizza lollipop!
Likewise Manimaran also makes 2.5 inch burgers in comparison to the regular four inch burgers. “Labour involved is more and it takes longer to make the mini-items but we do it for our customers who find them more fun and easy to eat,” he says, adding, they are also easy to carry and eat during travels. However, the mini-foods are mostly made-on-order and are not usually available off-the-menu.
Down the road at Blaack Forest K.K.Nagar, B.Anandh is also experimenting with pint -sized food. “The mini finger foods demand stylish display,” he says, and endorses that they are perfect for birthday parties and big gatherings. He sells mini puffs, burgers and sandwiches and is gradually introducing mini bread dinner rolls, cup cakes and doughnuts. “These are just small bites with less chances of wastage,” he says. Mostly people pop in a piece as a sampler. If they like it they can go for another mini-piece or simply stop with one. “This way people neither miss the taste nor do they add much calories,” he says.
Reiterates Anandh: “Creating tiny versions of food requires more patience and hard work.” The mini dinner rolls are good accompaniments for soups and he sells six pieces for Rs.15. “But it is like a small thread of dough with different types of knots and curls that are done by hand and requires practice,” he points out, offering me the Tres Leches cake, a Spanish miniature sponge cake laden with cream and soaked in evaporated to condensed milk. In one bite, the tender sweetness simply melts in my mouth.
Further down the road at Madfellas, you will find even smaller and irresistible burgers which slide into your mouth in one go. Called the burger shots, you get three of these mini burgers on one plate. Have one as an appetiser and share the rest or lap up the full plate for a satisfying evening meal. That exactly is the fun of these perfectly sized tiny servings. With chefs creating mini-recipes in their kitchens, creation knows no limit and the city’s prominent bakers are all happy to roll out miniature forms of your favourite rolls and doughnuts to French fries and what not. Compared to Mac burgers, 12 inch pizzas and buckets of fried chicken, seriously these hand-held mini delicacies seem like health food!
Disclaimer: I subdue my hunger pangs with short eats now and ‘donut’ worry any more. Just that the weighing machine is locked in the attic!