June 02, 2009

Yellow Dal

At the supermarket yesterday, a newly married chooda-dhaari girlie and her friend were trying to buy dal for what was clearly the first time in their lives. "This one? This is the yellow dal? The one for sambhar? The one for dal chawal? Are they the same?" Since they were standing facing the right one, I did not offer to help, and just walked past with a smile. They were speaking in Hindi, and if their accent had been dyed Punjabi, I'd have had to push them a fair bit to the left.

Yellow Dal. That mysterious, all-encompassing name of the food of those who do not enter the kitchen! My favorite question, and one which I regularly ask random people is: "How man kinds of yellow dal are there and what are their names?" Most people stop at two, which are the two their Mummy makes. Anyone who goes beyond three is generally a cook (for better or worse). 

Now you're surely thinking how many kinds there are. My answer is five. Maybe there's one or two I missed. Mind you: not all of these look yellow in the shop! Give them 10 minutes of introspection in  a pressure cooker and they'll rang themselves basanti for sure!

Aside: The Husband has left a strange song playing on the comp: "hey hey hey lady! don't treat me like a baby! hey hey hey mister, don't treat me like a sister..." iTunes tells me it's from Ussele Ussele...Abey kiss-se kya lena hai? 

9 comments:

hyde said...

The song is called "Lady" from the movie "Little John" :-)

--Hyde

Piggy Little said...

ha ha!! nice one.
altho i wud like to know the five kinds. my guesses r

1. arahar/ tuvar
2. chana
3. masoor tukda (as against masoor sabut)
4. the one used in sambhar

Anonymous said...

Hyde: Tx! It's part of the jingbang at the end of the Ussele^2 album, hence the confusion.

Piggy Little: Oopsie! Arahar and the Sambhar dal are one and the same! Your score: 3 :P

-Inky

Piggy Little said...

ok :) bt i know there r two more yellow dals...i just dont know their names.... :D :D


ps. i love ur blog.

wendigo said...

malka masoor
sabut masoor
arhar
chana
urad?


hahah word verification: ashelp

Ink Spill said...

and moong dal! nobody remembers the poor thing?
sabut masoor is black with clothes and pink when nangu....and that's when it's called malka masoor, or so I have always thought....

Anonymous said...

hey there is also matar dal .. which is yellow .. although not so much popular ...

urad
moong
malka masoor
arhar
chana
mutter

:-D

colours said...

Uh! I had the same problem... when I got married and I even made sambhar with moong once.

Mobi said...

No comments on d dals.. Being 19 (and male), I do not enter d kitchen except to forage...

But loved d aside.. ROFL.