ONCE when my wife had gone to New York to see our daughter, I was on my own, and quite often ordered food from hotels nearby. One morning it was spicy vadas which I’d got out of bed dreaming about! The hotel sends me a lot of sambar, which from previous occasions I’ve found reappear later on my table along with my dinner or lunch.

The sambar, though tasting good with the hotel food doesn’t go well with the food cooked at home, maybe because it’s a tad sweet, and my tooth, though in love with all things sweet, still prefers rice or chapati not tasting syrupy sweet! “Throw the rest of the sambar away!” I told my cook, when she came later........

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