Bas 2 minute ……. Review on Maggi Noodles

Scene 1:

My hero ( the one I am married to now :-) ) comes to my city( not village!!!) like Arvind Swami in “Roja” to see his prospective bride i.e. “ME” ;-) We will skip the bit about the sister’s episode in “Roja”… So, he likes me and then convinces his parents to come formally….

Scene 2 :

My hero, and his parents are all seated … there is a huge crowd in the hall of my house .. all neighbours and friends. My parents are also seated. The panditji calls out “call the girl”. I, decked up in heavy silk saree, inspite of the peak heat….loaded with all the x tola of gold,… my head carrying a few kilometers of jasmine… carrying 5-6 “tumblers” of “kaapi” enter the room. I serve the coffee, sneak a peak at my hero and find his head bent!!!, smile to myself, try to act shy (how difficult!!!), fall at my future-in-laws legs, and get seated.

My MIL gives me a smile and starts the interview. “How much have you studied”, I answer “ABC DEF”… She nods her assent. “Where do you work?” , me: “XYZ company”. “How do you travel?” etc etc… then it becomes more personal “Do you know how to sing”… I nod happily. That’s one thing I can boast of… and without waiting I start of “Chinanjiru vayadil ..” from “Meendum kokila” (This was a movie of 70’s where in this song was sung by Sridevi when Kamal Hasan comes to see her ;-)).

Interview continues… “Do you know stitching”… “somewhat”… then the dreaded question

“What all can you cook”………….

My mouth goes dry.. I fumble, my parents are looking at each other in dismay… there is a hushed silence, then all of a sudden the whole crowd has started whispering…. Camera zooms up on my face slowly

A pebble-thrown-in-water-effect and MY DREAM ENDS :-)

Well friends, if you really think such scenes happened in my life… let me tell you a big NO. My thanks to Mr Mani Ratnam ;-) for this.

But I was telling my hubby that incase such a thing had happened, my answer would have been

"--------------------------------MAGGI :-)------------------------------"

Like a typical urban girl, I only knew 2 items to cook/make

1) Maggi

2) Bread with butter/jam/cheese etc….

Whatever I know today, is all after-effect of marriage!!!

I read a couple of reviews on Maggi and most people call it “Bachelors savior”. I ask them, “hum married aurton ne kya gunaah kiya hai “ ( for the benefit of those who don’t understand Hindi - “What crime have we, the married females, commited”) We can say ITS A SAVIOR FOR ALL OF AGYANIS. Period :-)

Like many of the writers here… I too shamefully admit, I aint a good cook. I can only cook such articles. Luckily for me, my husband’s taste buds are not so well developed or maybe he doesnt want to hurt my feelings (I think its the latter :-)). And even more lucky for me that I have successfully passed my love for Maggi to my kids as well :-)

Anyway, the crux of this review is that I love MAGGI for these following reasons

1) Its fast to cook

2) Its good to eat

Did I copy the ad? But its true.

I still remember it had come out somewhere in early 80s. I really enjoyed this freaky non-conventional food – first of its kind. It was so very different and tasted good too. That was the day and to this day its one of my favourite fast food.

FLAVOURS:

It comes in a number of flavours

1) Masala

2) Tomato

3) Curry

4) Chicken

5) Sweet n sour

(maybe I missed something out. I am not really the experimenting sorts… too narrow minded I suppose :-) )

My verdict: I had started off with S&S but somewhere down the line got diverted to Masala and have stayed put on that…

PACKAGE:

The package remains as colourful as it was so many years back. Earlier it used to come in the pack of 1 serving with 1 sachet.

Now we have Maggi in packages of 2, 4, 6 and even 8.

My choice: The pack of 8. Enough for a month. I don’t do it more often than once a week. Not too good for health.

PREPARATION:

Add Noodles and taste maker to 1 ½ tea cups of boiling water. Cook for two minutes in open pan. Stir occasionally.

My style : of preparation is slightly different. I don’t add the masala after the water boils. I add everything together – the noodles, the masala and the 1 ½ cup of water and then put it on the gas, the reason being that if I add after the water boils, sometimes the masala becomes lumpy..

PLEASE DONT MAKE TOO MANY PKTS TOGETHER!!!! I have already gone through a fiasco where I tried making 10 pkts and ended up with MAGGI HALWA!!!! If not for the marketing guy who came up with "home-delivery" policy(!!!!!), my kids party would have crashed!!!

Sometimes I add fried vegetables before putting it to boil. Try it with raw paneer pieces or maybe add shredded cheese. I put some tomato sauce and coriander(the Indian me!!!) just before serving…. It adds to the taste. For all those who want to experiment more...

Try

https://daawat.com/recipes/contributions/masaledarmaggi.htm

https://tarladalal.com/winner.asp?recipeid=3116

https://tarladalal.com/ViewContributedRecipe.asp?recipeid=7412

THE DRAWBACKS :-(

1) Maggi is not exactly a health-food. My yoga instructor (long long ago!!!:-)) had said there are 5 poisons we should avoid :

MILK

GHEE/OIL

SUGAR

NON VEG

MAIDA :-(

And sorry to say that Maggi abounds in the last one. But its OK. Someone rightly said that “why are all good things in life ILLEGAL, IMMORAL, FATTENING or MARRIED” :-)) hehehehehe.

So, sometimes we may take the liberty to overlook !!!

2) Generally, it cannot be eaten cold and reheating doesnt help.... so it needs to be made and eaten fresh.

But then no man and no thing in the world is perfect.... so we can turn a blind eye towards its flaws!!!

All in all, God Bless Nestle!!!!