Comfort Food - To friendships and Memories

This is adapted from No Recipes - Monte Cristo Sandwich or rather from memories of old times brought forward after reading that recipe.

We were 5 really really thick friends back in college all of us now scattered across the globe with not too many hopes of getting together anyttime in the near future... This one is for them and the good times we shared.

Back in college, I stayed in the hostel though my parents lived just half an hour away. My excuse being that it would get too late in the evening reaching home after all the classes and other activities in college. So five days of the week, I stayed in the hostel and the weekend I went home to do laundry and have mummy's yummy food... Now the hostel mess food isn't something that normally anyone goes crazy over.... But my sister will vouch for it that I loved lunches there... I loved having rice, sambhar, pacchamoru(buttermilk) and also omelettes from Muttachechi. There was hardly ever any non-veg consumption in the hostel mess... for non-vegetarian stuff visited the other thattukadas (roadside eateries) favoured by students and of course truckers! :-D

Now I want to get to breakfast. I hated breakfast at the hostel mess... Couldn't ever make myself like Upma and Chutney and really lousy Puttu (steamed rice cakes) with kadala (chana). But the saving grace was every alternate day was bread day. Now you have to know something about us Mallus. We LOVE bread! Bakeries and Breads have a ubiquitous presence across the length and breadth of Kerala. I love the taste of bread from Kerala, so much so that I sometimes pack it from home and bring it back to Bombay, cos as I keep telling my friends here... bread in Bombay sucks!

Everyday when breakfast was bread, all 5 of us would stand in line for omelettes from Muttachechi. Now Muttachechi was an incredibly smart lady. Of around the 50 people who'd stand in line for eggs, she'd know exactly what toppings/fillings each one of us wanted in our omelette... I know I used to like mine with a lot of black pepper and green chillis and she'd add extra ones just for me...Quite Yummy! I must say... We'd get Bread, little Cubes of Amul Butter, a dollop of Jam and our Eggs and Come back to the table... and then one day I saw Hima buttering the bread, adding jam and then sandwiching the omelette between two such slices and I went Ugghhh!!!! How awful could that be??!!! But then I took a bite from hers and I've been hooked forever.

This is to us, the madcap 5 (Swaps, Shyns, Nami, Hima and moi) and our funny conversations.

Required:


Bread - 2 slices
Butter - a knob
Eggs - 1 (salt and pepper to taste)
Ham - 1 slice
Cheese Slice - 1

Strawberry Jam - a dollop

Melt butter in a pan, lightly toast one side of the bread. Pull strips from the cheese slice and place them on each slice of bread. One slice of ham on one toast and a light omelette made of just egg,salt and pepper on the other. Sandwich everything together. Serve with a dollop of Jam. Sip your coffee and go aaaahh! this is life!