My simplest and favourite food, one I could eat anytime, every single day, is dal chawal — lentils and rice. There’s something about it that never gets old. As the Hindi saying goes: “दाल रोटी खाओ, प्रभु के गुण गाओ” (dal roti khao, prabhu ke gun gao) — eat simple dal-roti, and sing the praises of God. Simple food, contented life.
Next up is masala dosa. I can eat this absolutely anytime — crispy, golden, and stuffed with spiced potato. It’s one of those dishes I never get tired of, no matter how often I have it.
And then there’s sadya — the traditional feast served during Onam. An elaborate spread of dishes on a banana leaf, and I absolutely love it. I genuinely can’t get enough of it whenever the chance comes around.
Breakfast & Lunch Experiments
When I first came to the UK, living completely independently for the first time, I was working as a physiotherapist in Kent, living in a bungalow on Barnsdale. My breakfast at the time was pretty heavy — a peanut butter sandwich with two fried eggs, sometimes with chips on the side. I ate that for ages.
Then I got married, and Runa came into my life — things changed significantly after that. I don’t remember exactly what I used to eat at the time, but from there I went through quite a few different trials of breakfast and lunch.
For a brief period I had muesli with milk — every morning before I left the house, I’d have muesli or cereal with milk, and that lasted quite a long time.
As for lunch, for quite a long period when I was working as a community physiotherapist, I used to leave around 10 or 10:30 and buy a sandwich — mostly egg and cress — with some crisps.
For quite a long period I had the Tesco meal deal — a sandwich, a drink (for a while it was Red Bull), and crisps. I always went for salt and vinegar because the sandwich was quite bland, so it gave a bit of a kick.
Then for another few years, I bought a salad from the Morrisons salad bar — that one lasted for ages too.
Later, when I was working as an Advanced Physiotherapist at Eltham Medical Centre — one of my early jobs in that role, working for Circle in London — there was a Subway near the hospital. I used to go there and buy a veggie patty with a drink, quite regularly.
More recently, I’ve noticed I’ve completely skipped breakfast. For the last year and a half or so, I’ve just been having two boiled eggs and Babybel cheese — I like the Babybel Wax ones. It’s become a regular thing. My current breakfast “fad”, as I’d call it, is two boiled eggs from Tesco with a bit of salt and pepper, plus two Babybel cheeses. I’m watching my weight at the moment.
Nitin Sharma | Questioning Everything 