CELEBRITY COLUMN | Burgers and buddies, writes Maria Goretti

And so I have been quite happy with myself, since I discovered my love for food, and felt that I needed to find out more, so I went off studied and continued with my life in my kitchen. And in the process wrote a cookbook, that just won the first place at the Gourmand Awards, in its category for the year 2016-17. So while it was being announced in Yanting, I was deep sea-diving with my son in the blue of the Maldivian sea and we saw our first stingray.
It was just an amazing day, with the sighting of our first stingray and the fact that I had won, this called for devouring our favourite meat burger, on that island.

Yes, at times in life I’m judgemental, specially if it concerns a juicy, meaty burger, because it will always be in serious competition with what my mom made at home. And this Hideaway burger passed the test with outstanding colours.

After which we came back to our room, to Warsi who was beaming from ear to ear about me winning the Gourmand Award and Zene wanting to know how many different fish we saw, and making me promise her that on our next diving trip, she will do her certification.

And then I suddenly spied upon this bottle of bubbly and a beautiful chocolate cake, my friend Nikhil Chinapa, Pearl and all my dive buddies sent me for the win.

I love diving, not because I’m not frightened of the deep blue sea or because I’m an adrenalin junkie, but because I think, I like the kind of people who dive, not because they sent me bubbly and chocolate cake (okay, okay that too ha ha ha ), but  they are of a certain mindset, and are easy, free-flowing and get excited about simple stuff like the colour of coral, or an eel in its cave, a tortoise going to the surface, a manta swimming by, a  nurse shark resting at the ocean bed, you got the drift right?

And that is just so nice and basic, also diving is all about a buddy system, where you have someone’s back and they have yours.

But what I was coming to is the burger, for me a burger is a celebration, it’s filled with memories of my mom making us delicious ‘Kheema Patties’ that we ate, stuffed inside really hot bread that the ‘Pavwala’ got us by 7 pm on his cycle. And my mom pan-fried the patties fresh and stuffed them into buttered bread, with some cheddar cheese and each bite was full of flavour, and that flavour I feel, only comes through when my mom cooks it. 

There were no in-betweens, no mayo or gherkins or any other frills and fancies. All that I was introduced to much latter in life, at my first job,which was at a patisserie, that made the most amazing burgers in the world. And I remember going home and telling my mom about it, and how we should make it. And that’s how I make it for my kids sometimes. But most of the time I keep it simple.

My mom always said that you can keep adding as many layers to your burger to enhance it, but if your basic patty is not tasty, the burger is not going to be what you want it to be. And this is something we need to take with us wherever we go.

It’s a lesson in life, you need to keep your insides happy and peaceful, because no amount of bank balance, fancy clothes, shoes or work status can ever buy you inner peace.

I was just thinking, if I had a restaurant, this burger would be on that menu, for sure. And I would get my mom to come and train the kitchen staff on how to keep it simple, and how to retain the goodness of simple flavours.

The core of anything is what actually makes the sum whole of it, and that flavour and depth is what is most important to everything in life.

Today, we all have such fast-paced lives, that I actually love it when I’m diving, you  slow down and can hear each breath that you take, and know that if you relax and breathe easy, this dive will be a lot more fun, than if you go about in a frenzied fashion trying to search for that elusive fish that swims in this part of the ocean.

We are all searching in life. Some of us for answers. Some for love. Some for a position of power. Some for peace of mind. Some for food. The thing is this, what has to be ours will be, at the right time, that does not mean you don’t search. But yes, let the search not overtake your life so much only, that you are not able to separate right from wrong. Because the day you do something wrong  and you feel like that is perfectly right, it’s the beginning of the end, and you probably just cannot see.

So, stand up for what you believe in even if you have to do so alone. I stand up now. And walk in the direction of that burger that my mum has on the pan, specially for me. I believe this burger, can help me find nirvana, how about you ?