Masala hoarder

San to me : Can you please clean up the bottom draw in the kitchen where you store Maggi. It is getting ridiculous!

Me to San : Not really. Let me check..

Well, what do you know. Over the years the girls have started liking my "Sambar podi" flavored Maggi noddles over Nestle's patented concoction which is a "crowd favorite", to say the least..and that means the packets of Maggi "Masala Taste maker" gets tossed at the bottom.

We have now over a few hundred of these packets!

Me to San : Don't want to throw them away. In case there is a ban on Maggi imports into the USA someday, we can still use those packets with Ramen noodles and get the Maggi flavor!

San gave me her trademark look that usually suggests "How can a guy be smart and stupid at the same time?!"

It is true that Indian rice imports got restricted to the US and two or three years ago rice went from $7.99 for a 20 lb bag to $ 31.99 !! Who knows, the US foreign policy is as fickle today as it was three years ago if not worse.

Still one will always have the Sambar podi to make noodles right? Wrong.

Here is a small table that explains why :

Noodles Tastemaker Taste
=====================================
Maggi Sundar's mix Yummmmmmy
Maggi Maggi masala Yummmmy
Ramen Maggi masala Yumy
Ramen Raman mix Yucky
Ramen Sundar's mix Yuckkkkky

So it might not be a bad idea to hold on to the tastemaker packets after all!!!

For now, I get to store them in the garage...

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Maggi - Dal Atta

It is no secret that I love noodles. My GaneshRam 777 Sambar powder flavored Top Ramen noodles was a favorite for fellow graduate students !

Recently, Nestle has gone on a dicovery path with newer additions to their Maggi noodles lineup.

The vegetable atta was great !

Now comes the Dal Atta aka Sambar noodles !


The ad. pretty much uses every stereotype for a sambar eating south Indian to the point of insulting you. But it still promises every non south Indian a guaranteed authentic sambar flavor. After seeing the advertisement for the Dal Atta, I had to try it !!

If there is one thing that will turn you off faster than the ad. for this noodles, it is the noodles itself !!

This thing downright sucks! I expected something remotely close to my own sambar flavored noodles, hoping to get a whiff of tamarind, cumin, coriander, fenugreek and mustard.. but it was disappointing.

Why ? After you cook the masala for the usual time and cook the noodles, the hot spices stand out. You get the same taste as you get in some restaurants, where they didn't take the time to cook the sambar fully and you think you are eating uncooked chili powder. It is always a challenge to make tasty sambar quickly. The faster you try to wing it, the worse it tastes.. I thought Nestle did some pre cooked magic to eliminate this problem, but was wrong.

So, here is a tip to salvage the situation, in case you bought a 100 pack box of this stuff !! (I buy noodles in boxes! lucky for me, I always do a trial run before I get my box). Add nearly 1 1/2 times the water for every pack, put the tastemaker in and let it boil till the water comes down to the usual 1 cup. Then cook the noodles.

You can also make it taste closer to sambar if you add a little asafoedita after the masala is cooked.

Better luck next time Maggi ..