Brunch on Sundays

Sundays should be light days for those who cook for the family, throwing in all the love for the partners and children, and friends if any, apart from throwing away the bit of leisure time they could have got. Brunch is a great idea.

But the Brunch that comes with the Hindustan Times on Sundays  is something I look forward to with as much of an appetite built up over the week. Nice, light reading, good pictures. One may not agree with a lot in it, but nevertheless …

Today’s Indulge column by Vir Sanghvi, took me back to my childhood. He writes about a dessert stylishly called Floating Island, and for good measure, he has given a couple of recipes as well. And of course, he talks about the way different renowned chefs made it the world over.

The floating island is basically a gooey custard in which  meringues are floated. The  lighter the meringue, the tastier the custard, more the style and presentation, the better the Floating Island is.

I’ve eaten it many times without knowing till today that it was called the Floating Island.

Life with my parents—my father is a retired Brigadier-- in the cantonments, was all about  parties. People were coming home or my parents were going out. Once in a while, children were included. And I generally looked out for two things. One was a show stopper on the dining table—there invariably was one. The other was the desert.

I remember Guddy aunty  serving us what looked like Rasmalai. But she told us that it was custard, and what was floating in it was made of stiffly beaten white egg with sugar, cooked in milk, and floated into the custard. There was vanilla too..

A rose by any other name. Floating Island by any other name. It tastes good always. Now I am going to eat it at the earliest opportunity.