American Chicken Nuggets

After moving here back in November the first thing I was warned about was not to drink the water, the second was that rice will make you fat. As many of you know by now I do not cook my own meals during the week. Though coming home after a long day at the office, knowing that all I have to do is warm up a freshly, home cooked meal, sounds fabulous it does have one major drawback. I am forced to eat what someone else prepared for me whether that is what I am in the mood for or not. I must also inform you that rice is a staple food in southern India, which happens to be where I am located. This means Stella makes rice for dinner every night. Since I eat leftovers for lunch the next day, that means I eat rice for lunch as well. I officially eat rice for every meal but breakfast (sometimes breakfast too), EVERYDAY. But contrary to warning number two, eating rice for every meal is not making me fat; I have actually lost 15 pounds since I left the States. I have found that I am so tired of rice that I now only eat one or two spoonfuls before I slide it aside.

Tired of rice and coming off a lonely Hallmark holiday, I decided to venture out for some American food. Instead of heading to Hard Rock or one of the other semi American restaurants I decided to make my own. Calling up Uday we head to one of the larger grocery stores that is known for having a decent selection of western food. Purchasing a two liter of Pepsi, some chicken nuggets, and a bag of French fries I headed out for the checkout line. Ok, so maybe it’s not a well balanced meal, but it’s going to taste damn good.

Walking into the kitchen I instantly turned on the oven to start preheating it. The oven only has numbers from 60-250 so I settled on 140, I would follow the directions on the box but they say to fry them in oil. I would not want this meal to be unhealthy after all. While the oven is preheating I must explain one other thing to you. Most homes in India do not have a oven, why mines does I cannot tell you. I would be surprised if they oven has ever been used. Digging through the cupboards I find a pan that I don’t think will melt, but I guess we will find out. I spread the nuggets out evenly across the pan and stick it in the oven.

5 min later I come back to check on my nuggets. For some reason the oven does not seem to be getting that hot so I decided to turn it up to 250, after all back home you would cook nuggets at 400. Giving a quick flip I head back to the couch.

3 minutes later I decided to check on them one more time. It is a good thing I did as they were now crunchy. I did not burn them per say, but I would not be willing to knock them on the marble counter tops for fear I may crack it. Pouring some ketchup on a plate I headed to the couch just like we do it back in the good old US of A. Nothing like chicken nuggets, French fries, and a nice ice cold Pepsi in front of a movie that is approximately nine years old. It just sets the mood.

** Skip ahead two days **

Making small talk in Matt’s office he got sidetracked and skipped to telling me that Stacy, his wife, wanted to come over to my place to use my oven to make cookies or a cake. He then started to tell me about the first time she made cookies in their toaster oven. Apparently she burnt them as she was not used to the settings, sorry for selling you out Stacy but no one reads this anyways J. It was not until this point in time, two days later, that is dawned on me the oven temperature is listed in Celsius and not Fahrenheit. 250 Celsius equals 482 Fahrenheit. Matt proceeded to tell the entire team what I had done. At least someone got a kick out of it.

Blake