Did I tell you I've been eating a lot of TJ's frozen Indian foods?

And that it's great? The malabari roti, we've talked about it extensively here in these pages, and the naan obviously, the veggie biryani is as gooed as anything you can get at the Indian restaurant if not better, the dals are world-class AND stable at room temperature gasp, plus the chickpeas, the other green veggies and paneer are all. so. good. Some, if not all of them, and dare I say this, better than I can make, better than an average Indian restaurant can make. Sure some of us among those who feel we are great cooks will take umbrage at the suggestion that an American supermarket is making frozen INDIAN food, and it's just so so good, but suck it up jokes on you that's the world we're living in now.

What is interesting is how you can make it even better. With the chickpeas, instead of spending 40 minutes in the oven as I don't have the microwave in this place, I just heated in the pan, added a quarter line of butter -- oops sorry if that's also a measure of white substance you like to consume and hope nobody's ever gonna find out but that's how we're measuring butter these days ok --  and then half a red onion, barely cooked, plus several serious glugs of sour kefir. The butter adds extra creamynesss and richness, the kefir adds the tartness, the texture and some color, and the onion, oof the onion does its magic of course rawish red onion goes well with chickpeas who's even arguing there. A large bowl, with three pieces of roti, all so large and well-made, but the stomach gets warm, comforting, fatty food, and imagines a future where nothing is impossible. Some dreams are fueled on empty stomachs, but other dreams are fueled on such sumptuous food that allows the brain to imagine otherwise unimaginable greatness and heights. Just go go go.

Even though you start with a readymade product, you'll have put your sweat and tears into it, darn those tears, and hardwork and creativity and it feels, really it's just like you cooked it from scratch, try try it if you don't beleive me.