Wow, it's MY kind of Yogurt!

So, if you know me real well, you will know that I absolutely love milk. Perhaps, it is my Indian culture that compels me towards it. One really can NOT have an Indian meal without milk products being needed in their preparation (seriously, can you name ONE Indian dish that doesn't use either Milk, Yogurt, Butter Milk, Sour Cream or some other dairy variation?). On a larger level, perhaps it is my cultures veneration for the Cow. On the other hand, perhaps it is the memories of my grandfather making me drink milk everytime I went to his place (and, oh, how I loved to see them. The best part was when I would ring the doorbell and hear my grandfather singing the hymn "Jairam Jairam, Jai, Jai Rama" as he approached the door).

Whatever the reason may be, I love milk, and that can also be said for yogurt. My mother makes our own yogurt. The grocery store variety is NOT acceptable. It is usually too "Americanized" for lack of a better word. Only the Indian-style yogurt really satisfies my palate.

So over a year ago (might be almost 2 now), I started noticing how the Yogurt my mom makes tasted different. I can not explain it, but I will try. It tasted worse than the "Americanized" variety. If I MUST get Grocery Store variety yogurt I usually get Columbo. For whatever reason it is the closest to Indian style one can find. The American styles have a strange creamy taste to them. They are thicker and dont have that authentic sour taste that is familiar to me. The sour taste in American yogurts is quite a different sour. A sort of spoiled sour in my opinion.

You really probably don't understand what kind of a shock to the system this was to me. I have yogurt with almost EVERY Indian meal I have. If its time to eat Gobi-Aloo, I must have yogurt with it. If its time for Plow, I must have yogurt oozing on top of the carrots, green peas, onions and rice. If its time for Spinach and Cheese, I must have a side of yogurt to mix the spinach with the yogurt after Ive eaten all the cheese pieces.

For almost 2 years now I have suffered. I would argue I've gotten fatter because of this (not kidding). Not having yogurt has made me look to fast-food or other less healthy foods (than Indian food) to make up for the loss. It's the equivalent of someone giving up smoking so instead they poison themselves by binge eat Entemens cookies instead! I mean, no knock on Entemens, they taste great, but how good are they for you really.

I tried to do whatever I could to get to the bottom of the situation. I even asked my friend if she knew whether milk distribution in the area had changed (or perhaps there was a new law that caused the feeding habits of cows in New York to change...what are they doing to those cows! They MUST provide me with the right milk!).

A few months ago (and this shows how TRULY sensitive I am) I found out that indeed distribution of milk DID change in the area. The milk distributed now apparently is different than before and its been distributed for about TWO YEARS. Coincidence? I think not.

I know, you may be thinking: "Jeetan get a hold of yourself. There is no way you really could tell that they changed distributors by noticing how homemade yogurt tasted differently!". I disagree, yogurt is my life, and I've been eating yogurt virtually every day of my life. I could tell, and apparently I did.

Step one was complete: finding out why things were the way they were. Step two was to get MY yogurt back.

After months of tinkering, and messing around with recipes, tonight I have once again tasted the Amrita (for you non-Indians, the Greek Ambrosia should suffice to understand that statement)! Oh, how that sour, yet NOT sour creamy yogurt slid across my tongue; it surely felt like Heaven. I'm sitting here at 9:30 and thinking about going upstairs and eating the whole pot! (I can imagine myself stuffing my face with the bowl, reminiscient of how Winnie the Pooh stuffs his face into the honey pots. I've got the belly to pull off the comparison!)

Some might say writing about this, for that matter caring about yogurt this much, is just foolish, but as I said in the beginning, if you know me well, you'll know, I love my milk, and I love MY kind of yogurt! :)