Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A tribute to Maggi Noodles

Thank you, Maggi Noodles, for always being there. On late Sunday afternoons as a stand-in for lunch. At 2 am, when hunger pangs are at their worst. When recipes go terribly wrong. When I was still learning that buying milk, tomatoes and Hershey's kisses is not what one calls "doing your groceries". And when I finally accepted that, contrary to my mother's belief, age and experience won't necessarily improve my cooking skills.

Whether I'm feeling like sambar, curry or Chinese, all I need is two minutes and you can make my wishes come true. Pray when will they make chocolate fudge Maggi? Never disappointing, always satisfying, a beacon of hope for those of us who cannot cook - thank you, Maggi Noodles.

P.S. I thought of writing a corny poem using the line "You're not just a Noodle, you're the Dude-le", but better sense prevailed and I decided to spare my readers the agony. M surely remembers the poem I once wrote for her birthday. Never quite heard the end of it until I left college...

8 comments:

  1. same here .. Am indebted to maggi forever :) wish there were more ready-to-eat stuff in the market as tasty as maggi !! Whenever I travel alone anywhere, Maggi is always there in my checklist ;)

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  2. Hahha! Maggi was a full time friend during hostel! Where there is hunger, there's got to be Maggi! :D
    Oh, and I totally think you should have written the Dude-le poem ;)

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  3. I was a Maggi lover too, until I read the nutritional facts one day. About 50% of daily sodium intake. Nice for a healthy heart attack! And they feed this to kids in India!!! Mera Bharat mahan.

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  4. I agree with what "Anonymous" says, the nutrition label on the Maggi pack isn't that appetizing, but what more could we ask for at 2am in the night? :)

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  5. @Varsha - I agree. None of the ready-to-eats can even remotely compete with Maggi.
    @DI - Your comment about hostel reminded me of our 4am "Maggi feedings" in our college canteen (which btw, made a fortune out of dividing a single Maggi packet into three separate orders of Rs.10 each).
    @Anonymous - Thanks for leaving me a comment. You make a good point. Maggi is certainly not healthy. But then most packaged food isn't. I wouldn't recommend consuming it on a regular basis. As for feeding this stuff to kids, I don't believe Indian parents are the only culprits. I have seen extremely overweight children being fed pizza and MacD burgers in the US (childhood obesity is a huge problem here). But then there are also Indian and American parents who are extremely attentive to their children's dietary needs. It's an individual thing. In today's world, realistically speaking, some amount of unhealthy food loaded with preservatives, sodium or fat is unavoidable. The question is how much?
    @Manjusha - Yep, I can't think of anything else to eat at 2 am. Only (arguably) unhealthier stuff like milk chocolate or stolen scoops of ice-cream from the freezer come to mind, if at all :)

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  6. Good one PP! It is totally worth a tribute :)) btw.. I will be really interested in listening to your poem.. ;)

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  7. haha.. Maggie has always been my savior. PP rmr when you were gonna visit me in grad school days i proudly stocked up with Maggie.. and you made fun of me :(

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  8. @Vandita- Thanks :) Btw, we tried the chinese maggi noodles that Nikhil and you suggested. Yummy!
    @Tanz- Yes, how can I forget. I believe we ate only maggi at your place, although you had some very generous friends who were happy to cook for us, rmr?

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