No Crying Over Spilled Raita

A couple of weeks ago we invited a few friends over for lunch. In order to impress them with my culinary skills, I prepared food since morning. I was expecting this particular bowl of cucumber raita (spiced curd) to become a conversation piece as the guests would pile up their plates. After all, I had used so much ingenuity and improvisation, cutting out the bottom of a paper cup and bending the hole into a heart shape, then using the heart shaped hole as a stencil held above the curd, sprinkled red chilli powder ever so gently . Caution: never blow away the excess chilli powder as I foolishly did. After removing the paper cup, I patted my own back and admired myself for inventing something genuinely in the era of Internet, when I could have easily copied someone else's idea. 

After some more decorating, and photo shoot to my satisfaction, I hastily proceeded to keep the bowl in the fridge. There was still a lot of work to be done in other departments. In my haste, as I was putting a lid on the bowl, it slipped and shook the entire liquid and my red chilli heart broke! Raita fail gaya!!

But as I was in no mood to give up (the chances of my hospitality being talked about), I stirred the red chilli in, and created a similar heart again. This time I was very careful and the bowl with a red fiery heart made it to the dining table intact. The guests talked about the raita, but about its lip-smacking taste. Even better!