We share with you our recipes, reviews, tips and thoughts on building a happy home together through food.
As anyone who has grown up in India over the past few decades will tell you, Maggi noodles are one of the most craved breakfast items on weekends. The promise of ’2-minute’ cooking was a boon to the Indian mom’s who had to feed hungry tots in a hurry; I truly believe these instant-cook noodles were the initiator of the fast food industry to desi households. And the genius behind the noodles was the flavor packets included with each – with flavors well suited to the Indian palate. Plus, the marketing campaign to include stamps in the packets for an year was brilliant – like with me, I’m sure philately was introduced as a hobby to many Indian kids as a result of this promotion.
Masala was the ubiquitous flavor as I was growing up, but there were various other flavors introduced along the way. The green capsicum was my personal favorite (didn’t hurt that I found some ‘rare’ bird stamps in those packets!), but chicken was always around, and I think Shrimp was introduced at some point also (and pulled back in a couple of years, apparently the instant craze didnt extend to seafood). I remember getting up on Sundays excited to get started watching the Jungle Book and other Sunday cartoons, while my mom got a steaming hot bowl of Maggi ready for me – what a treat!
My first few years in the US, back in the early 2000s, we had a few of the regular Maggi flavors available – and my early cooking experiments began with adding vegetables, spices and soy sauce to regular Maggi. Lately, there have been so many new flavors of Maggi available that the wifey and I have been finding a new monthly favorite! Our fave for the past month? Machurian Maggi – a perfect combination of the desi-Chinese flavor and the quick cooking Maggi magic.
I just add a few freshly chopped scallions (green onions) and we are set to enjoy a delicious weekend breakfast!