Venti

In all these years, I have never been able to adjust to portions in this country. Be it beverages, meals or even the occasional ice cream from Dairy Queen or Cold Stone Creamery. The smallest of sizes is still too much for me, even if it were a small fountain drink. And ice appears to be a dish in itself, it is piled onto glasses with great pride, like it were to be relished and cherished for eternity.

Most times the only way I go for Indian buffet lunches is when non-desi coworkers crave for some spicy Indian food! One coworker shocked the bejeezus out of me one time when we went to this Indian lunch buffet place which, in the Northern Virginia area, has one of the best spreads. Right after a humongous meal, he had a craving to stop at Dairy Queen and went on to polish off an entire order of the Blizzard! I almost fainted. I couldn't even bear to see food after the meal and a Blizzard just seemed like torture. If you don't know what a blizzard looks like, here goes.

For a long time, I got coffee mugs from India, the small daintily sized ones for beverages. The first time Amma visited me, she had a hard time gulping 'vat' sized coffee in the morning. She found my desi mugs to be a life-saver. Added to that, she couldn't get adjusted to the coffees that are found here. Neither have I for that matter. From Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts to Pete's Coffee to Kona, I have tried most of it and it still comes short of the filter kaapi Amma makes back home. Its got to be something in her hands, cos I have tried to get the very same coffee back here and tried to recreate the magic to no avail.

So while I am importing Nayak's Coffee works coffee back here for all those mornings I am home-sick, Appa has a different take on coffee altogether. Do you blame me for calling them the North and South pole? They drink a different brand of coffee between the two of them. To say that he loves Starbucks coffee would be an understatement. In so many years that I had been here, I had never had to go beyond the 'Tall' sized coffee from Starbucks, which to this day I haven't understood why they couldn't have a 'small'. The first few visits to Starbucks were pretty normal, so to speak. He got his coffee, added milk and sugar and launched into his coffee induced heaven. One time while we were at the airport, he offered to go buy himself ...some coffee! And he was back after a few minutes with what could only be described as a 'flask' filled with the strongest coffee intended to keep an individual awake for the next few months.....the venti!

'Appa, they must have made a mistake. Didn't you ask them for the smallest size?'

'Er no. This is fine.'

'No its not. Lets go and get it fixed. You shouldn't have to pay for so much coffee when all you wanted was a small size'

'Hehe, I asked for their biggest size actually!'

!!!!!!?????

Yes he had fallen for Starbucks coffee, hook line and sinker. He gets the 'venti' sized wonder without fail and relishes every sip of it. Spotting a Starbucks is akin to a comet sighting for him. And here I am, after all these years- yet to finish off the smallest sized cup of ice cream!

So while I import filter kaapi, Appa makes me export Starbucks on every trip!

If ever I were to wonder on how Starbucks could have come up with sizes they have, Venti might just have been created for the likes of Appa.