I love Cerelac. I was fed Cerelac as a kid, and I am sure I dipped my spoon into my sis PeeVee's bowl when she was being fed Cerelac, but my happiest Cerelac days came much later.
Whem my cousin K1 reached the Cerelac-eating age, I would hang around during his feed-times, half for the joy of seeing the adorable fellow eat, and half in the expectation that he would leave some in the bowl, so that I could lay claim over that. And sure enough, he wouldn't eat all of it (thank you, K1), and I would lick the bowl clean.
When his brother K2 was born, I was a little older, and much cleverer. My aunt V and mom had roped me in to "help" feed K2, perhaps to keep me busy. I would receive instructions to prepare Cerelac for him. I would go to the kitchen, prepare Cerelac under somebody's guidance, and then take the bowl to my aunt for her to feed the little K2. Once they were sure I could do it on my own, they allowed me to do it without supervision a few times. Here's where I worked my plan. If they had asked me to prepare two spoons of Cerelac, I would prepare 3 spoons. The logic being, obviously, that K2 would waste more, and I would get more to eat.
I am not sure if my aunt V worried about why K2 had started eating less (she wouldn't, she is hardly the worrying kind), but if she did worry, and changed his feed in any way, I apologize for the lacuna, if any, in K2's nutritional input. But considering that he is now a strapping six-foot plus sportsman, I think it hardly mattered!
Anyway, after that, there was quite a gap before the next kid was born in the family, and I grew Cerelac-hungry. Once, when I was well into my teens, I poured out my tale of Cerelac craving to my sis P, and was quite surprised to see that she loved Cerelac too! We mentioned it to our parents, and they, sweet people that they are, gave us some money and asked us to go and buy Cerelac for ourselves. Ohmigosh! A full tin of Cerelac just for us! Both of us ran back home, mixed some Cerelac with milk, dug into it, found it bland, added sugar, and ah, bliss! That cured my Cerelac cravings - for the present. But a couple of years later, another cousin V was born, and sure enough, I ate his Cerelac too.
Now, just think, I have my own baby and I have full control over what I can do with her food - so I couldn't wait until I could start her on Cerelac. But the Doc advised me to start her on processed Ragi. I was shocked. What about Cerelac? Yeah, yeah, I know, Ragi is much more nutritious, and home-made stuff is always better, and the Little One is slurping up her Ragi, cooing and flailing her limbs in pleasure. But what about Cerelac?
Well, whatever it is, I am waiting for an opportunity to bring Cerelac home... errr.. for myself.
43 comments:
Thats such a cute post!! I remember digging into my younger bro's supply of milk powder!Another food item along the same lines that I realy enjoyed was complan powder in a cup, and not in milk!
-Vidya
haha, reminds me of my Bonny Mix chocolate flavor days :)
awww :). maybe i should take some cerelac back for my roomie.
Hahaha...you sure are funny! My hubby sure will give you company in cerelac-eating-adults group :D
But somehow you remind me of a product from Nestle called 'Nido' that I simply used to looooooooooooove eating :D
Just wanted to say - so look forward to your posts these days.....your posts kinda takes us(even my hubby reads your posts - err, actually you know him!!!) back by about 3 months or so.....cause we would have felt the same way about something or would have had a similar experience 3 - 4 months back......this Cerelac inspired post is another one in the long list.....
Why 3 months back??? Well, we have a daughter who is around 8 months old now ;-) and can so much relate to your posts.....keep posting.....
Vidya, oh yeahhh milk powder! I used to love that too! And err.. about complan, just five years ago, I had a box of complan in my hostel room and i used to eat it every day :D Yeah eat, not drink ;)
Sunshine, oh I remembered Bonny Mix while writing this post. When it was being advertised, me sis and me pestered our parents and got a box of it, and we plain hated it. We don't know what mom did with it. We later found that there was a Chocolate flavour too, and begged mom to buy it for us, saying it might be better, she just refused, obviously :D How was it? Was it better than the ordinary Bonny Mix?
8&20, ha ha!! I am sure that will set her drooling ;)
~nm, heh heh, thumbs up to him :0 Nido? never heard of it! :O
Chitra, Whaaa? I know your husband? Who who who who who? Please tell, me dying of curiosity!
Hi Shruthi,Munny here.I'am a regular reader of your blog since reading "sound of music".I really look forward to your posts.
This post reminded me how i used to wait for my cousins' leftovers.
very cute post.keep posting.
Shruthi that was too funny :D I apparently hated cerelac and was brought up on Ragi and so was my little brother. But your post took me back to the years when I used to feed my brother and slurp some of the "ragi sari" myself :) keep them coming.
Mail sent with the details..... ;-).
Oh no, you're going to fight your little baby for her Cerelac??? :D
oi, you're not kidding right? cos i'll do it. and if she doesn't eat it, it's going to sit and rot in our house. and i'll curse you every time i see it rotting. so now tell me - should i carry some?
:P
Nice blog! you write so well.
buy cerelac in the name of little one and enjoy and continue to feed ragi and other home made cereals food to little one.
your conceputalisation of the things are just amazing yes I think it is in your blood/genes
pranesh
Munny, O meri munny, welcome :D I knew you read my blog... whenever I see that my blog has a visitor from Munchen, I wonder if it is you ;) thanks, and keep commenting :D
Abhipraya, ha ha :) I tried eating the Little One's ragi.. not bad at all, but not like Cerelac :D
Chitra, yay, got it :D
Shyam, fight? Muhahaha I have the advantage of height, age and everything....what kind of a fight would that be ;)
8&20, Gulp! After all those warnings? No way, please don't!
Chethan, hey, thanks so much! And welcome to my blog :)
Kadalabal, Good idea, Pranesh sir, and thanks so much :D
I am another ceralac fan. And my parents brought ceralac as a bribe to drink my milk till I was the 18!
And just the other day I was at the Indian grocery store and the minute I saw the ceralac I started salivating. My poor husband could'nt understand how someone could love ceralac but he did offer to buy me a box.
What kinda fight? The one where you win the Cerelac, of course :D :D
Bonny Mix chocolate flavor was just sinfully delicious, I had the plain one too and I just hated it, but the chocolate flavor was amazing... :)
So how is the little one doing?
I have never tried cerelac actually, well not after what I was fed as a baby. But I make it a point to taste my baby's baby food and I sooo like the taste, but only when it is mixed for her. If I try doing the same thing in my plate it never tastes the same!
Cute post, as usual. My favourite was (err... is) Bournvita powder.
V, ha ha!!! 18!! :) After that? ;) So your husband offered... did you say yes? ;)
Shyam, hyuk hyuk :D She can have her Ragi!
Sunshine, slurp, slurp! Is it still available? :) The little one is doing great!
Madhu, heh heh.... coz baby food is prepared with luuuuurrrveeee!
Chaitra, oh I love Bournvita powder too..the way it melts in the mouth :D
Watch out. K1 and K2 ( sounds like the names of mountain peaks!) are walking towards your house, with the avowed objective of stealing some of the processed ragi when you are not watching.
I don't know whether there was anything of the sort that are available now, when I was an infant; and I was a single child. Heard about Farex, Lactogen.
When my son was given this, in early mid-1990s, Cerelac was becoming popular along with Farex.
I still have a liking for the likes of Complan, Boost, Horlicks etc, and given a chance, I dip the spoon and take a mouthful of them, to the comments of my son: "Papa you still having it..!"
Trust me....it doesn't taste good when you are grown up. I once tried eating a spoonful when i was in 2nd or 3rd class and it just tasted awful.
:D
Btw....nice to see you blogging regularly.
Keep blogging!
Cerelac! I can't say I ever craved for that! But I think I'd be plotting to scrape off the leftovers from the raagi muddi, for sure. :-)
Btw, my dad is from Karnataka and I read one of your posts about the traditional banana leaf meal. Brought back so many memories of such delicious meals from my childhood and cravings for more! :-( It was a wonderful post!
Cereals??? HA HA HA HA HA ROTFL here !
cerelac mommy... hehe
I was an milk-powder addict... :p
Hi Shruti,
I happened to stumble upon your blog and boy.. am I hooked to the posts. You write well.
Its nice to read about your baby.
:)
Oh ho so someones a cerelac lover here just like my mom was. She was aghast too that I didn't want to do cerelac for poppin, I guess she needed a pretext to put a few spoonfuls in her mouth while preparing it for poppin
I have been craving for Bonny Mix for sometime now. I don't know if its the sugar, the carb, or simply childhood that I am hoping to find in BM but what the hell.. :)
IS it available anywhere in the world? If it is, where? I want 1 can!
Complan?
I was a Milo girl...same thing had it in my dorm, have a/many spoonfuls everyday :D
hi shruthi,
Loved ur post.Another cerelac lover here.Especially after a visit to the dentist.
I brought my ceralac and i was searching if it will give any nutrition to a 22 year old male i stuck on your post. It was as good as my cerelac. When i tasted it now i remember or i got the smell of my old days it was fun. Anyway this is a good post on cerelac keep it up.
OOO, i want some Bonny mix badly now. thanks a lot, sunshine. = )
I (used to) eat milk powder/nido too. mmm, it's still good, i can tell you that much. = )
am 28 am having my tin of cerelac and googled cerelac to find ur post...i used to have a share of my bro's cerelac too..now after 23 yrs..i really got the craving for it..bought a tin for myself..i think its high time i have a baby..
am crazy..u may think..hehe..i am
-dena
you can sooo have your own cerelac or nestum or anything thats made for kids...no shame there...so many of us do it :) i used to add fresh and dry fruits to nestum when i didnt have better cereal options (corn flakes too less, eggs too much). u go girl, lick the bowl
nice post!!! I so badly want Bonny Mix!!! I used to love the Ordinary flavor compared to the Chocolate one... :D I actually googled for "Bonny Mix" and came across this blog.... :)
oh my.. i still eat cerelac... hehe.. my mum used to make one bowl for me extra when she used to feed my younger sis.. and now i am 21, married.. and i still have it occasionally.. its really yummy.. cerelac.. wheat and honey flavour.. woohoo.. hats off CERELAC!!
Growing up in Manila, I was fortunate to have an aunt who is a pediatrician. On occasion, she would give me and my older brother some packets of Cerelac as a healthy treat. We were grown children and had some control of what and how we ate. We simply devoured the stuff. And it felt like moons until my aunt would give us the treat again.
It turns out, she was rationing our packets because she was keeping them for herself! Not to eat as a porridge like we would, but to bake with! It was the secret ingredient in her delicious date-nut bars.
We had moved to Toronto when I was 9 and never forgot about my love for Cerelac. Now in hindsight, being interested in baking myself, I have been exposed to wheat ingredients that I have hoped would be equivalent to the flavor and texture of Cerelac. I have been toasting semolina and putting it in hot milk, but its grain is coarse and the wheat flavor has very nutty tones. It's just not the same. :(
Every couple of months, I take a trip to California where my boyfriend and aunt now live. A year ago, my boyfriend and I were shopping at a Pakistani grocery store outside of San Jose and lo, I found my holy grail of Cerelac! I had not seen the stuff for 20 years while in Toronto. I bought a small tin for a hefty $7. It was divinely nostalgic and delicious. I shared some of that tin with my older brother when I returned to Toronto. We happily agreed, "This tastes like childhood." Nothing better than leaving the good taste of nostalgia in our mouths.
Wow!
And I thought I was addicted to cerelac.
How did I find this blog? Looking to buy cerelac online!
I'm 32, and still keep a personal tin of cerelac in my office! Yes, I said office. And I'm a professor at a University...shhh. Don't tell anyone.
Like all of you, I was raised on cerelac. My sis and I had to fight with my dad over cerelac while we were growing up cause he loved it too. He passed on now. Aww the memories.
After moving to the U.S., it was hard finding cerelac. It took me probably 7 years to finally find it. I was in my early 20s then. And I found it online, at an outrageous price of $7. But I didn't care cause I just had to have it. Then when I told my mom, she also went on a mission to find cerelac for me, and she found it at a local middle eastern store for $3. I stocked up on it. I mean really stocked up on it. And I'm still enjoying it today. And like my dad, I will enjoy it until the day I pass on as well.
We're one big family connected by cerelac. No matter where we are in the world. There's even a cerelac group on facebook. Check it out.
So to all the cerelac babies that are now grown up, I feel you :).
I'm such a huge fan of Bonny mix cereal...and its back now in the market.. to know more read my blog
http://diarymate.blogspot.com/
hey all !!
I got Bonny Mix "Lite" , today. its available in domlur "FAMILY MALL" :)
bonny mix was my favorite...heard that they r still in production..so going to grab one soon
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