The tiffin box- A food fiction featuring a deli egg salad

"Rice again? I don't like taking goopy and lumpy rice in my lunch." said her ten year old.
"Its good for you.The fried rice has chicken and vegetables in it." Sharmila retorted back.
"What's so good about it? It makes me feel sleepy. I am tired of Indian food. Why can't you make sandwiches like Christina's mom?" "What's wrong in porota and alur dom( pan fried flatbread and curried potatoes)? I used to love it in my tiffin box when my Ma packed my lunch." "Stop calling it a tiffin box! Everyone calls it a lunch bag. Why can't you buy me a good thermos from the store? Why do I have to carry that big box you got from India? It is so embarrassing! I hate opening it during lunchtime." "What can I do?I don't know how to drive around yet. I will buy you one when I go out during the weekend shona(sweetheart).I promise!" Her daughter wiped her tears and reluctantly carried the tiffin box with her backpack to walk to school with her.

After dropping her child at school, she walked to the nearby grocery store.She had heard from her neighbor that she usually bought lunch meat from the store deli and made sandwiches for her children.She hesitantly headed to the deli section. She saw a variety of beef, ham and turkey in big ovals.The person at the counter was asking what the shopper wanted and packing them in plastic bags for the customer. Sometimes, she was asking if someone wanted a sample. She walked to the counter and saw big mounds of salads.But this was not the salad that she had seen before. They mostly looked white and yellow and were called "potato salad", "chicken salad" or "tuna salad". "How can they make salad out of fish? Maybe it is like an achar(pickle).", she thought.She smiled at the deli person and asked ,"Can I have some sample of the egg salad please?" She was handed some in a small cup with a tiny spoon. It was pretty delicious. She could not ask for the recipe. "What is the white and green thing in the salad?" "Its parsely and mayo." She had heard about mayo.It was mainly made from eggs and vinegar. She thanked the person and bought some ingredients for the Egg Salad and headed home.

That night she boiled some eggs, shelled them and put them in the refrigerator for the next day.She woke up early next morning and started making the egg salad. She packed it in the tiffin box. Mou came down for breakfast and looked glumly at the tiffin box."What did you pack today?Some rice again!" She smiled conspirationally at Mou."Its a surprise!Let me know how you like it." She patiently waited for Mou to come back from school in the afternoon. Her daughter had a huge smile on her face "It was very tasty Mamma.Even my friends loved it! Christina was asking for the recipe for her mom to make. Can you write it down for her?" Sharmila smiled satisfactorily looking at her daughter's face.
Ingredients:
2 eggs hard boiled
3 tablespoon Miracle Whip
2 chilli peppers
Few sprigs of cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

• Chop the eggs including the yolk into big chunks. The eggs have to be at room temperature.The yolks turn into a big mush otherwise.
• Finely chop the chilli peppers and cilantro.
• Combine the eggs, cilantro, chilli pepper and the rest of the ingredients and slowly mix them together with a spatula or a spoon.Be careful not to break the eggs too much.
• Serve it on its own or as a filling in a egg salad sandwich.

I have tasted many egg salads and finally came up with one of my own.I don't add any mustard as the flavor seems to overwhelm the eggs. This is a submission for the second edition "Of Chalks and Chopsticks" hosted by BongMom this month.Hope you enjoy it!