Posted by Instagram influencers have taught me that one should invest only in devices/clothes with more than three uses. But the COVID era me, owing to its boredom, fell prey to social media’s propaganda for waffle makers.
A not-so-guilty checkout of my Amazon cart later, my cute, tiny, shiny, red waffle maker arrived. I was happy and envisioned an entire lifetime of making sweet and savoury waffles. The multi-use of a waffle maker haze was still going strong.
But reality had spun another fate for us.
A quick YouTube search later, I ladled my batter and gingerly poured it on the piping hot griddle. Amateur as I am, the sight of steam rising wafted confusion and anger. The voice of confusion said, “There was no water in the batter. Where is the steam coming from?” The voice of anger said, “Stupid defective under Rs. 500 piece from Amazon!”
Needless to say, once the light went off, I gently lifted the lid to find a smeared half-cooked waffle. Refusing to give up, I recalibrated my efforts. Made the batter thicker, brushed more oil on the iron plates and gave it one more attempt. Alas, there was only a minuscule improvement.
The wafflemaker was then exiled to a dark corner in my kitchen cabinet. In its original packaging, too. But on each kitchen deep clean episode, I teased it with a new opportunity to redeem itself. And I am blessed to say, over time, the minuscule improvements became substantial. However, the stack did not become high enough to instil culinary confidence.
I now use the 10 min cooking time to do my doodle practice
As my need-to-eat-healthy phase kick-started, once again, experiments started with savoury waffles. This time, I diligently gave the wafflemaker 10 mins for each waffle. Voila! They turned out perfect. I even got smarter with the cleanup using the humble tissue paper.
Yes, it is hectic to wait an hour to make just six tiny waffles, but what is love if not patience and compromise? Especially when it comes with a crunchy box grid pattern on top. So, like estranged lovers, we are seeing 2026 as the year of putting our past behind us. We want to build on the momentum of forgiveness and value the conscious improvements we have made towards understanding and accepting each other.
Safe to say, there is now less steam.
