💬 Pulihora always gets extra lemon from me, even when it's tangy enough

I put extra lemon on pulihora even when it's already tangy. My mother has watched me do it for 20 years. She makes it properly. Tamarind, groundnuts, curry leaves, a little jaggery. Nothing wrong with it at all. And then I cut a lemon at the table and squeeze half of it over my plate. Every time. She says, taste first. I say, I know what it tastes like. We've had this chat 200 times. The thing is, it tastes different after sitting. By the time it's cold the sharpness goes soft. At my cousin's wedding in Karimnagar they served it on a banana leaf at 1 PM, already cold. The waiter came by with a bucket of cut lemons. Nobody asked. He just walked down the row. I looked at my mother across the hall. She looked at the lemons. We didn't say anything. A friend at work says I'm ruining it. He puts ketchup on biryani, so I don't listen. I tried skipping it for 2 weeks to see. Plate felt flat every time. Went back on day 15. My mother now keeps 2 lemons in her handbag when we eat out together. For me. She denies it. She still says it's the worst habit I have. I'm happy it's only that one.

Guilty of the same automatic lemon reach, except mine is with curd rice rather than pulihora, I add a splash before even tasting the dish most days at home. Someone pointed out to me last year that this probably means the dish itself is not seasoned quite right in the first place. Have not stopped doing it since they said that though, not even once.

Lemon on top of pulihora is a bad idea for me, the tamarind is already doing the job. My mother fries the mustard seeds and curry leaves till they crackle, then mixes it while hot. Hot rice takes the tang in properly.

I do the opposite, less tang for me, so I usually ask for extra rice on the side to balance it out rather than adding more lemon. My mother-in-law makes pulihora sharper than anyone I know and swears by adding a fresh squeeze right at the table too, same as you. I have never seen anyone measure it properly, everyone just eyeballs the whole thing by taste.