Some of the tastiest evenings of my childhood start with my Dad at the stove filling the house with the smell of of browning onions and spices. This was always a dead giveaway that we were having company for dinner. Rice in itself was somewhat of a special treat – usually we ate whole wheat…
I visited Mumbai for the first time back in 2011 and despite only the one visit, it remains my favorite Indian city. My husband, Arjun’s sister was living there at the time and we took our (then) baby boy, Shiv on his first trip to India to visit Arjun’s family. Mumbai charmed me with its seaside…
On our most recent trip to India at the start of this year, we had the good fortune to stay at the charmingly old world Tollygunje Club in Kolkata. And included as part of our stay was breakfast. And part of the breakfast was an egg station where you could basically get whatever your heart…
Until I was in middle school, I didn’t realize that the majority of the United States considers tapioca mainly an ingredient for sweet pudding. I remember the day of my enlightenment well. I was eating outside with my dear friend Tara and she opened up a container and offered me a taste of this exotic sounding tapioca…
When I first met my husband, Arjun back in 2000 he would regale me with stories of foods he grew up eating, many with a heavy seafood emphasis, all of which sounded terribly exotic to me. My exposure to seafood up until college had been fairly limited and even 15 years ago I was still…
Last week something totally HUGE happened that was totally unexpected. The very respected website, Food52, picked my recipe for Punjabi Buttermilk Stew as one of their favorites. If you are not familiar with Food52, here is the skinny – it was started by two women to be a resource to home cooks and also…
For my husband, Arjun, special occasions meant Rogan Josh. This gentle, aromatic lamb or goat stew was one of his maternal grandmother, Didu’s specialties. Whenever we would travel back to India, the first meal we would be served (usually right after getting home from the airport late, late at night) would include rogan josh along…
I hope everyone had a delicious, fabulous Thanksgiving. We traveled back to Burke, Virginia where I grew up. We got to my parents home just in time for a late dinner and my mother surprised me with homemade samosas. They were divine. Even my son, Shiv went bananas for them. I kinda wish I had…
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. There are no gifts to worry about and the point is really to get everyone around a table and eat some terribly good food – which is something I can really get behind! Before I had kids, I used to look forward to all the cooking and relish the planning. …
I think we all have that food that we associate with being sick. The one your mom or dad used to make when you were under the weather – chicken soup immediately comes to mind but that was never on the menu in my vegetarian Indian home. For us, if we had any sort of…