Bombay Spice

CHOCOLATE WITH INDIAN APHRODISIACS February, 2010

We live in an age of marketing, advertising and endemic consumerism, and Valentine’s Day has been transported into that universe of excessively hyped holidays. I am tired of deleting Valentine’s Day promotions from my inbox, and the papers are full of advertisements for jewellery. (Rub it in, why don’t you!) Let’s face it: Valentine’s Day is no longer just for lovers, and we are all victims of the times.

The Comforts of Home February, 2010

Breakfasts of sweet and juicy grapefruit freshly picked from one’s own garden, hot, doughy rotis topped with freshly churned butter and crumbled jaggery and endless cups of steaming ginger tea…. Meals of steaming-hot real basmati rice doused in homemade ghee, hot tor dal (a soup-like dish made with whole Pidgeon peas, indiginous to Uttarakhandi cuisine) tempered with pharan (a chive like herb indiginous to Uttaranchal) and garlicky stir-fried greens from the kitchen garden...and the sweet, sweet finale: hot halwa!

Thali December, 2009

With myriad gods and as many ways to praise, petition and appease them, Indians have an inherent sense of pageantry, and no celebration – be it a naming ceremony, religious ceremony or wedding – is complete without food! We never miss an opportunity to bring colour into our lives, and this is true of our food as well. In India, we grow up with a sense of hospitality ingrained in us. It stems partly from believing in atithi devo bhava, which means that guests are avatars of God, and the essential role that food plays at religious and social gatherings in our lives.

Bombay's Vegetable Lane. The Colourful Promenade. November, 2009

I cook and eat a wide variety of cuisines, but a home cooked meal of dal and rice is the first thing I crave when I am away from home or feeling down. It is also a meal I love to cook for my family, because they never eat as well as when I cook it. Meals in India are defined by a visit to the local market, a “food promenade.” Since I only have access to modern supermarkets near where I live in Mumbai, I often try to shop at the local market near where I grew up.

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