Mango, Pista, Malai

The dessert is getting quirkier. In the growing universe of gelatos, vegan, low-sugar/no-sugar, artisanal ice creams, the syllables are adding up. You have everything from black sesame and honeycomb, blue cheese, lavender, basil to the Indian spinoffs gulab jamun, pani puri, puran poli and more. I’ll take the salted caramel and the fruit flavours mostContinue reading “Mango, Pista, Malai”

From the Coast: A Prawn and Mango Curry Recipe

When you are born in a coastal town, seasons revolve around fish. Summers may invoke mango fervour, but it’s also the season when the curry powders and masalas are made, dried fish cleaned and stocked for the year, and tangy fish curries spur afternoon siestas. The smell of dried fish (shrimp, prawns, bombay duck) fillsContinue reading “From the Coast: A Prawn and Mango Curry Recipe”

Sweet Nibbles

When the pandemic nudged so many of us back into the kitchen, it also made us turn to old comfort recipes. Ones that had been forgotten, or replaced with easier alternatives, including packaged food. The early days of the pandemic made me feel like a child again, back in my village near Ratnagiri, where theContinue reading “Sweet Nibbles”

Breadcrumbs

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live… …It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory… Coming across Joy Harzo’s words in the midst of a pandemic almost seems prophetic. Maybe the world does end at the kitchenContinue reading “Breadcrumbs”

Books and Berries

The sprawling villas on both sides don’t point to a village. I’m about to double-back when the signboard declares that I’m still a kilometre away. The signs are all over the place – a book and strawberry, over the red type declaring Bhilar as India’s first “books village”. Located between the popular hill towns of PanchganiContinue reading “Books and Berries”