My World of Food and Travel

This is a typical Assamese dish, and yet I had never known it to be. I think I take my food too much for granted – never stopped and wondered where it might have originated, who were the people consuming it, its history, geography, etc etc. I am more interested in its taste and its ingredients and whether I shall be able to replicate that in my own kitchen. Such a glutton that I am! I ‘accidently’ made this til chicken (til = sesame seeds). Or, you could say it was part of an experiment that I had carried out in my home in Guwahati, a long time back. I was a late entrant to cooking and the appreciation that came my way during the first few ventures spurred me on to try newer dishes. Those were the pre-internet days. So, I would go out into our kitchen garden and reflect on the veggies there. Then I would take a stool, get up on it and open the overhead kitchen shelves to see what spices we had at home. Some permutation and combination with the veggies/meat/fish and the spices and...

This fish curry reminds me so much about home and Ma’s cooking. While growing up I never realized that as a daughter I shall have to move out of my parents’ home one day. I took Ma for granted and did not pay much attention to her cooking. I guess we were a heartless lot - neither my sis nor I, or even Deta for that matter, ever complimented her on any dish. And she is such a fabulous cook! Today, I wait for the husband’s appreciation on any little thing that I come up with. So, I can imagine how it would have felt like on not getting any word of encouragement from the family.  Coming back to the fish curry, it is a much-loved Assamese dish. Almost every household has (had?) a kitchen garden where there would be herbs, vegetables and fruit of various kinds. One just had to step out to the kitchen garden, pick out the choice of herbs and vegetables and come up with a delicious lunch/dinner. At our Guwahati home, we have a nice, big noroxingho (curry leaves) plant which would ...

Gosh! I have not posted on food for so long! And I have cooked so much in the last few weeks, too. Let me haste and put down at least one dish here. I had bought a big bunch of basil leaves some days back for my Thai Green Curry . I am a big, big fan of basil and can have it in any amount in a dish. The husband finds it a bit overpowering so I have to control myself a bit while putting them in the green curry. As a result, I had a small left-over sprig of basil in the fridge, after the green curry was over and done with. I wanted to use them in a chicken dish, although I was not at all sure about the recipe. Usually, the recipe comes into place as and when I am cooking.  Basil always reminds me of the restaurant Chin-Thai in Versova when I used to live in Mumbai. It was a small place, mostly frequented by patrons for home deliveries and take-aways. But the Thai food that it churned out was terrific. My favourite order used to be steamed basil rice and Thai green curry, bot...

It was around the same time (June-July) as present that we had set out on a road trip in 2007 to Malshej Ghat, nestled in the Western Ghat range of Maharashtra. The rains had just set in and the landscape was still an arid brown and a parched yellow, the lushness of the green yet to follow.  Malshej Ghat is located some 130 km from Pune and approximately 160 km from Mumbai. Since we were in Mumbai, it made sense for us to travel from Mumbai. Instead, here comes the twist – we made the trip from Pune. And there is a beautiful story behind that. Love. Or Lou, as they say in Mumbai. Those days we were young and carefree youngsters on our first corporate jobs, ready to fall in love at a second’s notice. That happened with two of my colleagues from different offices – Mumbai and Pune. They had met at an off-site in Goa and hit it off quite well. Now, the girl M and the guy A could not have enough of each other through phone calls. M was not allowed by her parents to travel to...

I remember taking road trips since my childhood. Perhaps that’s how I got bitten by the travel bug. My earliest memories of a proper road trip are of the 7-day long journey to the hills of Assam and the other North-Eastern (NE) states.  It all started one fine October morning in 1989 when Uncle G and Aunty L from Bombay Natural History Society visited us at our Guwahati home. They were planning to a take a tour of a few hill towns of NE for research purpose and wanted Deta’s (my father’s) inputs. Our Durga Puja vacation was on and we kept on flitting in and out of the living room where the elders were having their discussions. I could hear snippets of the conversation.  “.....in fact, why don’t you all come along with us?” I heard Aunty saying. Deta threw a worried glance at us, and then looked towards Ma.  That evening saw the parents conferring earnestly among themselves. Finally, Ma approached us. “We will be going on a long journey,” she said. “And you m...

Part 1 here. We left behind the lake with its hundreds of inhabitants and proceeded towards Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. On reaching Sathanur, we had to take a left turn for Muthathi and drive on some rough patches of road. Sometime later we came to a little pond by the side of the road where there were several baya weavers’ nests. The bright little birds were hard at work and after marveling at their ingenuity we carried forth our journey. Breakfast was on-the-move, without halting anywhere.  Baya Weaver Now, Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary is not your typical jungle teeming with wildlife and predators. It is more of a reserve forest, bounded by villages, and hence don’t be too surprised if you see more of cows, sheep and goats there. But apparently, it has elephant, wild boar, leopard, spotted deer, barking deer, common langur, bonnet macaque, slender loris and malabar giant squirrel as well. The sanctuary is particularly known for its grizzled giant squirrel and I harboure...