31 March 2016

Ottolenghi love!


OK folks, I have a confession to make. Ready for it? I'm not a super creative cook. Oh sure, I improvise sometimes, and there are some common staple dishes that I make without looking anything up (e.g. egg curry, poriyal, macaroni & cheese, enchiladas, quiches, basic vegetable soups). But I feel much more comfortable, or at least more inspired, when I'm cooking from a recipe. I don't think it's so much lack of faith in my own abilities to come up with something but rather the joy I get when looking at and following a good recipe (albeit often with tweaks). Cooking this way allows me to discover cuisines, ingredients, techniques and ideas that I probably would never have thought of on my own, at least not within the confines of my busy lifestyle. If I had all the time in the world and could be paid to be a recipe developer, then it would be a different story!

21 March 2016

Top 10 Spring Recipes


Happy 2016 (belatedly), dear friends! In case anyone out there actually visits my little blog anymore, thank you so very much! As usual, I find myself apologizing for the lengthy silence. Since the last time I posted (last June, seriously!?), I’ve been travelling a lot and went to some really cool places (Bangalore & Chennai, Melbourne, Kathmandu, Chiang Mai, Koh Phi Phi, Penang, Livingstone in Zambia (where Victoria Falls is), Phnom Penh and most recently Vancouver)!

08 June 2015

Bangkok Breakfast (and the story of how I became a morning person!)


It’s soon coming up on 20 months since I made the biggest transition in my life thus far…becoming a mother! Though having an active toddler presents many challenges, I’m absolutely loving this phase of Rohan’s growth and development! I adore watching him run, play, swim, dance, sing and “talk”! He’s like a total sponge right now, learning new words and making new discoveries every day. And motherhood is, like everyone says, a perpetual learning experience. Just when you think you’ve mastered something – breastfeeding, baby wearing, packing for a weekend away, solid feeding, going back to work – there’s something entirely new to learn. Of course, there have been many ups and a few downs too. Though it may sound a bit silly, I think the toughest part of new motherhood for me was having to becoming a morning person. I’ve always been a night owl, despite the incongruity between that and being a working professional. I guess I was just built that way, loving to stay up late. So during those initial months, I really struggled with the early morning wake-ups that are part of life with a young child. 

30 May 2015

Eating (and working!) my way around Asia


As recently mentioned, I've had a crazy amount of work travel over the last couple of months. I've literally been all over Asia (or the Asia-Pacific as we say in my work). No less than 5 work trips, to 5 different countries. Most of these have been quick jaunts, but super hectic in general. I'm not complaining in any way of course, having a job that affords me such opportunities for travel and getting to know new places and people is truly a blessing. But work travel is a different challenge when you have a small child, especially as Luis has also been away. Luckily though my mom has been in town (meaning that even when I've been in Bangkok, I haven't been cooking much ha!), and we're blessed to have a wonderful nanny as well. So in between the work, I could take a deep breath, relax and enjoy some wonderful meals in all the places I've been recently. Notably...

22 May 2015

Cousins in the Kitchen: Blueberry, lemon & thyme rasam


2015...it's been quite a year so far. As you may have guessed in case you actually paid a visit to this space lately (thank you, thank YOU, THANK YOU if you did!!!), I've been pretty busy. Not having a baby or tending to a newborn this time (now I'm tending to an incredibly active toddler, which is a different challenge but one that I love so far!), but incredibly busy nonetheless. Taking care of my family, working like crazy and travelling nonstop! Since I haven't had any time to blog, I thought about calling upon some of my very talented cousins to pick up the slack instead. The first one who came to mind was my cousin Maheshwari (Mahesh), who lives in Chicago. She's an avid cook and recipe collector (and fellow Pinterest addict!), mother to two teenage twin boys and has always been known in the family as a wonderful writer. Who better then to kick off this new series of recipes from my cousins, which we've decided to call 'Cousins in the Kitchen'?! Without further ado, here she is with a fabulous recipe which I can't wait to try! Thank you, Akka :-)