Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The first time......

The thrill and excitement (and subsequent memories) of doing something for the first time cannot be beaten. And along with the most obvious ones like the first kiss, the first car, the first house, the first childbirth, the first time you ever ate a good dish also makes for some wistful thinking. And for me, the memories usually include the taste, the place, the company and best of all, the smell of what I ate.I am going to try to catalog some of my fondest food memories, yet.

- Kahlua coffee - spring break 1999, charleston, south carolina with K and E

- Long Island Iced tea - nobody makes it better than the Outback Steak house on Thousand oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks, CA and that too with the Kokkaburra wings...Friday nights after work, just me and my honey!!

- Tandoori Chicken - from some iranian cafe at Crawford Market,Bombay with my aai sometime in June/July 1993. Nothing better to wash off the depression of seeing your lifelong dream of becoming a doctor shattered to pieces than polishing off a whole chicken sitting inside a pure veg udipi Hotel Sadanand.

-to be continued.

Festival foods

I had been looking for a project to keep my brain occupied in between the numerous feedings, diaper changes, homework and story sessions. Tomorrow is Ganesh chaturthi and before i got married, it was a big deal in our household, especially in my ajji's house. And that got me thinking about, what else ?, food! Specifically, special food made during festivals. So I have decided to collect recipes from the various regions of India (and if possible outside too) of dishes that are made specially during special occasions or festivals. I think starting with "modak" for ganesh chathurthi will be a good idea. I will try to make it this weekend and post it.