Browsing: Food Articles

Did you ever hear of the arrival of the turkey on to the Thanksgiving table being heralded as the arrival of the ‘dulhan’ or Indian bride? For Sunita Advaney’s family fixing the 30 lb bird was like preparing for an elaborate Indian wedding. Trust desis to bring their own take on this American holiday, imprinting it with their own special flavor!

The Obamas have it. So do the Pope and the Dalai Lama. And Queen Elizabeth too. As does Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. But unless you’re world-famous or have loads of moolah you probably won’t get your hands on ‘Utsav’ – Vikas Khanna’s book of festivals. That’s because he’s made only 12 customized editions and over 12 years has presented it to some of the world’s movers and shakers.

Meet Chef Roshni Gurnani who often showcases her Sindhi heritage in her cooking

Pooja Bavishi is the CEO of   Malai.co  – an ice cream company with flavors inspired by aromatic, South Asian spices and global ingredients.

When immigrants came to America, they bought their home cures and folk remedies along, a legacy of mothers and grandmothers. It is surprising how many families still turn to ginger as the first remedy for coughs and colds, and even motion sickness. Ginger has certainly been around for centuries and everyone from the ancient Greeks to Confucius to the Emperor Akbar is supposed to have been a fan, not to mention the sage Vatsyayana – author of India’s famed sex manual, Kama Sutra, who recommended ginger as an aphrodisiac for lovers.

If there’s only one thing you do today to make yourself happy, watch this excellent video! For all those who love the street foods of India this is the ultimate experience, traveling state by state and eating the delicious eats right on the road. The tears sting your eyes, your nose runs, your tongue burns – and you’re in foodie heaven!
It is amazing how everything is available in the open – be it spicy chat papri, ragra patice, alu tikki, chole bature or seekh kebab. You’ll see foods you’ve never eaten!

In ‘Ajanta – Regional Feasts of India’ cookbook author and restaurateur Lachu Moorjani explores the diverse foods of India, with regional feasts from different states. Here he shares some recipes from different regions of India. Come hungry!

When Indian-American men cook, it’s considered cool and they are anointed chefs and stars and given all the respect. But when women cook, they are the housewives, the home-cooks and kitchen-bound who are doing what they’ve done for millennia. But now change is happening and some Indian-American women are taking the rolling pin and the tawa, and turning them into money-making startups!

Warning: Do NOT Separate an Indian from his Onions! It’s the one ingredient that no self-respecting desi cook would want to be without; whether you are whipping up a Mughal feast or a poor man’s meal – onions are absolutely necessary. In fact, a shortage of onions can cause a near revolution in India!

Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty gives a non-vegetarian’s informed yet witty look at vegetarianism & different kinds of vegetarians.

She’s the only woman chef at the world-famous Rainbow Room which is one of Manhattan’s most celebrated restaurants and which also has a members only exclusive club

Madhur Jaffrey, & Priya Krishna discuss the arc of Indian food in America, & their new books – Instantly Indian Cookbook and Indian-ish at IAAC’s event at DAG

Vishwesh Bhatt  become the first Indian-American to win the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for best chef from the South, after five nominations as finalist in the past.

“I think I’m one of the few people who don’t feel what they do is a job,” Hari Nayak says. “People who eat my food –I make them happy – there is a direct reaction right away and that doesn’t happen in most jobs except cooking. And that’s what drives me.”

A vegetarian Sindhi meal at the James Beard House is indeed a unique event, and the one selected to introduce it to the larger world is Chef Roshni Gurnani who is the chef at Hotel Derek in  Houston, Texas. She offered a really old world treat for gourmets but as interpreted by a modern day Sindhi chef.

For those who’ve lived in and loved Calcutta – or Kolkata as it’s now known – feasting is an important part of life. Here four Bengali-Americans share their best memories of the city’s innumerable, incomparable eats: Partha Banerjee, NY activist, talks of his favorite haunts in his favorite city; Mukti Banerjee, home cook, shares some delicious Bengali food through her meetup group in Brooklyn; Kriti Mukherjee, foodie and consultant, reflects on the importance of food in a Bengali’s life, and businesswoman Priyashmita Guha shares a tale about eating street foods with her father in Maddox Square.

Indian immigrants who have spent time in the homeland will remember their childhood passion for Cadbury chocolates – the only big brand available in India in the good old days! In those days chocolate was a rarity and a treat. NRI relatives visiting India would always be asked to bring back  just about any kind of ‘foreign’ chocolate and as much as could fit into a suitcase. Now some of them are turning into chocolate-preneurs!

The instructions were simple – wear red, gold or white for a Bengali celebration! It was a party for the holiday season and a welcoming of the New Year. And yes, Jal Muri was absolutely on the menu. And since Nandini Mukherjee, once owner of the hugely popular Indian Bread Company, was the host, you could expect a great spin on Indian food.

A no-turkey Thanksgiving should make both vegetarians and the turkeys very happy!
As each successive wave of immigrants come to America, they introduce their own well-loved foods to the Thanksgiving table and in the process create new traditions.

How do you create sweet things and also sweeten life for others? Ask Surbhi Sahni – the mithaiwalli of New York. A Michelin-starred chef, she recently became the pro-bono Director of the Tiffin Project operated by the nonprofit organization SAPNA NYC through which low-income South Asian immigrant women train for marketable jobs in the culinary industry.