Warming up

I can only admit this sheepishly. I am one of those people who are thinking about lunch, even as I polish off a hearty Sunday breakfast. Inviting friends or family over for a meal usually involves me daydreaming about the menu, shopping lists, and the looks on my guests’ faces as they dig into my food.

Cooking, eating, reading, and writing about food, I love it all.

Thanks to being part of a family that enjoys cooking and eating great food in equal measure, I grew up eating delicious and healthy home-cooked fare (mostly coastal Maharashtrian). Simple weekday meals would consist of the staple amti (a curry made of a variety of sprouted pulses), vegetables, chapattis and rice, while fish and mutton curries were Sunday treats.

Moreover, as much as I enjoyed eating all that delicious food, what was also deeply satisfying was watching the final dish take shape, from the kitchen to the table. At first, I loved watching my mother cook. The angry crackle of a garlic tadka that would go into a spicy dal, the deft stir-frying of a potato bhaji, and the softest phulkas that would billow up as she cooked them on a naked flame; all that action in the kitchen reeled me in early.

By the time I was in college, I had graduated from being an occasional kitchen helper to a weekend cook who would try to impress the family (my parents that is) with novelty dishes, especially desserts. Soon, they began eagerly awaiting my Sunday culinary experiments. From handmade fresh pasta, chocolate fondants with oozy centres, brownies, and salads, stir-fried veggies, tarts, to trifle puddings, I dropped all culinary inhibitions.

From then on began my real discovery of food – in terms of new tastes, textures, smells, and of course, ingredients.

Today, as a late twenty-something living in Bombay with my husband, our kitchen may be coastal Maharashtrian and vegetarian Tamil at its heart. Nevertheless, our general cooking and eating styles swear allegiance to no particular cuisine in the world. Whether it is a plate of piping hot, pepper-specked pongal with ghee and coconut chutney, or a roast chicken with steamed veggies and mashed potatoes on the side, we wolf down both with equal gusto.

By writing about food on my new blog, The Treat Company, the hope is to embark on a food journey and make some like-minded friends along the way. The journey will sometimes tread new ground; while at other times, linger on with old favorites.

Either way, it will always be a celebration of good food.

Bon appetit.