Even though I started cooking when I was really young, it is now, in the time that I have spent away from home that I have learnt and understood eating as an act of coming together. A coming together of history, nutrition, ingredients and most important people on a plate. Just like a paste or chutney that comes together on a Sil- Batan when ingredients are pounded together.
The end result is a blend, yet fibres, bits and pieces peep out. It’s like a coarse and chunky paste. Flavours sing together in harmony but one can identify most of the times, what goes into the making of that food element.
For me, today, what I cook and eat it easily a fusion - if anything else. Cuisines I like to eat - familiar or new. Everyday ingredients locally available or souvenirs brought from travelling friends who generously bear me gifts. Dishes of my heritage, stews and sweets I've grown up stirring aside my mother and her mother. Foods I have eaten with my lovers and dishes that I have cooked for them. Even the hidden gems borrowed from my roommates' cultures.
On some days eating and cooking feels like straight out of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown-- while at other times meals are put together in a rush, reminiscent of mindless eating during college days when the inexpensive and spilling canteen thalis made up for the fill-in between classes.
I feel like I am a living Sil- Batán and this newsletter is my attempt to document, develop and restore what I eat. Through recipes (hits and misses), photographs, dining experiences, books and everyday aspects that shape my understanding of what goes on the plate.
