Food for me is not rocket science. It should be comforting and simple. I do not believe in using a zillion gadgets and techniques to create a tasty dish. What’s important is that you should be generous with drizzling love and care while making the dish. The warmth in your heart should translate in the dish you are making.

Simple, easy to make recipes appeal to me. I love cooking traditional recipes, which represent a particular region. I love to stay true to the original recipe as far as possible. I do not come with the best dish and have faced many kitchen disasters but I try and learn from my mistakes and make sure never ever repeat them.

A typical Taurean by nature I value nostalgia and associate certain foods with my memories. Like the maggi with veggies and filter coffee while having important exams, Pasta in creamy velvety white sauce on my first date with orange juice, Masala chai with onion fritters during Mumbai monsoons, Gobhi Paratha with luscious cucumber raita and a dollop of butter on weekend breakfast with family and the list goes on.

I am very liberal with the spices and seasoning dishes. I do not always go by standard measurements, I like to touch and feel the spices and go for my instinct. I am a very intuitive cook. If I am not in a good mood, cooking lifts up my spirits and gives me back the zing.

I find drawing up menus and grocery list fulfilling. I am happiest while grocery shopping and thinking of the endless magic simple ingredients like garlic or dried basil can do to a dish.

Making the most out of the best you have in hand and not look for a zillion things and use different gadgets is my philosophy towards cooking. I always wanted to better my skills in cooking but never really got time to venture into it being a corporate banking slave. Still I used to whip up cakes and brownies in a jiffy and cook quick dinners for my roommates most of the nights.

I moved to Dubai, cultural melting pot simmering with world cuisines, refined palette and saw myself exposed to an altogether different food scene which I was missing back home. Being jobless in the desert land after getting ‘just married’, gave me the perfect opportunity to cook the tried and tested recipes. Once I ran out of recipes I starting looking for them online. I usually try them giving them my twist.

I have a doting husband who is very honest with his take on what I cook. He being a foodie helps me as well, because I learn with my experiments every time he gives me a feedback. Not to mention our outings to restaurants and cafes as often as possible, and cooking the things I sampled there. That’s a high, one experiences after recreating what you’ve had.

I have been thinking of starting a food blog ever since I came here in Dubai but something or the other cropped demanding my undue attention. So I took to checking the food blogs here in UAE for inspiration.

I did manage to get inspired with the beautifully put together food diaries. It was so colorful, painstainkly taken pics mesmerizing you. They present the dishes so beautifully I would want to keep looking at them for hours on end. The props used, the focus on having them photographed under perfect lights and brightness. I am just an amateur trying to put together what I know to cook and have a collection of the recipes I would like to try.

The lights I use are not perfect and the pictures are taken as soon as I prepare them. We have a Canon 1000D DSLR and I also love using my husband’s Samsung Galaxy Note to click these. We are not a patient lot when food arrives hence click a few shots and go by the Indian way “Toot Pado”. We end up acknowledging each other just when the dish is about to get finished.

I hope to have this blog witness all my foodie fantasies. I aim to post stories from the simmering pots and pans of my vegetarian kitchen and my experiences while eating out. Here’s to a new beginning.
A prayer in my heart, a song on my lips and a spatula in my hand. I love my life!!