I am more than half way through my vacation and now I don’t even know how I’ll ever be able to go back to my desk job. Not having any responsibility suits me just fine. Wish I could do this back home in Seattle, just laze around all day and eat yummy home cooked hot meals three times a day. I am getting horribly homesick these days, I can’t even remember why I decided to take this month long vacation alone. Oh yeah, I do, because I was too impatient …

I barely made it to my own event, that is how hectic life’s been lately! But the good news is that I have a four day weekend coming up and we are going away on a mini-break. Nothing major, driving to a nearby town with a group of friends for some much needed R&R. So I won’t get to do the JFI-Tamarind round up till early next week, therefore if you want to send me some more Tamarind entries, you can do so till Thursday – July 3rd. If you …

Sorry, it is yet another post with no recipe, I am on vacation after all! Since we all had so much fun with Kudampuli, here is another spice in its natural form. This one is more popular, it is used all over the world, so no Kerallite advantage here… . This fruit actually produces two different spices. Care to guess? Answer tomorrow…

Not many people have seen me in my youth, they like me old and wrinkled. Can you believe I was ever this good looking!!

When I grow up, they make me up to look like this! Now do you know who I am?

Yes, I am Kudampuli, as some of you correctly guessed!
Kudampuli (scientific name: Garcinia cambogia) also known as Gambooge, Malabar Tamarind, Fish Tamarind etc is an essential ingredient in all the seafood loving kitchens in Central Kerala, the coastal South Indian state. As the name suggests (Puli = sour in …

I can see those eyes rolling, another seafood preparation from Kerala? Enough already!!! Well, what can I say, Kerallites live on seafood, and regardless of how similar the ingredient lists look like, each dish is unique.
The common theme for most of the Kerala seafood dishes is an equal mix of spicy and sour flavors! The sourness comes from kudampuli (aka fish tamarind or malabar tamarind) or tamarind or mangoes depending on the season and the region. My guess is that this trend started to increase the shelf life of these dishes before refrigerators were …

Meen Peera is a traditional Kerala dish popular in central Kerala where I am from. The preparation is very similar to thoran, made with fish instead of vegetables, and fish tamarind (kudampuli) added for sourness. This dish is usually made with the small varieties of whole fresh water fish available in Kerala. Since cleaning small fish is such a pain, you could always use fish filets in this recipe, which is what I’ll be doing after my mom leaves. But this time we picked up some smelt from the Asian …

What makes a perfect couple? Together they bring out the best in each other…
He is bitter and not so smooth when it comes to looks.. She is smelly and shrinking with age… But put them together, it is a match made in heaven…
You suddenly start liking his bitterness, when it is perfectly paired with her oh so slightly salty crunchiness… Dress them up in some spices and the looks won’t matter anymore either…
Yes, they are truly made for each other… Bitter gourd and dried shrimp!
If you …

We are back from our marathon sight seeing trip. Now I really need a vacation!  It was scorching hot in San Diego and Disneyland, but that felt like North Pole after we got to Las Vegas – 115 degrees! Wow, it was unbearable, even for my parents. Who knew that coming from India, heat is ever going to be a problem!! It really felt like a furnace, we had to get up at 3:00 am to drive to Grand Canyon. In Vegas, we spent the whole time inside casinos, not that I am …

It’s been a few days since my last post. My parents finally arrived last weekend, so as you can imagine I’ve been busy with the onboarding process. Its been almost five years since their last visit, also we weren’t living in the city last time they were around, so it took a bit of orientation time. Even though we have less space now, it is less boring for them now that they have places to go to when Siv and I are at work. Today they walked down to Pike Place Market …

Has this ever happened to you? You find this interesting recipe in a cookbook. You check the fridge and pantry and see that most of the ingredients are there. You put your chef’s hat on and get cooking, adding your own special touches to the recipe. The dish turns out to be a masterpiece, tastes wonderful, looks great! You are so hungry you could faint, but you feel it is your duty to share this gem with the world! So you transfer the food into a serving dish, click some pictures in a …