Empires

As I was in Borders Bookstore trying to find my latest read, I stumbled on a book called The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan.

My favorite books are the by desi authors. I took it home Saturday morning and read about 300 pages by dinner. Why was I so consumed with this book? Not only is the base of the story about King Akbar and the Mughal empire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire

It also has the beginning of the love story between Nur Jahan and Jahangir. It really does go thru the struggle of personal relationships. Who would have guessed that we would have the same issues now as they did in the 1500's. From father and sons fighting, adultery, women not having a say in family issues, the list goes on and on. There is a second novel The twelfth wife which has then ending of their amazing love story. Its a complex story but a great find!

Mistress of Spices?

Being the dork that I am I get excited when I see the netflix envelope in my mailbox. I forgot that Mistress of Spices was in my que. I was excited to see this movie. Press play and utter disappointment. Ash was in a very weird role where spices talked to her and gave her advice on other peoples problems? She could see in the future but could not see her own. She falls in love with Dylan McDermott and the spices do not like this? I was so confused after 30 minutes. Right when I was about to shut it off Ash does a love scene with Dylan. I was shocked! Ms. Bollywood letting this "gora" kiss her all over and put his hands all over her body? Yes the showed these scenes.

At the end I was disappointed. I hate it when I see these South Asian movies released into main stream that just support stereo types. An Indian person who loves spices so much she lives in her spice store? She never wants to leave the store because she is scared? This movie is getting 1 star from me.

My First Malu Dish

I think making my first indian dish by myself requires me to start a blog. I had one in the past, just got busy with life's demands and gave up on it. Its always nice to have a place to type whatever you are feeling that day.. and it is 2007 whats not a better place then the world wide web?

Back to my accomplishment of last night. This whole thing started because I am getting married in October and my mother thought it was appalling that I did not know how to make one indian dish. Of course she thought it was bad since she thinks its a direct reflection of her and how she never taught her only daughter how to cook indian food. Since I got engaged its was my mothers sole mission to teach me how to cook. After many of weekends of us trying and her just taking over the stove I gave up. Then i thought.. I make other dishes fine because I go by what the recipes say. Since my mother will not ever write her cooking secrets down (a pinch of this and that.. what does that mean??) I decided to go online and find a recipe for a Kerala staple dish called Thoran. With my father heckling me and my mom carefully eyeing me from the couch the recipe from the paper came to life! It was actually pretty easy. Just a lot of juggling with the different mixes. We all sat down together and ate my first dish. Everyone enjoyed. It was so satisfying to have cooked something and have my family love it.

The end result:

I will be trying a new experiment this weekend. Wish me luck!