Photos by Member, Sumana Mukherjee, and Content Volunteer, Avijit Pathak.
HOST
CO-HOST
CONTENT VOLUNTEER
The meetup was very engaging, fun, and interactive. Rekindling with the people who attended the previous LFC felt like a school reunion!
Sumana
The meet-up left me fulfilled, socially recharged, and very well fed.
Bhavika
Meeting up with people with the same passion for food was a great experience.
Shingo
Conversation starters that did exactly what they promised!
A captivated and engaged audience, eager to contribute.
The kind of spread that needed a second table—and a third stomach!
MEET YOUR HOST
What is the most adventurous food you’ve tried and loved?
A friend of mine got insects back from his trip to Mexico, which we ate at his place in Mumbai. It packed a great punch with all its crunch, tanginess, smokiness, and spice. It has inspired me to try the insects available in India too.
It is knowing you eat from the land you tread on, and that custodians of this land are farmers, indigenous people, and producers. Local is not just about acquiring food from land that you are close to, proximity-wise, but also feel close to it and know it with depth. It’s about being aware of the many hands that played a part in making a plate reach one’s table. It means decolonising that plate, and connecting with our ancestry so it can become a portal to the many histories that connect us to each other. It is accessing, making, and passing on memories. It is how we reclaim our biodiversity, experience seasonality, and confront questions of othering, justice, and labour when it comes to food. It is the assertion of both—identity and resistance.
And it is opening doors to connect one person, one home, and one community to another, through the passage of our kitchens. Ensuring that there’s always a seat at the table for everyone.
Some of our most life-changing events happen on a random day when we least expect it. That’s also when I experienced what has become my most enduring food memory. It was a regular Sunday with my family in Lucknow. My dadi (paternal grandmother) made some sambhar chawal for lunch and served it to us in Chinese porcelain bowls. But there was something about it that day that made it so delicious that I ended up taking a sixth serving.
I would be the Gongura plant. I love me some tanginess and am in awe of how
versatile and beneficial Gongura is. Whether it is supporting the immune system or aiding
digestion, Gongura does so much—I’d like to be that flexibly helpful too. I also have a special memory attached to the Gongura plant because I got acquainted with it on my first foraging trip by inspiring indigenous farmer and activist, Vanita tai Thakre, at Mumbai’s Aarey Forest.
We have a community that’s extremely enthusiastic, collaborative and participative in Mumbai. I see so many people being proactive and bringing not just their memories and stories, but insights on where their food comes from, how seasons show up as ingredients, and knowledge about cultural nuances in our eating. Every LFC meetup has been an experience of deep learning and vulnerability, and the way I see it flourishing is in people reinforcing that there is a larger