How I Cooked My Way Through Grief
In the wake of the sudden loss of her father, Mandakini Menon found a grounding force in the act of cooking,and the tactility of working with food.
Discovering Gular, the Lesser-Known Fig, and Other Lessons About Lost Foods
The gular fruit does not exist. Or at least, that’s what the stories say. Historian Priti Saxena, a brief resident of Bihar, discovered gular close to her home in Patna. Intrigued by the mythical narratives around this f…
On hunting the hilsa and mastering its bones
Shorshe ilish, perhaps the most popular technique of cooking hilsa, involves simmering and serving cuts of the fish in a mustard sauce so pungent that its wallop reaches right into your sinuses, writes Samanth Subramania…
She Moves Food
Tonight’s dining experience, a creative collaboration between The Locavore and Chef Thomas Zacharias, is a celebration of the extraordinary women behind our food. Their commitment to sustainability, craftsmanship, and in…
Bittersweet: Five Voices on Food and Queerness
What does food have to do with queerness? Oishika Roy gathers perspectives on eating, desire, chosen families, and the delicate intersection of food and love.
Grinding Songs are a Reflection of Goa’s Intangible Cultural Heritage
While women from certain communities in Goa are barred from the home and kitchen during menstruation, they are allowed to grind grains on the grinding stone. In this section of 'Grinding Stories Retold: Songs from Goa’,…
GI-Tags for Food and Drinks: A Complex Web of Determining Origins and Authenticity in India
Kai Chutney from Odisha is one of the latest food items to receive the Geographical Indications (GI) tag in India. As GI-tagged foods appear in news headlines and on supermarket shelves, Ranjana Sundaresan gets to the bo…
Work Begins at 3 am in Kasimedu’s Fish Market
At the Kasimedu fish market in Chennai, fisherfolk are seeing a decline in their catch. Throvnica Chandrasekar captures the sights and smells of the market, and examines the reasons for the dwindling fish along the coast…
Bringing Bengal’s Cherished Winter Jaggery to the World
It’s in the peak of winter that the sap of the date palm trees is sweetest. Sharing their own memories of eating nolen gur in winter, the co-founders of Earth Story Farms talk to Throvnica Chandrasekar about making date…
Vishalakshi Padmanabhan is Devoted to Preserving Heirloom Rice Varieties
In this chapter of 'Why Cook’, Archana Pidathala tells us about Vishalakshi Padmanabhan, founder of Buffalo Back Collective in Bangalore. Vishala’s guiding principle for the organic store is rooted in the food ethic she…
‘The Matunga market introduced me to my Mangalorean roots’
It is in the Matunga market in Mumbai that chef Ashwini Pai learnt how to identify a fresh and tender jeev kadgi. She writes on the seasonal produce essential to Mangalorean cooking, and how the market connects her to th…
Mrs K.M. Mathew gained popularity after her column on Mutton Bafath
Generations of Malayalis have grown up with Mrs K.M.Mathew’s treasured cookbooks. Read the foreword of her latest book, Mrs K.M. Mathew’s Finest, by her daughter Thangam Mammen. In a short interview with her, we discover…