“You ARE what you eat!” an 8 year-old voice solemnly proclaimed from the back of my car. I swung around to look at my son’s friend, seated next to my son, and nearly hit a curb. Then I turned back to the road and pretended not to hear so the boys could continue with the [...]

Pongal is one of the most anticipated festivals in South India, next only to the ubiquitous Diwali (festival of lamps). Pongal is the harvest festival and the word “Pongal” literally means to boil over, spill over, the cup spilleth over… Abundance. Now that the world seems to be upside down and we are all focused [...]

Back in the 80′s and 90′s, when I used to live in the great city of Chennai, in India, we did everything Americans are now trying to do in the name of going Green. The vegetables we bought were  locally grown, organic (because farmers found pesticides expensive at that time), and we patronized small farmers. [...]

When I was a tween, one of my favorite pastimes was to spend hot summer afternoons, perching precariously in the crook of the guava tree in the backyard, reading Enid Blyton books. I was fascinated by one of Enid Blyton’s characters, Kiki, the talking parrot, who would always squawk, “Shut the door and wipe your [...]

Since I had ruined my good eating habits by succumbing to the sinful Bread Roll yesterday, I was anxious to get back on track with a healthy brunch for my family. The first that springs to mind is a fabulously filling, sumptuous, wonderfully holier-than-thou dish – the great Pesarattu! Crepes are a dish of pride, [...]