The wonderful and very important world of Indian Food Blogging.

I discovered the blogging world though my relentless search for authentic recipes to satisfy my obsession with vegetarian Indian food. I was introduced to Indian food back in the fall of 1983, when I was a student at the New School for Social Research. A friend of mine, who grew up on the Upper East Side, wanted me to expand my food horizons as I was, at that time, a hick straight from the sticks of Nassau County Long Island. He said “you need to try it”! I was afraid thinking, “well isn’t it too hot”? He assured me I shouldn’t worry. Well, I think my friend was playing a bit of a trick because the next thing he suggested was to get a lamb Vindaloo. I did, and for the next hour or so tried to finish the chili pepper infused bowl of death. I was sweating into my bowl of stewed lamb. He sat there and said, “That’s not even hot”! The thing is -- I was hooked. I loved the taste and the papadum lentil wafers before the food came and the lassi. He was right about it all; he just was having a little fun with me telling me to get Vindaloo instead of a nice Tikka Masala. That was well before I heard of ahimsa or anything remotely resembling a doctrine of non-harmfulness regarding our fellow beings.

As we walked back to his parent’s apartment suite, I felt this feeling come over me as the fire from the vindaloo napalm in my mouth subsided. It was a calm that I never felt before. It wasn’t that supposed tryptophan sleepiness after eating the poor Melagris gallopavo, it was more like the feeling of being very content and settled or one could say being stoned in some way. Of course, these were the world famous endorphins people are so addicted to that were locking up the receptor sites in my brain – the endogenous opiate-type molecule that makes people jump out of planes race motorcycles or eat spicy curry. I think the spicy food path is much more satisfying and in some ways much more safe. Everything in moderation right!?
So, I was hooked. Not necessarily on the heat, but on the complex and in some instances simple, savory flavors that came from the food. The food, to put it bluntly, was psychedelic. So my desire for great Indian food got more and more intense. I found out about 6th Street on the Lower East Side in NYC where the whole block is lined with Indian restaurants. The joke goes that there are many storefronts and one big kitchen for all of them. What is interesting is the food is all basically similar and most offer the same condiments such as the delectable onion chutney (that I have yet been able to duplicate) and a dal shorba or soup that is simple and wonderful. I have not had either in a long time as I am far away from NYC, and when I go I am not able to fully satisfy my addiction as others do not share it to the extent that I do. I would eat it breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday forever with the occasional break for pizza, Pad Thai and veggie dim sum.
So now fast forward to the present. During all those years, I tried to master the simplest Indian dishes. In the beginning, it was an utter disaster. Chickpeas undercooked, too much spice not enough spice. I bought a number of cookbooks and they always seemed like a puzzle with so many steps, obtuse sounding ingredients and stages of preparation I just gave up and waited until I could get to an Indian restaurant. Then someone gave me a book that is probably the best Indian cookbook I have found to date entitled Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan. This book, with its amazing photography and detailed instructions, allowed me to make sambar (see previous blog entry) and it tasted dead on to the restaurant. So, I found that some of the problem with duplicating these foods at home had to do with the actual instructions.
While searching the internet for more detailed instructions for things like dosa and puda, I happened on this wonderful blog called Mahanandi. Mahanandi is an Indian food blogger that introduced me to the encyclopedic volume of information that is available in the blog universe concerning Indian cooking. I found recipes and high quality photos for many things I was familiar with and more importantly not familiar (like ponganalu!) with but was interested in trying.
Mahanandi is part of a larger network of food bloggers that offer recipes as per a specific ingredient such as coconut, rice, etc. The results of these jhiva’s are wonderful in depth studies all focused on one main ingredient. There is no understating the importance of these blogs as they, if only from an anthropological perspective provide the eater or student of Indian food a synthesis of thousands of years of techniques and shortcuts culled from grandmas and aunties from all parts of the Indian subcontinent. No one cookbook can do that nor do many even try. Furthermore, the thing with individuals is that there is feedback between the users and you get a window into a cooking world that is mostly unavailable to the westerner thusly providing a front row seat at the meal and even more importantly in the kitchen. I want to thank all of these people as they have enriched my life personally because they have enriched my enjoyment of eating and allowed me to show other people who thought preparing Indian food was something that stood outside their availability. If anyone who reads this is even remotely interested in Indian food, I urge you to pour a cup of tea and enter into the world of healthy Indian food through the doorway of the blogosphere. Here is a list of some of my favorite Indian food blogs:
Mahanandi, Mysoorean, Bong Moms Cookbook, Recipe Junction.