The Undiscovered Foodie

My parents moved from India to the US in 1975 with a one year old daughter and I was born the following year. While they were fluent in English and had visited America prior to moving, almost everything about the American culture was new to them. My mother shared stories of not knowing where to put the soap in a laundry machine at her first laundromat and wearing saris and coats to work in a NYC winter. Like the weather and appliances, getting acquainted with American holidays also had a learning curve. Thankfully, my parents always had a culturally mixed group of friends (which can be hard when you are an immigrant) due to work and, well, just having an open mind. In fact, I always thought, why would you move to another country if you don’t care to acclimate to that countries cultures and ways? Well, almost any immigrant you ask would probably say that they moved to give their children more opportunities. Luckily ,(and with an outspoken kid who would ask a lot of questions) they not...

  Many years before I had the privilege of traveling all throughout Japan, I would semi-annually visit one of my favorite restaurants in Las Vegas, Raku. Now, for my local, foodie compatriots, I started drooling over Raku long before Raku Sweets even existed. I used to go after finishing 2 shows with “O” and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’d be dreaming of Raku’s tofu while singing Nostalgie and looking out at the 1800 (often filled) seats at the Bellagio Theater. The restaurant  is open until 2am, so I could still make a 12:15am reservation. It’s one of the few reasons I would EVER eat at that hour but the nice thing about traditional Japanese restaurants is that they serve proper portion sizes for a nutritious diet so eating dinner at 12:15 didn't feel quite so bad. Raku serves a combination of sashimi, appetizers, grilled items and noodles/rice. I am going to highlight 5 of my favorite dishes from this award winning restaurant, just off the strip in Chinatown, for you. ...

  We all grow up with likes and dislikes, especially when it comes to food. My sister and I would often ask my mother as children, “Ma, what’s for diiinnneerrr?”, and she would roll her eyes a bit and tell us about the rice, vegetables and lentils we’d be having, knowing what was coming next. “But can’t we just order a pizza?", we'd say. I mean, we had home cooked meals every single day and yet we’d whine about wanting pizza (which we would have about once a month anyways). If we knew then what we know now! Kids can be so difficult to please! Having said that though, we weren’t “allowed” to be picky or choose what we ate every night (like many kids today) so we did have to learn to eat what was in front of us if we didn’t want to go hungry. But, what if we knew then about the 6 month rule? What if we allowed ourselves to try the things we hated, every 6 months? Would we find that with age, experience, travel and evolution, we wouldn't hate them after all?   Because we...

“It’s going to be about a one and a half hour wait," the host said. “OK, the name is Chand," I replied, before saying thank you, leaving my cell number and scurrying off to the bar across and down the street. The only reason why there were no heavy sighs of disappointment or instant replies of “Oh, that’s too long," followed by moving on to Plan B is because I was at Burma Superstar in San Francisco, the most popular Burmese restaurant in all of the Bay Area and you guessed it, they don’t take reservations.  Burmese food is hard to find, based on where you live but in SF and the Bay area, you are in luck! You’ve got options. This incredible cuisine which borrows from Indian, Thai and Chinese flavors, will surprise and delight you like no other. While I myself come from Indian descent, before having tried Burmese food, all I knew of Burma was that Tup Tim, the princess in the King and I (whom I played at the largest dinner theater in the country in my 20’s) was from t...

I’m not married and I don’t have kids. I never thought I’d be saying that at 44, but at some point, you just have to accept and embrace where you are in life and not belittle yourself for following a different path than those around you. Cooking for one can be tricky. Most recipes are for at least 4 people and while I do enjoy cooking for family and friends, I’m not one to enjoy eating the same thing, 4 days in a row. Variety is the spice of life! So, I’ve come up with a couple of tricks of the trade to keep things interesting in the kitchen while still shopping on a budget and keeping it simple.  Let’s start by looking at ground meat, 4 ways. I generally prefer to buy ground turkey or ground chicken, just to keep my red meat intake in check. Let’s face it, I’d rather have a greasy burger from Fatburger or some Korean or Japanese grilled beef once every 2 weeks rather than make it at home myself. Since I’m cooking for one, what I like to do is split up one meat package into 2, ...