A fascinating food narrative that weaves delectable Indian recipes with tales from the author’s life. In this creative and intimate work, Narayan matches her considerable vegetarian cooking talents with delicious accounts of her childhood in South India, her college days in America; her arranged marriage, and visits from her parents and in-laws to her home in New York City. In doing so, she illumines Indian customs while commenting on American culture form the vantage point of the sympathetic outsider. In stories as varied as Indian spices-at times pungent, mellow, piquant and sweet-we get to meet characters like Raju, the milkman who named his cows after his wives; the iron-man who daily set up shop in Narayan’s front yard, picking up red-hot colas with his bare hands; her mercurial grandparents and inventive parents, who, like Narayan, have a thing or two to say about cooking and about life. And, tantalizing recipes for potato masala, dosa and coconut chutney, among others, emerge from her absorbing tales about food and the solemn and quirky customs that surround it.
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