“One reason to bake bread is to fill up your kitchen with that aroma. Even if the bread turns out badly, the smell of it baking never fails to improve a house or a mood… freshly baked bread is the ultimate olfactory synecdoche for hominess. Which, when you think about it, is odd, since how many of us grew up in homes where bread was ever baked? Yet somehow that sense memory and its association with a happy domesticity endure.”
– Michael Pollan

Crumbs, written by Mumbai based food writer and baker Saee Koranne Khandekar, opens with the deeply profound words by Michael Pollan from his book Cooked. And if you pay attention to the smells that are most comforting, the smell of freshly baked bread or rotis being cooked on the flame will be one of them.

Crumbs by Saee Koranne Khandekar

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Chillies and Porridge

Food memoirs and history of food are slowly becoming my favourite topics when it comes to food writing/reading. The food gets so much more character when it becomes a part of someone’s memory. There’s also this joy of reading about how the eating habits of people evolved, how they learnt about new flavours and how did they create something new out of all that knowledge.

Harper Collin’s latest title Chilies and Porridge, compiled and edited by food writer Mita Kapur is the latest addition to my book shelf. The book is a collection of chapters written by chefs, journalists, food writers and fashion designers who’ve shared their intimate relationship with food. Continue reading →