Mama’s Cooking & Papa’s Planting

As is always the case when I visit my parents, besides just spending time with them which I just love every bit of, I love my mother’s cooking. I’ve been to a great many world class restaurants. I’ve been to a slew of joints. I have friends who are excellent cooks. I also know my way around the kitchen. I have watched A Hundred Foot Journey.  None of them can hold a candle to my mother. And just like when little boys say “my daddy can beat up your daddy”, I really do fervently believe that my mom’s cooking is better than anyone else’s mothers (and fathers). When I was in college and those first few years when I lived in Chicago, many a friend would come over to my parents’ house after a night out, gobbling down Indian food. While those moments are significantly fewer and farther in between, I still have my moments of partaking in the best food in the world.

Like this past week in Tampa.

And then there’s my dad’s love of gardening…

Clockwise from top: chicken curry, potatoes, chori (red beans), zucchini/carrots/potatoes, chicken curry all served around a bed of red rice

Kerala fish fry

breakfast: palappam with egg curry

Clockwise from top: keema (ground beef) with peas, green spinach, green beans, fish curry, cabbage all served around a bed of red rice

breakfast: uppam with potato & carrot curry stew

dinner: fish curry

lunch: cauliflower & potatoes

potatoes & carrots in a curry stew

breakfast: idlee with sambar

fritatta

fresh papaya from the yard

closeup curry leaf plant

shallots

fresh shallots, garlic, onion

curry leaves just picked

papaya tree

Curry Leaf Plant growing in the yard

plantains

plantains

holly

curry leaf plant

papaya tree