Food has always been an integral part of my childhood. Every ocassion in my house was associated with a special dish, so much so, that some dishes could be made only on those certain days. Of course this meant that I was spoilt and pampered, such that I would eat a particular dish only if it was made my mom or granny or that one person known for making it a particular way. Experimenting was unheard of and the men in my family would make a criticizing comment even if one ingredient in the dish changed. All this gave way when I came to the US. Here cooking was putting things together and dicovering for myself which combinations tasted decent and which did not. But now, five years later, I still yearn for that special combination of ingredients that can only produce that one given taste, the one taste that can trigger a remote memory from childhood and that I can associate with a certain ocassion, like 'mag na bhajiya' and 'seero' during rains, or 'lassan na ladva' in december.
When remeniscing about these tastes with friends, I realized that all of us have that craving of mom's food that never goes away, no matter how far or how grown up we are. Being away from home and living in nuclear families where fast food and restaurants are a way of life, I wonder how many of these traditional family recipes will disappear with no one to remember or record them. This is a small attempt to try and capture those recipes that are handed down from generations and that can only be found in 'mom's kitchen'.