Author: Awanthi VardarajPage 1 of 8

How I Invented Strawberries & Cream Kulfi (Goya Journal)

Many years ago, on a cool summer’s day in Ootacamund, my family and I were lunching at our favourite restaurant. The restaurant’s sumptuous wood-panelled interiors were as familiar…

Ghee is the secret to these meltingly tender 5-ingredient cookies (The Washington Post)

These are sweet, delicate five-ingredient cookies, akin to the meltaway kind made with confectioners’ sugar. Find the recipe here.

Ghee has been an Indian staple for millennia. Now the rest of the world is catching on. (The Washington Post)

The very first solid food my mother fed me as a baby in our southern India household was mashed-up rice mixed with a little ghee. This set the…

Going From the Best Food to the Cheapest Food (The Billfold)

“If it’s not local, seasonal, and organic,” I grandly declared five years ago, “it’s not worth buying.” I sometimes think back to that moment, to past me who…

The Pie That Wasn’t (Modern Salt)

My grandmother was an amazing cook who could turn her hand to almost anything, provided it fell under the broad traditional cooking umbrella that she felt inherently comfortable…

Bringing Depression to the Office (The Hindu)

I kept my unipolar depression a secret for years. My reasoning: people could not see that I was ill, so they would not believe that I was actually…

How to Support a Partner with Depression (AskMen)

Not everyone instinctively knows how to handle someone else’s depression. Depression is a liar; there is no lie it won’t tell. It contributes to feelings of worthlessness, guilt,…

Feeding Crows for the Shradh (Atlas Obscura)

There are no crows to be seen. It is noon, and the sun is high in the sky in Chennai, India; two women carry a veritable feast in…

Turkish Delight & Gilded Demonberries: on the Finest of Fictional Foods (Brooklyn Mag)

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words, although it’s clear that “they” haven’t read some of the words I’ve read describing food in breathtaking, drool-inducing detail….

When The Photographer Is Always Mom (The Swaddle)

My great aunt was an enthusiastic amateur photographer who loved to take photographs of everything and everyone around her. When she died, I inherited her huge collection. One…