Warning: a Life of Spice by Monica Bhide is going to make you wish you cooked more Indian food … or at least ate more! That was the case for me when I read and reviewed this book for Edible Idaho’s Spring 2016 edition.
Monica Bhide spent much of her childhood in Bahrain dreaming of the foods she saw on American television shows like Different Strokes and Facts of Life. These were much more than sitcoms to her – they were each 21-minute glimpses of exotic Western eating habits replete with peanut butter and brownies; caviar and McDonald’s.
In return, she offers Westerners a similar peek at Indian cuisine and customs in her memoir, A Life of Spice: Stories of Food, Culture, and Life. Through personal vignettes Bhide explores how culture and traditions are deeply ingrained in the food that accompanies them. How taste gives a sense of place and fuels memories that linger beyond a fixed moment in time.
Like in Bird of Paradise which recounts the making of butter chicken, a childhood favorite of Bhide’s. Her family would start the dish a full day before serving with a trip to the family butcher and a good slathering of the bird with homemade yogurt, clarified butter, tomatoes, and a generous squeeze of lemon. After an overnight marinade, ginger, garlic and fiery chilis joined the mix along with cumin, fenugreek and a finish of cream. The process took time, providing ample opportunity to linger near her father’s side, soaking up all of his stories.
In A Question of Taste, Bhide reveals why tasting Indian food while cooking is avoided. She says the first serving of food is for the gods and sampling along the way would render the dish impure. Therefore, the other senses have to pick up the slack – like learning to watch for the point when the tomatoes marry the onions, or listening for the sound of cumin sizzling in hot oil, or knowing that a curry is ready by the fragrance of the cinnamon and cloves.
Learning to cook with all her senses translated well to food writing. Bhide’s stories are steeped in culture and wrapped in descriptions that beg for the cardamon and saffron to be pulled out of the spice drawer, or at least a reservation made at the local Indian restaurant.
For more inspiration, check out A Life of Spice and Bhide’s cookbooks – The Everything Indian Cookbook: 300 Tantalizing Recipes–From Sizzling Tandoori Chicken to Fiery Lamb Vindaloo, Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen and The Spice Is Right: Easy Indian Cooking for Today.