Recipes For Life

TOP LINE: GO BUY THIS BOOK, YOU WON’T REGRET IT. BUY TWO AND GIVE ONE TO A FRIENDAai, Ajji, Amma, Ammi, Anu, Ba, Bou, Ma, Mamma, Manni, Mom, Mum, Mumma, MummyThese are the words that the people featured in Sudha Menon’s new book “Recipes for Life”, use when talking about their mothers. At first blush, this book might be viewed as a journey into a culinary and cultural exploration of the diversity of Indian cuisine. But it is so much more than that. It is a treasure trove of remembrances, a nostalgic trip down memory lane replete with narratives about the relationships between each individual and his or her mother (and in a few cases their fathers) and the identity that a mother’s cooking created in shaping what each person would eventually become.Menon takes us on a rollercoaster ride through a multitude of regional Indian dishes captured through personal narratives that at once will tug at your heartstrings, make you smile wanly or laugh uncontrollably and in every case will make you long for the halcyon days of your childhood when the aromas wafting out of your mother’s kitchen were largely responsible for what you viewed as happiness and comfort. From the very first chapter where Menon describes in rather inventive alliterative fashion – Ajit Agarkar’s Aai & Ajji’s openness to cook meat dishes instead of the traditional vegetarian fare because they believed that it would help Ajit with his strength and conditioning as he followed his dreams of becoming a cricket player to the last chapter in the book, where V.R. Feroze quotes Mitch Albom (I’ll copy this quote at the end of this review), this book will keep you enthralled, engaged and dare I say entertained.While many of the narratives focus on the breathtaking variety of Indian vegetarian gastronomic delights, there are many stories of signature non-vegetarian mutton, chicken and fish dishes. “Non-vegetarian” is a quintessential Indian term that is not really part of the lexicon of any other culture. This is because vegetarianism used to be the norm for most of the Indian population for many years and restaurants that served meat dishes would have to advertise that they also offered “non-vegetarian dishes”. Anupam Banerjee’s mother Meera’s “Shorse Bata Maach” – “a finger-licking good fish curry” that was a weekend treat in the Banerjee household, is one such non-vegetarian dish that I actually cooked using the recipe provided in the book. The recipe is fairly simple but the flavors are complex and sublime, especially if you like mustard. I grew up in Bombay in an East Indian Christian household that was very carnivorous, and I didn’t know anything about South Indian food except that you could eat it in “Udipi” and “Shetty” restaurants around Bombay. I am now married to a Palakkad Tamil Brahmin (aka Tam Bram) woman and for the past 25+ years have had the pleasure of discovering the multitude of glorious primarily vegetarian dishes from the South of India. Many of the chapters in “Recipes for Life” took me back to my South Indian cuisine discovery phase when I first met my wife and then later when we cooked Tamil, Malayali and other dishes together in the US. “We are what we eat” – is an oft-used aphorism to describe the simple truth that our food habits ineluctably influence other parts of our life and behavior and a lot of these habits are inculcated in us by our mothers. Menon very masterfully composes each raconteur’s anecdotal experiences in bite-size chapters that can be read in any order as microstories. It is serendipitous that Menon set out to sequence the stories alphabetically by name, but in doing so, each successive tale is based on a different regional perspective and holds the reader’s interest as you navigate from rural Manipur to urban Mumbai, down to Kerala and thence to Uttar Pradesh and beyond, along a journey of esculent adventures. Each chapter will provide a dose of nostalgia, a flashback that will be evocative of your own days of yore and ends with a few recipes of the featured person’s favorite dishes. Geetu Verma’s story about how she and her sister would rush off to eat potato and keema kebabs during the intermission in the weekly Sunday night Doordarshan Hindi movie brought back fond memories of how my siblings and I would also use that 15 minute break to scarf down pre-dinner snacks and then get back to Bollywood leading man, Shammi Kapoor singing Junglee songs or Jeetendra making disco moves in white trousers through which you could clearly see his red Superman underwear.Indian festivals and the feasts that accompanied them are prominently featured in many of the stories about each individual’s recollections about their mothers’ kitchens – Amish Tripathi’s Mahashivratri mathri, Vidya Balan’s Vishu chakka payasam, Nikhat Khan Hegde’s Eid seekh kebabs, Atul Kochhar’s Holi Gujiyas and Malpuas, Irfan Pathan’s Ramzan biryanis, Suhasini Maniratnam’s Diwali Chakkara pongal and many many more. You will smile when you learn that Sachin Tendulkar wanted to eat Irfan’s mother’s biryani the day after Id but there weren’t any leftovers, so Irfan’s “Ammi” made a whole new batch for Mr. Tendulkar. You will be pleasantly surprised that Shashi Tharoor’s narrative is devoid of any grandiloquent, fustian or euphistic prose but instead, has mouthwatering descriptions of his mother’s Malakushyam. You will learn about the difference between Konkanastha Brahmins (Kobras like Shanta Gokhales) and Deshasht Brahmins (Debras? Like Shonali Ranade) and their heritage and cuisine. I credit Menon for distilling & transcribing hours of interviews into easy to digest chapters that still faithfully convey the spirit and passion that each person has when describing what food and family means to them.I live in Chicago and this book was not available to me in print on Amazon or other outlets, when it was first published. I ordered a copy to be delivered to my parents who live in Mumbai and started reading it when I visited them this past October. The stories spoke to me and made me realize how important it is to continue to relish the time that you have with your parents because, well – Tempus Fugit, and before you know it the sights, sounds, aromas and feelings that are evoked via food and drink from your growing years will eventually be intangible memories that reside only in your heart and soul. And so, my mother and I decided to cook together for their parish feast of St Teresa of Avila. We both made our own version of goat chops – my mother’s famous green masala crumb fried chops and my Cumin & Cayenne broiled goat chops. My 80 yr old mother’s eyesight and dexterity in her hands are not what they used to be, but she insisted that she would cook without any assistance. I felt a lot of mixed emotions when everybody at the table said that they preferred my goat chops to hers. So I ate every single one of my mother’s goat chops and said that they were the best I have ever had. But we had a lot of laughs and reminiscences and mixed drinks about feelings. We talked about the time when my dad used a bottle of Baygon spray (a pesticide) to fry some chops in my mother’s absence – she was in Nasik at the time. He couldn’t tell the difference between cooking oil and pesticide because they looked the same in a refill glass bottle. His sense of smell couldn’t help him because he lost it many years ago in an olfactory surgery that went wrong. Needless to say, he wasn’t ever allowed in the kitchen again.Sudha Menon’s “Recipes for Life” brought everything home and full circle for me. Truly, this book not only has ingredients and directions for great-tasting meals, but it also has life lessons that will last forever. For everybody that has a lust for life and a love of food, Menon has tapped into the collective conscience of a diverse cross section of Indian society and has packaged their tales into a book that you will want to share with everybody. Here is the quote from Mitch Albom that V.R. Feroze cites in the last chapter of Menon’s book: “I don’t know what it is about food your mother makes for you, especially when it’s something that anyone can make – pancakes, meatloaf, tuna salad – but it carries a certain taste of memory”.BOTTOM LINE: I BOUGHT THIS BOOK, I DON’T REGRET IT. I BOUGHT TWO AND GAVE ONE TO A FRIEND.

This book takes you to your childhood days how the food is made by joy,love and care by your loved ones .it give the story of the food tradition of the families (the celebrities mentioned in the book) with little story. It makes me joy when I am reading the book because i can relate it or experienced it in any point of my life. This is one of my favorite cook book which make my heart to bloom while reading .I have tried some of the recipes too it turned out delicious . One of my favorite cook book. The quality of the book is good . Recommend to buy if you are passionate about cooking

I bought the book with the intention of gifting it to my mother, cooking being her forte, not mine.I started reading it in bits and pieces, flipping over to my favourite parts and was hooked.In Recipes for Life, Sudha Menon brings together 30 celebrities telling us about their Ma ke haath ka khana, along with recipes of their favourite foods. As we make our way through the homes and kitchens of these stars, they walk right into our hearts.We find Aai and Ajji, Mamma and Mummy, Ma, Nani, Ba, Mum, Ammi, Manni, Umma and even an Aandyamichi (nani), all of them turning the chore of cooking into an art, an expression of affection.What stands out in all her stories is that the best childhood memories are about simple food served with joy.The book is a culinary journey across India - from Kathiawar to Manipur and Kashmir to Kanyakumari, though the author says she had no such design when she wrote it.Laced with love and glazed with nostalgia that sweetens every bitterness (Like Amish Tripathi being made to eat bitter gourd at every meal for a week because he dared to push away the plate with the offending vegetable), the book is an absolute comfort read.To call this a ‘cookery book’ or a book of recipes would be gross injustice.

It was a pleasure to read the book.From the first page I was hooked to the book.Small titbits about author's mother in law's special masala for the khichidi. The book opened up simple meals enjoyed by the celebrities. My mom liked to look at the beautiful photographs of families ,mom's in particular .My Dad found a forgotten recipe vathakozhambu with Turkey berry a recipe Ashwini Iyer Tiwari family recipe.I did find sometimes irked by use of haldi or turmeric but then on reflection glad that it was left that to capture the flavour of the contributor's recipe.All in a recipe Book for your shelf to refer ,to read and enjoy.

Looking forward to devouring the pages of this book and also try out the recipes and smile as I remember the stories behind them.My son realized I'm the best cook in the whole big wide world when he ate out of a student's mess.God bless all mothers with special love to my mother in heaven. To me,she will always be the best cook in the whole world.Thank you Sudha Menon for evoking all the deep seated emotions of having a Mom and being a Mom...this book managed to tug at all the heartstrings!!!Well done as always Sudha...keep writing,keep touching hearts!

An interesting read for those who are foodies and fond of cooking and especially who love Maa ke haath ka swad!Cooking is a subject very close to my heart.Fantastic work by Sudha – Once again.It brought back the memories of my Mom, Grand Mom and Aunt’s cooking.The recipes in this book are age-old, family recipes odf some known personalities, which one may not find on the net.The best part of this book is that you can start reading from anywhere.Kamini Mehta

"Recipes for Life" by Sudha Menon takes you to nostalgic past and rekindles memories of one's growing up years.Reading about fond memories of the some leading personalities not only opens up shades of personality traits of these wonderful people but also gives glimpse of their simplistic and humble mothers and their recipes.The book brings to fore some of the dishes which may simply be lost over time. A simple. lucid must read for sure!! Well done, Sudha.

I liked it very much