The Good Book Corner, November 25, 2015 Chillies and Porridge- Writing Food  came to me just at the time when I was starting my regimented diet – post a big fat Punjabi wedding and the festive gluttony of Diwali. Edited by Mita Kapur, founder and CEO of Siyahi, it features essays by some well known writers. Chillies and Porridge celebrates food- food as humble as the ordinary porridge and as crackling as the foreign chilli, which we Indians can’t live without now. […]

Woodpie Blog, November 20, 2015 Mayur and I grew up, and to this day live, in a small place called Uday Park in Delhi which was a small colony where plots of land were given to the families who had lost a member to the war of 1971. The resulting demographic therefore was a lot of working ladies who were the heads of the family and a lot of kids without fathers who had only each other to really learn […]

Mint Lounge, November 16, 2015 Why the staples of a large section of India are shrouded in deliberate invisibility—an exclusive excerpt from a new anthology on food writing At Brigade Ground, the buses had started to come in from mid-morning; by afternoon, there was a thick, orderly mass of people from Bengal’s districts and villages, streaming in for one of the many rallies held by Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister. Political rallies and bandhs had punctuated the daily […]

Quartz India, November 16, 2015 Like most Indians, I am addicted to chillies and cannot do without them. At home there is no problem since green chillies come free along with a bunch of fresh coriander when one buys vegetables from the market, but when I have to travel abroad, the scene gets dismal. I can last about three days without tasting a green chilli but after that I am like a demented person searching for anything that will give […]

The New Indian Express, November 12, 2015 Chillies and Porridge: Writing Food Edited by: Mita Kapur Publisher: HarperCollins Pages: 273 Price: Rs 499 The experience of food can mean many things to many people. Chillies and Porridge is a collection of food writing with essays by writers such as Anita Nair, Janice Pariat, Bulbul Sharma, Mamang Dai, among others, and is a celebration of that most vital ingredient of life: food. http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/Book-Tasting/2015/11/14/article3125081.ece

Scroll, October 20, 2015 Tracing the roots of Punjabi ‘khana’ through the journey of a Punjabi family from Lahore to Delhi. Rajendra Nagar was one of Delhi’s Partition refugee colonies, hurriedly created after 1947 to accommodate the millions of displaced people pouring into independent India. In Delhi, these neighbourhoods were named after Hindu Congress leaders: Rajendra Nagar, Patel Nagar, Tilak Nagar and Lajpat Nagar. Over time, the accents of its inhabitants mellowed “Rajendra Nagar” down to the more rounded, affectionate […]

IANS, December 5, 2015 Title: Chillies and Porridge; Editor: Mita Kapur; Publisher: Harper Collins; Pages: 273; Price: Rs.499 What happens when top experts from various walks of life stir imaginations, mix emotions and pour their best memories into the frying pan called life? Believe that it no longer remains just a food experience but turns into an unforgettable memoir. A compilation of writings from 23 top experts and edited by Mita Kapur, “Chillies and Porridge” explicitly evolves around what binds […]

Indulge, The New Indian Express, December 4, 2015 Twenty three stories about nothing but food — Chillies and Porridge is an anthology that every gastronome must have Wendell Rodricks fashion designer Contribution: Tia Rosa When Mita Kapur (editor) first asked me to write for Chillies and Porridge, two food memories came to me. One was a Christmas cake recipe I got from a friend, and the second a coconut jelly made for me by Mangala Wagle, who I worked with […]

The Tribune, November 22, 2015 http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/best-sellers/back-flap/160682.html

Air Vistara In-flight Magazine, October 2015