...cook them tasty food. Well that's the Penzeys slogan, but it's definitely something I believe in (definitely something my mom has taught me). Last week friday, after a month of being here I finally got myself in the kitchen. This isn't because I don't want to cook, it's because I have a cook here. It's a dynamic I'm not really used to. My western friends may initially think "wow, you have a cook! How fancy!" But here it's far more common to have household help like a cook and a cleaner. Now, I would love to help my cook, or as north Indians call their help-Didi (big sister), in the kitchen but the problem comes down to language. I've realized that my understanding of Hindi is far better than I thought, but I'm not conversational. I can say something is nice, good, bad but not so much beyond those basics. Of course, guiding someone in cooking is out of the question at this point. Anywho, last friday I invited my work friends over for a nice dinner. I was really excited to share some yummy food with them, since I not only enjoy cooking but also LOVE eating.

For many of my coworkers, these dishes were new and foreign. I had the help of my co-worker Ananya in cooking the meal, she was my sous chef and I taught her how to make the dishes. After a long time, I made marinara sauce completely from scratch- boiling the tomatos and peeling them. It was alot of fun! Because of the size of the kitchen and the limited number of cooking pans, the process was long (a few hours). All in all it was great. I really enjoyed being able to share another side of me with my friends. One of my co-fellows/ flatmates, a guy from the northern town of Dehradun, was so intrigued by the food. He asked me the following day what everything was, right down to that uncooked green leafy vegetable. When I told him it was spinach, he was SO surprised, claiming that he had never eaten uncooked spinach. All my coworkers, including him, loved the food. You can be sure that this is just the first of many dinner parties!

Oh and ps- the dessert was a makeshift tiramisu :)