Food Philosophy & History

Welcome to Aaji's Thaali!

I am a Dutch media professional who has grown up traveling and eating different cuisines cooked by some of the most talented, respected and loved chefs across the world - aajis/grandmoms/nonnas/omas/naanis/daadis/mémé/γιαγιά/nai nai/wai po/mormors/farmors/vec mamas...

Amsterdam Amstelpark

They could be spread across the globe, could be speaking different languages and have very different personalities but all aajis are so similar when it comes to their generosity, wisdom and kindness.

My love for sampling different food types started as soon as I got my milk teeth. Both my paternal & maternal grandmothers and their respective sisters and cousins were outstanding chefs and that meant getting more than 4 great meals a day if you visited them over the holidays or weekends. If there was a special festival or an occasion to celebrate, the food just got more elaborate and complex. The interesting bit was that they never fretted even when 20 people showed up without an appointment. Their philosophy always was, "the more,the merrier".

As a teenager and till I was a young adult, I loved eating (who doesn't) but I did not enjoy entering the kitchen and getting involved in the scrubbing, peeling, chopping and cooking. With enough helping hands around, I escaped the washing up after meals part as well. When I was in my mid 20s, I realized my eating habits and lifestyle were getting out-of-control. I was consuming way too much processed food and my meal hours were not disciplined. Most nights (more like mid-nights),I was holding a plate of processed/take-away food in my hand as I watched TV or stared at my computer screen at work. Basically, I wasn't even watching what I was eating, leave alone tasting or relishing it. As I read more and more about the rise in obesity levels, cholesterol levels, heart diseases, diabetes and cancer, I realized it was time to stop my unhealthy eating patterns and get back to what my grandmoms swore by - sourcing raw ingredients and starting to cook from A to Z.  Basically, to have complete quality and quantity control over what goes in my mouth. Which meant, no cheating with short-cuts (semi-processed)and no take-outs unless it was a necessity. It was difficult to start with and having no cooking experience in the kitchen meant I was hopeless at it but slowly and steadily with calls and emails from my mom and aunts guiding me from notes they had from Aaji, I began to cook. There were disasters in the kitchen at times and I would spend the evenings cleaning up instead of actually eating but each of those mistakes taught me to appreciate food and to respect the ingredients that went into it. With more and more home cooking and eating, my body began looking and feeling better. I wasn't tired or lethargic, my skin glowed and I didn't need to pop in as many vitamin pills to build my immunity levels. I began to look forward to heading to stores and picking up ingredients. Cooking suddenly became therapeutic! And as a bonus, eliminating take-outs and eat-outs helped me save more at the end of the month!

Last year, my mom called to inform me that her aunt had passed and we got talking about what a great cook she was and that it was a shame that no one in her immediate family knew most of her recipes because most kids and grand-kids were having catered food, take-away meals or eating out. I remember I was working on a music album that day and I just stared blankly at the computer screen for an hour as my mind took me back to all the fabulous meals I had had at her place. I realized that as time was sprinting by, the delicacies that I grew up with and experienced in all my years of traveling would be gone unless I documented them in some way. It was then that I realized that the best way to honour not just my grandmoms but also all other grandmoms was to start this site. My involvement will not just be restricted to traveling, eating and waxing eloquence (yes, some articles will be drool-worthy and have references and links to grandmom-run places you must visit and eat at) BUT, mostly I will be meticulously re-creating what I have eaten (made by grandmoms) over the years in different countries, creating my own versions of old family favourites that I have grown up with and developing new recipes that suit hectic, modern lifestyles.

Hopefully, Aaji's Thaali will encourage you to get outside your comfort zone and you will start to enjoy cooking and tasting new cuisines as much as I do! 

Of course, it would be nice if you could link back whatever it is you do using this site, back to this site. At Aaji's Thaali, we are pretty serious about discipline (COPYRIGHTS and all that)so if you need to use and reproduce any of the content or/and images from Aaji's Thaali on your own website or elsewhere, ALWAYS email me BEFORE at aajisthaali@gmail.com 
       

Thank you!