Trains, Planes and Pedhas - Vikram Vij and His Family Chicken Curry

Photo used with thanks to Sean Neild

Chef Vikram Vij, patron of Vancouver's famous Vij's Restaurant, Rangoli and Railway Express, and I share a fascination with Indian railways and their ubiquitous blue and red trains. Mine was honed through years of travelling around India with my family, and my own adventures on the trains from Delhi to South India. Vikram's, on the other hand, was all about the food.

"Were the pedhas worth it?" I asked him, after he recounts a particularly hilarious train story. "Yeah" he says, laughing, "but if I had missed that train, I would have lost everything, so maybe I need to rethink that answer". Vikram was travelling from Mathura to Bombay, and decided, underestimating the stop times on the train, to head to a nearby pedha shop. Pedhas, for the uninitiated, are deliciously milky, soft, fudgey Indian sweets that melt in your mouth. He got his pedhas, but as he approached the train station, realised that his train was pulling away from the station. As he recounts, "I ran, so hard, yelling, and finally managed to jump on to the last carriage of the train, where I waited till we got to the nest stop, so I could get to my seat". This story is familiar to a lot of us Indians, who love our railway food and drinks. From banana podis when approaching the Konkan coast, to vada pav in Mumbai, hot chai and lassis everywhere, everyone has a story about a near missed train incident. But in the end, the pedhas or the bhajiyas or the vadas are always worth it.

Read More

NAIT's White Chocolate Crème Brûlée (And Other Yummy Treats)

A lot of people ask me why I do what I do. It is a question that comes up frequently, from everyday life situations to blogger conferences like the Food Bloggers of Canada conference that I attended recently in Vancouver. It might seem like a simple question. After all, I wouldn't be doing what I do, if I didn't know why I was doing it, would I? This simple question, however, is incredibly hard to answer. Why do I do what I do? Money (ha!), attention (yes no), to learn (yes), to create (yes), to express myself through writing (yes), to share (yes)... and the most important of all? Because I love it. Cooking, creating recipes, learning about food, sharing my recipes and my food - I love it. It inspires me, it keeps me passionate, it makes me feel alive and happy. An important part of this joy comes from the act of sharing.

Sharing is a concept that has been talked about across cultures, whether it be sharing food or knowledge, it is integral to us and to our well being. I grew up in a culture where recipes were passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Oral traditions were very important, and the only way that would ensure that the next generation possessed the same knowledge and understanding of the older generations. My mother's generation was the transitional one in India. Oral traditions started to be overlooked, and written traditions started to take their place. My mom never relied on cookbooks to make her food, however, she started writing down her recipes, with careful notes on where each came from and the modifications she made to these recipes. My aunts are the same, and in many ways my work is cut out for me. Except - that one ingredient they always leave out - but that's another story.

Read More