It’s not every day that a South Indian restaurant tops The New York Times annual list of New York City’s 100 best restaurants, beating the likes of Atomix and Le Bernardin. But Semma, a cozy Tamil restaurant in NYC’s Greenwich Village, has done that. The brainchild of Madurai-born chef Vijay Kumar, Semma – a Tamil…
Shubho noboborsho! Wishing all of you on the occasion of Bengali New Year. Also wishing everyone for the other Indian regional New Years like Ugadi, Puthandu, Vishu , Baisakhi, Vihu, Gudi Padwa and others. If you aren’t celebrating a New Year… may we simply celebrate life! A new dawn and a beautiful morning… and some…
In mid-2015 a diaspora Tamil thambi (younger brother) connected with me on facebook saying he had read a piece I had written a few years earlier about the war in Sri Lanka. After chatting for a bit on facebook, I sent him a link to My Tamil Kitchen. His reply: “I see.. you’ve definitely moved…
“You couldn’t buy thayir (yoghurt) back then. So we would ask neighbours who made thayir if we could have some culture and mummy would make thayir for us. We would do this on special occasions, like when we were breaking fast during hindu festivals. Families who owned cows would make it regularly. We would make ‘more’ from the…
After 3 years of My Tamil Kitchen – I have come to realise there are a few basic tips to preparing Tamil food. SALT: Everyone has a different relationship to salt and culture seems to play a leading role. Salt is added to every Tamil dish. An extra pinch of salt can make a curry…
Thank you to Tamil Culture for publishing this little piece about My Tamil Kitchen. A big thank you also to our dear Nesa aunty and for allowing me to weave ‘Recipes of the Jaffna Tamils‘ all through this project. Three years ago, I could make parippu, keerai from frozen spinach and carrot varai. My kathrikkai porichcha…
In 2010, on the back of the 2009 genocide in our homeland, a few of us Tamil kids thought we should start a cooking show which celebrated our Tamil identity and the broader refugee community in Australia. We didn’t make it past this – at the time there were more pressing advocacy needs. But i can…
The kelor or drumstick tree is a popular garden tree in both India as well as Sri Lanka and the Tamil areas. Known as Moringa oleifara, it is becoming increasingly popular for it’s medicinal value. The leaves of the Moringa tree are rich in vitamins A and c and a cupful of leaves provides more…
