incidentally when i think of Indian food
i think of Ethiopia.
when we lived in addis ababa
there were only two restaurants
we frequented:
an italian cafe that boasted
the most impeccable service
and an Indian place
where i had my first ever taste of
goat.
Indian food also makes me think
of a Bangladeshi boy who used to leave
me love poems in my locker.
we always ran into him and his family
when we dined at the Indian joint.
since africa
(a place i still dream of)
my experience with Indian food
has been a love/hate battle.
the harmony between spices
and ingredients
perfectly balanced with
rice or
naan
but is just havoc on my system,
particularly if butter or cheese
plays heavily in the dish.
this dish, for me,
is a godsend
i love eggs,
in any form
and while it does play a
minor role against the heavy
punches of cardamon and even cinnamon
i am appeased
because hello
Indian food at home is the best
just a note,
i have attempted two different
recipes,
one from the beautiful Journey Kitchen
that was lovely
but the one i feature today is from playful cooking
which really satiated my cravings
also, the recipe calls for
unsweetened coconut flakes
yeah, i couldn’t find the unsweetened
stuff in my pantry
so sweetened went in
it wasn’t cloyingly saccharine
but i would imagine the
dish could do without the
added sugar
last,
just so you know,
again, we lived in Africa for just under
two years, i was only in
8th & 9th grade,
and always heavily chaperoned
on the rare occasions i would
venture out of the compound
i barely remember my time there,
i can only recall the
loveliness of the landscape
the cold climate living in Mt. Entoto‘s shadows
injera
the quiet dignity of ethiopians
morestomach 