Hello and welcome to my blog, Rasam Tales.
My name is Varadarajan Ananthakrishnan – shortened to Raj, for convenience. I was born in Chennai, lived and studied in Ahmedabad, and worked in New Delhi. And I love food.
A brief introduction about me: I wear many hats: I am a television producer – news, entertainment, current affairs, documentaries etc. I am a Trainer – I do trainings in communications, television, news reporting, etc. I am a writer – apart from writing for television, I occasionally write columns for newspapers and portals. And, I am a fan of cooking – an interest I got from seeing my mother – I call her Amma – cook. Like all mothers, to me, she was the best cook.
My Inspiration – My Mother
This blog is dedicated to my mother – Meena Krishnan– fantastic, adorable cook who kept innovating. In my freelance days when I had time between projects, I happily became her understudy and prepared dishes according to her directions, with awesome results of course. Her recipes have stayed with me, and I have begun innovating on a few, with delightful results. All of us in the family always encouraged her to write a book on her recipes, which we were sure, would be a bestseller. Modest that she was, she never attempted doing that. This blog is a small tribute to her genius.
Why Rasam Tales?
When a friend suggested Rasam Tales, I connected to it immediately. Rasam is one of the most relatable dishes from the South Indian kitchen – after idlis and dosas of course. Rasam, also has a warm feeling to it, that you can sip on a cold winter day, or use as an appetizer before a sumptuous meal. It is the same warm, earthy, sense of belonging that I want to bring to this blog while narrating delicious tales around food.
Rasam, or Rasm, in Hindi, also means tradition. You will find many recipes and anecdotes about food that involves tradition, and traditional recipes. This is our way of keeping them alive, lest we forget.
What to Expect From This Blog
I am starting off this blog with what I know best – South Indian food, slightly Tam-Brahm cooking. You will get to read about anecdotes, recipes, and some easy quick fixes. Chennai, my birthplace, is in my heart, and I would keep taking you back to this foodie city. Sometime in a not-too-distant future, you will find delightful food from my second home – Ahmedabad, where I grew up. It’s a delightful coincidence that the two cities I was in, early in my life, are foodie cities. In the late ‘90s, produced a show called Zaike Ka Safar – which went on to showcase the best of food in the entire country. I would write about great food in each city. It is going to be a great ride and I am sure I can bring you some great tales from all over the country.
There are many other reasons you can visit and stay with my blog for a long, long time. This blog will show you some easy fix recipes, some gourmet-style connoisseur recipes, quite a few innovations, easy hacks, how to travel with South Indian food, how to use them for healing yourself, recipes for those of you always on the move, re-inventing a left-over dish, cooking the same vegetable in different styles, and much more. Simply put, if South Indian food is on your mind, this blog should be able to guide you to put that dish on your table.
Let me sum it up for you. Why this blog? Because …
- You finally figure out that delicious South Indian fare is super easy to make, just takes a bit of patience
- You have hacks for everything – quick fixes, short cuts, damage-control and more. The resulting dish will be still awesome
- You can reinvent these dishes to suit different needs – in a manner you might have not thought of before!
- You will realize that there is more to South Indian dishes than just delicious taste – these foods can be healing, can be repackaged, can be taken on long travel, can remain on shelves for long and much more.
I am are sure you will have fun visiting this blog, time and again.
Happy Cooking! |Happy Feasting!|Happy Innovating!