Happiness Tastes Like Curry: My Indian Kitchen

Finalist for the 2016 Gourmand World Cookbook Award. Category: Indian Cooking.

When I first took off for India—an Israeli woman living a typical middle-class lifestyle—it did not seem like my natural place. I am not a backpacker. I never entertained fantasies of traveling in the East. I did not practice yoga. I was not looking for a guru. I simply wished to spend some time with myself, and India seemed right. I set out for one month, but India had a different plan. I arrived in the small city of Tiruvannamalai, which sits at the foot of a holy mountain, and there I met a very, very English man who dreamed of opening a restaurant. I fell in love with this man and with his dream, with the place and with its people, and I began to cook.

My kitchen migrates between the Middle East and India, particularly Tamil Nadu, where I have lived since 2000. For me food is, first and foremost, a connection—something we share, we speak of, we tell stories about. Cooking is an adventure, a journey in new flavors, and a longing for something that we cannot always explain. Sometimes food allows us to express on a plate what we cannot put into words.

I wish to share this book with those who have been to India, who will be in India, who wish to go but are wary, to parents whose grown children are traveling there, and particularly to anyone who wants to cook a good Indian meal using simple, clear recipes, and enjoy stories about neighbors, friends, and life. Let the magic of India enter your kitchen.