To-may-to, To-mah-to… Ta-ma-tar!

I am aware that many of you here have been growing tomatoes since ages, but for me this was my first attempt, and the journey of these past six months – from seeds to fruit – has been a very valuable learning experience. Come to think of it, over the past year, my home garden …

Transient

Flowers. A fragile, fragrant, flamboyant, fetching, fascinating fragment of Mother Nature’s design to facilitate perpetuation of life. We all have our favourites – buttercups, carnations, chrysanthemums, daffodils, dahlias, daisies, lilies, orchids, peonies, petunias, roses and tulips – which are a welcome, though ephemeral digression from ordinary subsistence of the colourless commonplace. But human avarice is …

A Symphony of Flavours

Our kitchen is one huge chemistry lab. The colours, aromas, flavours, textures and taste of everyday cooking are all an output of nuanced chemical reactions taking place in the mysterious cauldrons that hold the broth - our humble cooking utensils. Be it the pyrolysis reaction crunching up complex sugars while caramelising onions, the mellowing of …