Cooking Music, and Hello

Everything I do I do to music. So when it comes time to cook a meal, I can't function unless the stereo is on and a favorite CD is playing. In the last year, this station, here in Toronto, has been my standard for whatever I'm making, whether it's a shepherd's pie, sweet potato gnocchi from scratch, or one of my mom's Gujarati recipes. Everything is better with jazz.
Some other great CDs that I listen to that are smooth and mellow and great to cook to are:

• Feist- The Remainder (2007). My honey and I used to listen to this CD non-stop early 2008 when making brunches and getting ready to go to Grapefruit Moon. Every time I hear "1234," I crave scrambled eggs.
• zaki ibrahim- Eclectica (episodes in purple) (2008). zaki is a Toronto area artist, who sometimes sings in French! How cool is that?
• Anything and everything Sade. Enough said.

The trick to good cooking music, in my opinion, is that it is soothing after a long day, it has a nice melody, and it's upifting. It may be just me, but cooking to Radiohead... a little depressing. And it might be time to put your loud, poppy albums, like the Cure away, at least for the time being. You might also try Francophonie, like Edith Piaf, or maybe some fado.

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Lastly, I'd like to say welcome to my blog. It took me a good long while to think of a suitable name, one that encompassed all that I want to do. My first forays into blog-naming either erased my south asian identity, or highlighted it in an essentializing way. Having grown up in Montreal in a south asian family, I was raised to enjoy everything from croissants to creton to chicken curry to daal. I hope my name attempts to cover multiple diasporic longings; for both the recipes of my grandparents, and for a really good baguette (which I've sadly yet to find in Toronto).

I'll be covering all sorts of topics, from restaurant reviews, to "cooking school basics" for people just starting out in the kitchen, to food culture and politics. I hope to be having "culinary adventures". There are many things I've always been dying to make. Like Baklava. And Bibim bap. And Yorkshire pudding. Hopefully this blog will give me the venue to do so. This is kinda exciting...