Still, better late than never.
For future Nidhi: You are currently in the midst of a giant s##tstorm caused by a tiny being that's invisible unless your eye is extremely well-dressed. You are in this, along with the rest of the world. You also recently became a mom to an extremely hyperactive monkey - congratulations.
Honestly, you are doing way better than many people in the world and you are thankful for it. You have a place you call home, a salary that gets deposited in your account by month-end, and the facility of ordering groceries and food online. The lockdown (announced on 24th March 2020 and currently in its 9th week) is, to be truthful, a minor inconvenience for folks like you. In fact, you secretly love some aspects of it ("I get to stay home!", "No commute to office!", "Ahh lovely reason to skip on social obligations and just chill with my cats!", "Yay! Less mom guilt!")
That does not take away from the fact though, that it's just plain weird. It is. For everyone. And so, it's okay to feel down, aimless and unproductive.
What I embarked upon is really just for me because I was feeling a little too useless. I also realized it will be a long long time before we can get back to "normal life". And a long time before I can travel without the constant worry of me or a loved one contracting an infectious disease. So I decided to let our taste buds travel instead. I've always wanted to visit every state in India, and I am well beyond the 50% mark (yes, I know I can do better).
A key aspect of visiting new places, at least for me, is trying out the local cuisine and flavours. I do not go to Ladakh and look for a place where I can eat Butter chicken, for instance 😐. Instead I try out butter tea, yak cheese momos and Thukpa. Yes, I certainly regret some decisions (my stomach does not like yak cheese), but I'm happy to regret the things I ate than regret not having tried them 😋😋 Life ke end mein kabhi aisa nahi lagna chahiye: "Damn, I could have eaten that!"
Thus began the quarantine culinary tour of India. I've tried to make multiple dishes from a different state each week and will be documenting them here. Because, honestly, I have more time on my hands than I've had in years (Yay lockdown!). In some cases I've put together a proper thali, in others a fancy 3 course meal and in some I spread the effort across the week because each single dish was too much work 😀. The dishes were selected based on a combination of variables like popularity, potential taste, availability of ingredients and doable-ness (Ah! Nidhi the analytics consultant! 😎)
Also, each time the food was being prepared, I was in my kitchen listening to songs from the state in question, on high volume, because, you know, feels.😄 (Yes, in case there were any doubts at all - I AM A HUGE NERD).
I have, therefore, successfully confused all my neighbours.
Here goes..!
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