G12 Adventures: Random musing #4: On Sri Lankan cooking...

Having posted on my culinary blog earlier today, I decided to share my new-found interest during APLP time in Hawai'i. Prior to living at Hale Manoa, I hardly ever cooked. I used to rely mostly on instant food or very simple quick fixes when I had to prepare my own food. In Hawai'i, I started cooking on a more regular basis though I stuck to relatively simple dishes like pasta with tomato sauce or rice and dhal curry. However, that experience kind of removed my mental block on cooking. So, when I returned home, I was ready to try my hand at cooking other stuff particularly when there was an aim to it - that of getting my mother to eat better and more than her unhealthy toast and instant noodle pattern of eating. I shared that journey through my facebook page.

While I experimented with non-Sri Lankan healthy vegetarian recipes from around the world, the idea that it would be interesting to document my mother's recipes occurred to me. Especially seeing that most Sri Lankan culinary sites seemed to focus on a particular region and did not include the regional variations which I felt was important for a 'Sri Lankan' food website. I also knew that my mother would enjoy this joint project so 'A Taste of Sri Lankan Cuisine' came to life on August 2013. I simply record and transcribe my mother's recipes and take photos of the corresponding dishes that she had made and post it on the blog. I also invite other Sri Lankan food bloggers and friends to contribute a favourite Sri Lankan recipe from their homes as the emphasis is on home-cooking and to a large extent on vegetarian cooking. When I state Sri Lankan home-cooking, it does not mean only traditional recipes but also recipes that are original creations or fusion food as food patterns evolve over time and with movement of people.

In roughly an year and a half, the blog has accumulated 232 recipes on the blog and a readership base of 400 food bloggers and over 1000 followers of the facebook page of the blog. I did not quite expect the blog to become an important hobby for me nor did I anticipate the response and interest from readers but I am glad that I started this initiative. The most important reason being that my mother and I have enjoyed this joint project so far and I am personally happy that several of my mother's recipes are documented not only for me but anyone else around the world. Cooking has also become a de-stressing activity for me, especially when I want to clear my head from all the non-stop reading that I am currently doing for my masters degree. And, it helps to try out one of my mother's recipes whenever I miss home.

Do visit the blog and check out this month's feature on north Sri Lankan dishes based on palmyrah root as the key ingredient!