Hello!

I am a Kashmiri.

For those of you who do not know, Kashmir is an extravagantly beautiful alpine region nestling in the vicinity of the Himalayas. It is rightly called ‘the paradise on earth‘ owing to the fact that Nature has generously endowed it with valleys of majestic snow capped mountains with white waters rushing down, picturesque meadows and charming lakes… Kashmir is a country in its own with rich culture and traditions. However, it has been bleeding under political turmoil for the past few decades, so much that it is an internationally recognized disputed territory facing grave human rights crisis.

Anyway, I grew up in Kashmir and spent most of my life there. For me, this paradise is more of an emotional state, of spiritual tranquility, of happy childhood memories and relentlessly loving people despite the devastating conflict. Currently I’m abroad, getting exposed to a world quite different to my homeland in so many aspects.

After moving here, I got to spend more time in the kitchen which, frankly speaking, back home I wasn’t quite interested in. The groundbreaking revelation came only after living away from the family when I realized that cooking is a basic life skill. Not long after, I started enjoying cooking and experimenting with food, along with my partner, who, as it turns out, has innate culinary talent.

Food has the power to bring together people and share their culture and heritage. Through this blog, I intend to bond with people over food, e-bonding of course, because we are living in a world where everything is going virtual now. I’ll try to give you an insight into how different Kashmir is from the countries that claim to own it and from the rest of the world, in terms of culture, traditions, food and social life. I can’t (yet) share food over the internet, I sure can share the recipes, some of which are my own or my partner’s, some have been passed down to me in the family and some traditional ones with slight adjustments here and there.

There are wonderful YouTubers out there who teach authentic Kashmiri recipes. I’m not qualified enough to be doing that because Kashmiri cuisine is an art in itself. However, this is just a humble attempt at blogging from an amateur’s kitchen.