aartipaarti

This is my favorite pan in my kitchen: a teeny tiny cast iron skillet! It’s no bigger that my hand, just big enough to fry an egg, or one sausage, or four gyoza. It’s also the perfect size for the Indian cooking technique known in our house as “bagaar”, where whole garlic cloves are toasted [...]

In these recessionary times, (or as my friend Mikael likes to call it, GD2, ie. Great Depression 2), it’s nice to have some cheap meals in your arsenal. This recipe is one of my cheapest, and funnily enough, one of the most delicious. And yes, of course, there’s a story. This recipe came about as [...]

I am lucky to have circle upon circle of friends, a special blessing given my years of not having any (backstory here and here). One of them lives far away in New York. We lived together oh so many years ago in Hoboken, sharing bags of bacon cheddar chips on the weekends, whilst watching Real [...]

My dear friend Alex Scarlis has known me since freshman year, when I thought he was hot and he thought I was… loud. Apart from both being gorgeous (I mean, look at his headshot. Ooof!) we have a lot of other stuff in common: a passion for international news, a passion for Indian women (ha!) [...]

Ah the joys of being a single-car family! Due to unexpected auditions and callbacks (yippee Bren!), coupled with my bellydance class, Bren and I left the house at 10am and probably won’t be back home until 9p. So this is a very short post, written from the hushed environs of the Buena Vista Library. Yesterday, [...]

. My middle name is Lucica, an expansion on my mum’s mum’s name, Lucia. She’s in the middle, between my Aunty Ruth on the left, and my mum (Rose) on the right. She died when my mum was young. Mum inherited the heavy mantle of surrogate motherhood: cooking, cleaning and taking care of her 4 [...]

The other day, whilst wasting yet another hour (and who knows how many braincells) on Facebook, I wrote this as my status: “Aarti can’t decide what to eat. What are you eating?”. (N.B. for those of you who are unfamiliar with the cyber-crack that is Facebook, you can input your status anytime you want, as [...]

I have never been a fan of Halloween. Getting dressed up seemed like a trial, a test of my ability to be creative, an ability I thought I lacked. I also struggled with the tired notion that being a girl on Halloween means having to choose between Skanky Witch Costume #1 or Frisky Tavern Wench [...]

Hey guys! We just got back from the East Coast, where with much vim and vigour, we celebrated the wedding of Bren’s brother Jeremiah to a woman he’s known his entire life, Sarah! Yippeee! I only met Sarah about a year ago, and I admit: when Jed told me about this girl he was into, [...]

I have a crush. On whom? As McCain would say, “THAT one.” (The one doing the choking, not the other one.) She’s Gina Carano, the face of women’s MMA (mixed martial arts). And not only is she beautiful, she also kicks arse at kicking arse. If you’re an American Gladiator fan, then you’ll know her [...]