aartipaarti

A few years ago, after finishing the program at the neighborhood cooking school, I wasn’t sure what to do — look into being a personal chef?  Catering?  Work in a restaurant kitchen?  I really was aimless. God is good!  I can’t remember how, but a few weeks later, I found myself interviewing for an internship [...]

I’ve been having a lot of random thoughts recently, and every time I have them, I wish I had the computer right next to me, so I could share the with you. Today, at the gym, I noticed a very thin woman working out on one of the machines.   I remember being so surprised when [...]

Funny story about falafels: even though I grew up in Dubai, I never had a falafel until I moved to the States!  Isn’t that funny? I’m not sure why that is… perhaps my parents didn’t think it was worth wasting perfectly good kebab-eating time.  Not that I’m complaining because, although I like falafels in theory, [...]

Oh Aarti. Aarti, aarti, aarti… I’d just like to take this moment to show you how silly your brain is sometimes. And I say all of this with love. But let’s be honest. You’ve wanted to get this website up for months and months now. You talked a lot of jazz about it. To a [...]

This is the first episode of Aarti Paarti that I’m posting on the new site! Woohoo! How exciting! Anyway, I know you all are tired of vegetables and chicken recipes. It’s time for dessert! And what better dessert to reflect my heart than an Indian one, with a twist of England: Earl Grey Kulfi. Kulfi [...]

What an odd day it’s been. I started writing this post about how this recipe celebrated my choice to live bold, about how the phrase had entered my consciousness a couple of years ago, and how it had led, through baby steps like taking improv classes, designing my first original recipe, going to Burning Man [...]

Sometimes, I wonder whether LA’s bright, sunny weather is wasted on me. I mean, I love waking up to sunshine every day, but nothing makes my heart sing like a grey day. The past few days have seemed too good to be true: a thick, grey, woolly blanket has landed over LA, accompanied by a [...]

(Isn’t this photo gorgeous? Joo took it.) My friends Elizabeth, Joo (Emmy and Peabody Award-winner! Woohoo!) and Mandi were here this past weekend, for our annual girls trip. We had tons of fun chin-wagging, making fun of Mandi, scaring me half to death on roller-coasters meant for toddlers, making fun of Mandi… If you’ve read [...]

It’s been a bit nuts around here recently. Thankfully, the laptop is back, and so is the internet, and I was so lucky to have my besties from college come visit me this past weekend (pics coming!). Whee! This morning, I found myself watching almost every one of these makeup videos from a woman called [...]