Ginger and Ganesh: Adventures in Indian Cooking, Culture, and Love

Nani Power

Language: English

Publisher: Counterpoint

Published: Jan 2, 2010

Description:

Review

Praise for Ginger and Ganesh

“In the same vein as Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this book weaves together one woman’s encounter with Indian cuisine and culture and her own life, love, and spirituality. This descriptive, introspective narrative . . . is also informative for those wishing to focus on the food.” —_Library Journal_

Praise for Nani Power

"A formidable young writer . . . one who can put you in mind of both Mary Gaitskill and Denis Johnson." —_The New York Times Book Review_

"[Power] has an astonishing talent . . . deeply affecting." —_Bookforum_

"Power weaves a fine yarn of the lost and lonely seeking intimacy and love.”
—_Publishers Weekly_ on Sea of Tears

Product Description

“Please teach me Indian cooking! I will bring ingredients and pay you for your trouble. I would like to know about your culture as well.”

And with this posting on Craigslist, so begins Nani Power’s journey to learn traditional Indian cooking in the most ancient of ways—woman to woman. Welcomed warmly into the homes of strangers, Power meets women of all ages and backgrounds, and from them learns the skills that were passed on to them from their own mothers.

Through the senses of the kitchen, Power re-examines her own path as a woman. She takes the reader into a culture, a cuisine, and the female psyche, with recipes and stories from each chapter revealing the struggle of modern women. Along the way, she manages to fall in love when she least expects to.

The recipes shared in this collection are far from ordinary; they are treasured family recipes from vegetarian homes in India—from homemade cheese cubes in a rich cilantro and almond curry to coconut-stuffed okra and luscious potato-curry dumplings. Power’s recipes and stories pave the road to understanding a culture that is at the same time ancient and so very much part of our modern world.