Malte reviewed Indian-ish by Priya Krishna
Review of 'Indian-ish' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Priya Krishna is not only an open-minded cook, but also a great writer. This is not just a collection of out-of-context recipes, but an approach to cooking Indian-ish food. The title is a great invention in itself and I can't help fantasize about the exciting cooking literature we would have, if there was also a book of Italian-ish, Mexican-ish, Sichuanese-ish, Ethiopian-ish, Scandinavian-ish food and so on. The book is also partly a declaration of love to her mother. And there's nothing distracting about this. You just want to read on about her mother. This was not what I signed up for, and yet here I am reading on about Priya Krishna's mother. She really does sound like the fucking coolest mother in the world. There's a page on her mother's advice for good hosting. Her mother came up with this ingenious one-page summary of all of Indian-ish cooking. It's like …
Priya Krishna is not only an open-minded cook, but also a great writer. This is not just a collection of out-of-context recipes, but an approach to cooking Indian-ish food. The title is a great invention in itself and I can't help fantasize about the exciting cooking literature we would have, if there was also a book of Italian-ish, Mexican-ish, Sichuanese-ish, Ethiopian-ish, Scandinavian-ish food and so on. The book is also partly a declaration of love to her mother. And there's nothing distracting about this. You just want to read on about her mother. This was not what I signed up for, and yet here I am reading on about Priya Krishna's mother. She really does sound like the fucking coolest mother in the world. There's a page on her mother's advice for good hosting. Her mother came up with this ingenious one-page summary of all of Indian-ish cooking. It's like the skeleton key for cooking Indian-ish and tremendously helpful in all it's simplicity (any good structure that's useful is at least somewhat of a reduction of reality. How else to decode reality? You can't decode something as complex as reality with a tool as complex as what you're deciphering itself. I think she did something beautiful finding a hidden pattern in Indian-ish food and generously shared it with all who wish to learn).
Also, this is a microwave-centered cookbook. I would like to see more of them. Contemporary ones. Maybe Krishna really wrote the only two of our day? (The other being Cooking at Home with David Chang). It's so weird with this suspicion about microwaves. (No, they are not dangerous). Why have everyone told me my whole adult cooking life that food in microwave ovens are less good? And more importantly, why did I believe them? I feel humbled. This book teached a great lesson about the tools of the trade, and my daily cooking has been changed for the better dramatically. Oh yeah, as a 95% vegetarian (or whatever, I don't eat meat so often), this takes on the produce I use and eat myself, so very useful. Fun and beautifully made book too!
