It started with rice. Egg fried rice. Chicken fried rice. Just fried rice with tamaind or lemon poweder and some peanuts. Next up was eggs – unintentional scrambled eggs that started as omelettes, intentional scrambled eggs with onions and mushrooms (sometimes spinach when I felt healthy). Then came dal and sambhar to go with rice as a tribute to my south Indian roots. Chicken curry was the obvious next step and was a pretty straightforward transition. The latest additions are pha and upma.

In the past 5 years, my cooking chronicles have been nothing to rave about. But I do intend my next 5 years of homecooking to provide an impressive tale.

Here’s today’s aloo baigan –