and now let's talk about food

my blog has a tag line that says food, kids and the mom. I have spoken a lot about the last two so now I decided to concentrate on the first one.
Food is religion for us. If you ask my 6 yr old, who cooks in your house ? he will say, " Sindhu aunty (our cook cum housekeeper), baba (A), mama (yours truly) and me.
Food is what brought A and me together. Our first conversations were on food, when our marriage showed signs of cracking, we started cooking a lot at home and building up our recipe book collection. When we go on holidays, the times we enjoy the most are those spent exploring and dining in restaurants. the only things we shop for when we travel abroad is food/food ingredients. In the recent years, the most loving looks I got from A were on the dining table or in the kitchen and not in the...
We consider cooking an art. Our core competencies are in south east Asian cuisines. My husband cooks only SEA food. I am a little more adventureous. I have tried my hand at Indian (mostly bengali and south Indian), continental (european food, though this translates into Indianised french/english food in most Indian restaurants and Anglo Indian food in Kolkata), chinese, thai, vietnamese, laotian, north african (provided I get my hands on the ingredients, this cuisine is not very popular with my family though)..
My mother in law is easily the world's greatest cook as far as bengali and kolkata style anglo indian food is concerned. She lays a good table, remmembers the food preferences of each and every individual she has ever cooked for. She has also been my tutor for kolkata food (which is essentially anglo indian, bengali, mughlai). Her enthusiasm for food is infectious and her kids (my sister in law and my husband) have inherited both her love for eating as well as cooking.
My sister and brother are also foodies. They would appreciate and enjoy a well cooked meal from practically any part of the world ! Like A, this is how I bonded with my brother deeply, as an adult !!
So you see food is well ingrained in my being. and now for the real thing..