India 2024: Family and Food

If it’s January, it undhiyu season. The trouble with this dish is that one of it’s key ingredients, papdi, is only available during a short winter season. So our family in Surat (famous for it’s papdi) couriered my mom a package of it, and here she is, stringing it and cleaning it up.

This next sketch is of my sister tempering chocolate and turning it into bars. I was fascinated by her cocoa bean grinding machine. Turns out, you can make a few adaptations to an idli grinder and it turns into a cocoa grinding machine.

My sister makes her chocolate from scratch, starting with cocoa pods from her friend’s farm. The only other ingredient in the mix is sugar. (70% cocoa beans and 30% sugar, so it’s dark chocolate with no dairy involved).

I have a few more food-related sketches coming up in my next post.
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You can see earlier posts in the series from India here:
• The Study Hall of Dreams and Hopes
• Crawford Market
• Washing Linen, Fishing Marlin
• Small Spaces
• Fishing Boats and Fish Markets
• Little Shops

Gateway to India is a 10-day workshop based in India that I run with my co-instructor, Zainab Tambawala. The next session is in late January 2025. Workshop details will be announced by March 2024. If you are interested in joining us, write to me at suhita@gmail.com and let me know!